The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-07-07
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conduct at variance with the good old
fashioned. some hat obsolete len Com.
mandments, That is where the fault
les 1t is ours-yOuIS and mine These
man and these women are made of the
same m 4telial OF which we ale made.
We do In our spheres what they do IN
! theirs. We ale at fault Becuse we up
hold and follow them.
large part o. our modern pros
perlty consists of an over production of
fraud ana sham The Crisis is acute
I A feeling of distrust is growing
tnrougho the country Many
hrancpes of financial business have
I been in one way OF another taken
possession of by the interruptions for
{ the purpose OF deCaivinG the unwary.
Some life Insurance companies the
; highest and what SHOULD be the most
sacred form of investment, are, as we
well know now, condults through
which the savings of the policy holders
are steered into operations for specula.
tive purposes
Credit and good faith, not money,
are the basls If business Good or
bad, our modern prosperity is founded
i
and the whole fabric falls.
''Well, we are taking it away.
"Dlsttust the rust which coIIodes
N Il. nce-ls SPREADING IN the
n. suspicion is t. XII l n ,r,
OF belief, scepticism Is III .ng me =. ce
of public faith. These f,et make
every educated man and w nan stop
and ponder, Us | bid YOU stop and
PtrA I
see is how human these faults are
how natural: how they come home to
all of us; and how we-you and l.
are the people to blame, the people who
alone can check the evil
The fact is that the unprecedented
material growth of the country, the
resulting creation of immense private
fortunes, the bringing together of
great aggTegations of corporate capital,
industrial combinations and railroad
mergers, all have tended to center the
attention of the people upon great
financial deeds and to rank men ac
cordingly, causing the people to forget
elementary virtues of private lndivid-
ual life.
THE effect upon the great men
themselves presupposing that they are
of the same hunest makeup as the
average American-of turning their
entire energies and attention to the
tremendous projects possible only in
this country of tremendous possibilities
has been to cause them to forget the
same elementary virtues in their bust
ness life, however carefully they may
attempt to adhere to them in tnelr
religious family or social relations.
DANGER NO. l.-PRETENSE.
The early temptation that comes to
an educated man or woman Is to seem,
rather than to he.
Neither men MOI women can persist |
and continue In an attempt to mislead !
the public without misleading them
selves; and the moment they acquire |
the power to dull their senslbilIties to
stlfie their cOnsciences ny pIesumlng. |
assuming and finally believing that
they are what they are not. they have
accomplished their own |
self destruction by passing counteIfeits
upon themselves
The Eretender becomes borrower
and the borrower becomes a thief.
DANGER NO. 1.-THE EASY
DOLLAR.
Wealth, TO most people, is some
thing that Is sought for largely be-
cluse ether people 81 EN- to enjoy and
prize it, not because of conviction of
individual need of it. 1t Is the adop
ton of another's standard or crlterl on
Of happiness. 1t Is the attempt to put
On another man S coat because it seems
TO look we'll on the other man l
know lawyers, of great legal minds
who would be happy if they were
merely practising law but their clients
nave money, so they want money,
| hey have caught the disease and they
are not happy They devote their lives
10 acquire riches; they sacrifice every
)ther aim and purpose In lite they
become and are rIch, but that is not
what they want to be. OF what they
ne fitted to be.
Il believe that not twenty per cent
If the young men and young wo men
n this audience are meant to be rich
They are meant to be great physicians
1eI haps, On great lawyers, or great
u eachers, or great teachers, or great
painters; but when they go out into
he woIld probably eighty per cent,
will oe tempted TO seek wealth, to JOIN
n the chase for what the other man
wants,
elf l coul1 persuade those of you
who are meant to be teachers, OF
preachers or writers, OF lawyers, or
or painters to teach, to
preach, to write, to plead and to paint
By the tremendous influence
If the great majority, | should have
lone sufficient service for this day.
But that is not my thought What
want to tell you you must do if you
ire to save yourselves and this country
S to avoid the pursuit of unedrned
the accumulation of easy
That is graft The man who
,ets dollar without earning it doe
ii nself an injury, and the world a
wrong. Such man is an abstractoI.
he is not producer He seeks to
upport himself by the sweat OF an
timer mans brow. He first does hi N
elf injury, because he disables him
elf. he loses the ability to create. to
,roduce, TO cam. He becomes a
,IafteI. And he does the world a
wrong because the man VINO gets his
leighbor money without earning 1t.
vltnout giving his neighoI full return,
S rot only a robber; he makes the
World n graft -