Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1905-07-20
SELLING BRAINS
DIR. IL. X. HINDE.

wish every reader OF the LEnarp
could read the editorial in the Julv
number OF Success, on this tonic
by orisson Swett Marden. By the
way l know of no prominent Ameri.
can writer to-day whose productions
are more elevating, inspiring and en-
rlching to the youth OF our land than
the regular editorials in Success Mag.
azine. II | could induce the young
men OF Mexico to substitute in their
reading this high toned literature for
the iilmsy sensational and CONNER.
ciai literature they are SO eagerly de-
vouring, | could do them no greater
iaVor. The tendency to commercial.
we every department OF life Is fearful
TO contemplate. To make money,and
10 make 1t quick, is the mania of the
nay that seems to be seizlng hold OF
everybody, old and young
A reckoning In dollars and cents
seems to be the only valuation put up-
on everything nowadays.
The most shocking feature of this
commercial mania to me is that it is
rapidly invading the intellectual
sphere and that even the higher pro-
duct OF brains is getting to be weighed
In the scales of silver and gold. The
high ideals that in bygone days were
won't to inspire our young professional
men are giving place to this money
craze, and instead of seeking to attain
the highest degree OF honor and useful.
ness, we find our young lawyers and
doctors, and even young ministers Of
the gospel, sometimes, figuring solely
upon the amount Of money their in
vestment shall bring them 1t is OBJ.
servable that never before were SO
many clergymen leaving the pulpit to
go into secular business. And In emu
merating the greatest lawyers and
doctors or surgeons of our day, the
dominant factor In the estimate is the
amount Of their fees or income. The
clergymen who commands the largest
salary, the physician or surgeon who
has the largest income, and the law
yer who can command the largest fee
these are the men to whom public
attention is directed In these latter
days OF commercialism and self-greed.
In the matter Of authorship and book
making, this is no less true. In this
partment conspicuously, men and
women are selling their brains.
How few authors do we see in mod
ern times who are striving to put i'm
mortality into the pages of their book
and are willing to die poor il may be
they can write book, or even a few
verses, that shall never die? In the
old countries the great masterpieces Of
art, the lmmoItals that l saw, were
the product Of great artists who spent
a lifetime work upon few master
pieces and died In poverty. Michael
Angelo declined to put many years Of
hard work upon his immortal frescoes
In the Slstene Chapel except on the
condition that he should receive no
money consideration How would
proposition like that be receive to-
day?
But we must not suffer ourselves to
be too pessimistic. There are few
noble souls in all our professions who
are not willing to sell their brains for
money, but with a self-sacrllicing and
altruistic spirit are working up to
higher and nobler ideals than the love
of money can inspire. All honor to-
such. 1t is the duty Of every Christ
tian philanthropist to encourage, by
word and deed, such young men and
women who do not put solely money
estimate upon their God given powers