The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-05
RUSSELL sage ON VACATIONS.

Russell Sage of New York, famous
for his millions, his puts and calls"
and his devotion to business" has an
article in a recent issue of the indie
pendent on 1.-THE Injustice of Vaca-
tons" The article is appropriately il
Illustrated with a picture of Mr.. Sage,
with face like a paving stone, stand
ing at a stock ticker reading the tape.
Mr.. Sage was never young. He was
born old. He never played, or whis-
tied, or rode saplings, or sailed bark
boats in the pond, or went swimming,
like other boys. He never danced, or
rowed, or played tennis, or went fish
ing or hunting, like other young men.
During the lightweight years of my
career" writes Mr.. Sage, Il have not
once taken a vacation" And he is
worth millions. Therefore he doesn't
see the necessity of anybody else TAX
ing vacations. In his egotism he re-
CARDS himself as a model, to be pat
termed after by other men. His life
has been devoted to chasing the dol
lar to it's lair and capturing it. He
thinks that is the grandest purpose of
after the dollar, there should be not
one days respite according to the
Sage philosophy, The vacation
habit" he says. is wasteful, and that
1t is the outgrowth of abnormal or
distorted business methods. He fails
- in,
LET us assume" he says, that an
employer and his clerk make an agree
ment to exchange just remuneration
for reasonable services, and each one
keeps his part of the agreement. Are
they not then quits If there is any
obligation, I think it is on the part
of the clerk, who avsils of the credit
skill and organization of the employer
to learn a business and advance him
self along a path which has already
been prepared for him. What right
has he, then, to demand or expect
pay for two weeks time for which he
renders no equivalent, not considering
the serious inconvenience to which he
often puts his employer? Suppose we
were to reverse the conventional or
der of things and, instead of the clerk
demanding two weeks pay gratis, the
employer should demand two weeks
work without pay as a condition of
retaining the clerk in his employ.
What a tremendous howl would go
up"
1t is safe to assume that there are
exceedingly few employers who hire
men from purely humanitarian mo-
tives. They take them into their en-
ploy because there is a profit to be
had from the services of the en-
ployees. If the employers had good
reasons for thinking that vacations
were of no benefit, that men were bet
ter workers for being kept perpetu-
ally grinding" there would be few
vacations given to or enjoyed by wage
earners. 1t takes a man of the pc
culiar Sage temperament to argue that
no good aeerues from rest, even OF
a few days in the course of year
''All work and no play makes Jack
a dull boy" says the old copy book
| proverb. and it is true. All work and
no recreation makes the average man
a hack and a stick. The man may
make money, as MIR. Sage has done
He may even enjoy in his own pecu-
liar way the making of money. But
| there is more of life to most normal
men than the mere accumulation OF
money. In the great mass of man.
kind there are very few who have
Mr.. Sage's genius for betting on the
way the stock market will go. for
| getting on the right side in options
deals and for squeezing the dollar un-
| til the eagle on it cries out in pain
From his individual point of view, OF
course vacations. and recreation, and
| amusements, and the pleasures of life
are all evil and wasteful But it is
| probably a good thing for the coun-
| try that there are so few Russell
Sages in it.
THE WIDOW APPEARS.