The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-01-24

whole life long he worked for wages
ana knew of no other way to fill his
purse.
All writer's, painters, sculptors, sing
ers' doctors, lawyers and other pro
fesslonal people, no matter how big
their incomes may be, are merely
wage-earners, as truly as if they toilcd
at the bench or with the pick and
shovel. And when they do not become
something besides wage-earners they
never pile up fortunes.
Had Bret Harte possessed grain of
business sense he might easily have
been Il rich man. The way to get to
be that is to set other men at work
for you.
Then, and then only, you begin to
harvest rent, profit and interest, the
breeders Of wealth.
Harte without much self-denial
could have saved enough of his wages
to turn himself into landlord, an en-
ployer or an investing capitalist. or all
three
Suppose that before leaving Califor
nia--in 1870, wasn't it?-he had put
few thousand dollars into city real
estate. In the thirty-two years that
have elapsed since he departed the
population of San Francisco has more
than doubled, and the value of land
more than quadrupled. The increase
in the value Of his lots would have
gone to Harte, though in the whole
period he had made no contribution,
except trifle in taxes, to the towh's
growth. Nevertheless, the "unearned
ncrement"-unearned by him, but
earned by the community-w0uld
have been his. That increment is
potent pocket-tiller.
Or he might have saved few thou
| sand pounds and become the silent
| partner of some British manufacture
ing friend. Then, while he went
ahead earning wages with his pen as
usual, profit would have come to him
profit in that case being the differ
ence between what the workmen earn
ed and what they got, the difference
between what the goods cost to manu-
facture and what they sold for.
Or he could have saved his wages
and loaned his surplus out at interest,
either personally or through bank,
and his money would have worked for
him while he slept.
Wages, Bret Harte ought to have
been keen enough to understand, are
what a man gets by the sale Of the
labor of his own hands or head, where
as, rent, profit and interest are earned
for you by others.
Doubtless, Harte, like other gifted
men, often wondered why he remained
poor while numberless persons of his
acquaintance Of whose mental inferior
ity to himself he could not but be con-
scious, took i'll hundreds of dollars
where he earned one. 1t must have
struck him that the rule which makes
dear what is rare and cheap what is
plentiful is reversed in the case Of
business talent. 1t is the commonest
of all the talents, yet it is the most
highly rewarded. There are millions
of good business men born for one
man who can write as we'll as Bret
Hartc wrote, yet any business man
who should leave microscopic estate
of $500 would die disgraced-an Out
cast OF Lucre Flat. The explanation
has already been given-the artist
must do his own work, for wages;
the business man sets others to work
for him and rcaps profit, together with
rent and interest.
or course, there are various kinds
OF success A few would prefer life
such as Harte's, with an $500 estate
at the end of it, to all the joys OF
wealth and an estate Of millions for
ones heirs Nevertheless, money is a
mighty good thing to have, and no
body was better aware of that than
fine eminently clcar-headed Bret Harte,
accomplished man of the world that
he was. But in business he had no
sabc and so remained always a wage
Garner and poor.