Arizona republican., 1903-11-23
AMERICANS DO NOT RETIRE.

It was rumOred on change the other
 day that J. Pierpont Morgan had de-
 cided to retire Next day it was ar nounced that he would net. The rum
 CT was baseless; the corrective an nOuncement unnecessary. MT Morgan could probably afford to retire. It is known that he smokes 25 cent cigars ] and when people do that they have money left for other uses and diver siOns. But MT. Morgan is an Ameri- can, and Americans never retire-at last, hardly ever. Look at MT. ROCke- feller. He is worth. they guess, SS)O,- | OCO, ,OOO He cannot begin to spend the interest that the banks and trust com panies and railroads and oil refineres | and lighting plants, and such like, in sist on paying to him, yet he is just as keen to be worth $500. 0,001 as if he were starting in business and his creditors were beginning to bother him. i And lock at Mir. Sage. He never de- faults with his rent, and always has enough apples for supper but he sel- dom takes day off, because some thing might happen down the street that would loosen up d strangers sup ply of dollars, and how could he bear not to be around when that occurred. No: retirement is inconsistent with the American spirit. When you find a man of retiring disposition, you dis cover one who cannot set the river on fire. and he does not dc. at all. We have senators and other statesmen who have been begged to retire; pres and people and constituents and fam- lies have united in almost clamor of beseeching, but they have sternly held to the path of duty. In this country authorities write till they can no
 longer hold pen: dramatists like
 Clyde Fitch dramatize till there is
 nothing left to dramatize except MT.
 Carnegie and the Judgment: musicians
 compose until their music is as fierce
 and incompre hensible as Richard
 Strauss, and painters paint until be-
 holders cannot tell their COWS and
 trees apart.
 But why not? It isn't need of money
 that impels to this activity; it is work
 for it's own saks. Preachers preach for preaching's sake, artists paint for arts sake, and why not work for it's own sake? It is a pleasure tC receive a check. particularly a large one; but the best of it is the knowledge that it has been earned, and that one has given just mans quo for comfortable quid. It is also a pleasure to do eth CTS as some others are capable Of iO- ing us, and in the street that IS legiti- mate. It i5 what people go into the street avowedly to do. When MT Rockefeller calls loans in a bank in which he is interested, in order to make certain borrowers throw their Collater- al of gas stocks into the market and lower the price thereof, and next day buys these stocks low and on the fol- lowing day sels them high, he does not actually need the money. nor does he desire to lfict needless suffering upon the victims of the maneuVpr- indeed he will probably pray fcrventiy for them in church next Sunday; put he enjoys the sport; and t0 sugC..rt to such a man, who feels that he can wield millions. as boys wield pennies at craps, that ke should retire and con template the clouds aLd butterflies, which have no rating in Wall street, is only less absurd than it would be to ask q back country farmer to become a Rockefeller.
 There is something in tn atmosphere of this country that calls for activity. If it does not exhibit itself in physi- cal vehemence it breaks out in mental or spiritual athletics. The Americans cannot keep still. Sometimes he wishes he could. Foreigners remark on the lock of pathetic longing that is worn by the crowds in an American city. It is an expression of deep down wish that they could retire. and a knowI- edge of the fact that if they could re- tire, they are the last people on earth who would think of doing it. They are doomed to keep at it until there is nothing more to keep at They grumble some, but sooner or later they come tC know that work is not curse: it is the nearest we can come to happi- Eagle