The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-04-26
Goodness and Ten thousand n Year.


The Atchison Nan) Globe has an
appeal to men to be good. first, be-
cause it pays to be good, and second,
because 1T is easier to be good man
than 1t Is to be a bad one" "You
must live it adds; then why not live
in the easiest way.
The Globe defines a good man as one
who is industrious, loyal, intelligent
and we'll behaved" And 1t tells story
of such man who formerly worked in
Atchison for 800 a month. and is now
receiving a salary of $4,000 year to
Illustrate its argument that goodness
pays, and those who are patient-and
work away the best they can are al
ways recognized and substantially re-
warded."
There has been a great deal Of that
sort of talk In some Of the magazines,
and in the interviews with successful
men published in the newspapers. 1t
Is talk that gives very erroneous i'm
preston in regard to the fact. The
vast majority of our citizens are in
dustrious, loyal, intelligent and we'll
behaved, and yet a very large proper
ton of that majority have not made
and are not likely to make any great
headway in the direction of a $4,000
a-year income.
The Globe makes the point that its
typical good man who now gets $4,000
year with less work than he did
when he was only getting 800 a
month. is mo great genius" That is
very likely. The successful man is
very often a man of very moderate
mental capacity. But, unless his sue
cess has come through special infiu-
ence or through what is commonly
called good luck he must have some
quality that fits him for special effect
iveness in the line in which he has
achieved success.
The money making or success-pro-
ducing faculty Is a thing by itself and
often manifests itself in very marked
degree in man whom no one would
have picked as winner before be
achieved his first well-defined success
1t is mischievous delusion to teach
young men that they have n right to
look for great success in life as the re-
ward of simple goodness - industry,
loyalty. intelligence and good beha-
vior. These things are good in them
selves, and they will give a man
very much better chance to get on in
the world than he could have without
them but even with them the great
majority of men can only hope to make
n moderate living, and perhaps lay up
n little every year against Il rainy day,
or for old age. or for those who shall
come after them.
Goodness does pay: it pays tremen-
dous profits, but these profits are not
measured by dollars and cents. The
most valuable possession every man
has Is himself. and good conduct helps
him to make the most and best of him
self. .Aas,9n
That Is true even of the kind of
goodness described by the Globe; it is
infinitely more true of the kind OF
goodness which the Bible requires of
us. The former is goodness in some of
our relations with other men, the lat
ter is goodness in our relations with
God. This includes the other. of
course. We cannot be right with God
unless we are trying to do our duty to-
ward man. But there is all the differ
euce in The world between the loyalty
in our conduct toward other men that
springs only from a desire TO win their
approval and that Of our own con-
sciences and that which springs from
love 10 God and love to man for Gods
sake This latter kind of goodness
seldom brings any great reward in dol
lars and cents. 1t is its own reward.
1t has the promise of the life which
now is and of that which is to Gomez"
1t fulfils that promise by enriching life
and Identifying it.-New York Wit
ness.