The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15
NEW CREED OF MONEY.
1t has Not Caught All American Man
rood Yet.

Francis Belamy, in November Everybody.
money, but nowadays the best way to con-
vince the world that you have brains is to
make money"
This remark was made within a year.
not by the head of a trust but by a distin-
guished and scholarly lawyer, prominent in
national affairs, before a clags of law
OF course, money-getting is no new pas
sion. From one beginning, nineteen-twen
teths OF our American population have had
no other mastering purpose than to make
money. They nave been bread-winners.
fortune-getters, by the lines Of least re-
s%istance, without dreams of success in the
professions, or in the arts, or In patriotic
politics.
But there nave also been, up to recent
years., a remnant, q select few, q company
OF enlightened and gifted people, who have
There was Agassiz, who refused to lecture
at $500 a night because he was too busy
to make money. Charles Sumner declined to
lecture at any price because he said, as
senator, all his time belonged to Massa-
chusetts. Spurgeon refused to come to
America to deliver fifty lectures at 81, OOO
stay In London and try to save fifty souls.
Emerson steadfastly declined to increase
his income beyond $1,000 because he wanted
his time TO think.
Such stories of fine haughtiness did not
seem Quixotic to the young men in college
thirty years ago.
IL tOdny 6OOQ tlIleS IOT young
men to grow VI in. The distinguished
names they talked about among them
selves were Webster, Clay, Lincoln, George
William Curtis. Thoreau, Emerson, Beech
er. DIR. Holmes. Men who were merely
a~ccumulators of wealth were not frequent
subjects of conversation; they were not
interesting enough.
place In the popular estimate of success
there is a great multitude of hardy souls
who have refused to be swerved from
their own Ideals OF a success which is
unrelated to money.
These people are all cherishing a certain
ideal of excellence. We like to think OF
excellence, We like to think of Mr.; How,
work Infinitely more important to him
than his now handsome remuneration. st,
eral Sherman at the gate of Central Park.
But he was three years making 1t, and he
do it.
great wealth. But he would nevnr let him
self be ranked for his money. He uses
without stint his capital in further expert
Among the many others who are win
ming distinctive success in applied science
are Professor Langley. the head of the
Smithsonian institution; Charles p. Stein
metz, Of the General Electric Company,
and Professor Nicholson. of the UNIVERSE
ty of Chicago. Professor Langley has given
his life to developing the flying machine:
DR.. Steinmetz has given out the theory and
calculations of alternating electric currents:
Professor Nicholson has gained renown by
his final determination OF the velocity of
light.
The most distinguished university presi-
dent in America, President Eliot, of Har-
ward, lives in n modest home on a moder-
ate salary. Had he entered on commercial
purusits his extraordinary talents for adj
ministration would inevitably have made
him one OF the magnates of
Even at his graduation from college. his
1 ability in business was so obvious that he
was offered 5000 a year TO manage a
Lowell mill.
The same greatness OF choice belongs to
President Harper, of Chicago, and Presi-
dent Butler, of Columbia. Few men I'm
the business world equal these two edu-
Gators In organization, in energy and I'm the
mastery of details.
The Rev. DIT. Rainsford is another of the
same type. He has qualities of organiza-
ton and administration equal to those of
the great captains OF industry. 1t is as plain
as a skyscraper that If he had turned him
self TO business his peculiar talents would
have won a corresponding distinction as a
wealth-getter. But he, like thousands of
other ministers who have business ability.
prefers the success OF the spirit.
Who can doubt that President Roosevelt
II he had gone into business twenty years
ago, would to-day have been a man of
enormous wealth? Yet he has so stubborn
ly followed another ideal Of success hat his
private income Is said TO be between 5000
and $500.
TIL men who to-day dare TO undertake
purusits where distinction OF mind. or the
| glory OF doing a fine thing, or personal in
fiuence In q wholesale direction. Is the CHIEF