Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-07-08
TEACHING A NOBLE WORK.


TEACHING A NOBLE WORK.
Continued from Page ~.
on this basis. we can never rank
among the really great peoples. A GER
tain amount of money is of course a
necessary thing, as much for the ma
tion as for the individual; and there
are few moments in which l more
thoroughly believe than. in the move
ment to secure better remuneration
for our teachers. But after all, the
service you render is incalculable, be-
cause of the very fact that by your
| lives you show that you believe ideals
to be worth sacrifice and that you are
splendidly eager to do non-remunera-
tive work if this work is of good to
your fellow men
Real Evil of Riches.
ITO furnish in your lives such a
realized high ideal is to do great
service to the country The chief
harm done by the men of swollen for
tune to the community is not the
harm that the demagogue is apt to de-
pict as springing from their actions,
but the fact that their success sets up
q false standard, and so serves as a
bad example for the rest of US. If we
did not ourselves attach an exaggerat-
ed Importance to the rich man who is
distinguished only by his riches, this
rich man would have most insignifi-
cant influence over US. 1t is generally
our own fault if he does damage to us
for he damages us chiefly by arous-
ing our envy or by rendering us sour
and discontinued. In his actual bust
ness relations he is much more apt to
benefit than harm the rest of us; and
thought 1t is eminently right to take
i whatver steps are necessary in order
/ to prevent the exceptional members Of
] his class from doing harm, it is wicked
! folly to let ourselves be drawn into
] any attack upon the man of wealth
merely as such. Moreover, such an at
/ tack is in itself an exceptionally
crooked and ugly tribute to wealth and
therefore the proof of an exceptionally
ugly and crooked state of mind in the
man making the attack. Venomous
envy of wealth is simply another form
! OF the spirit, which in one of it's man
/
4 servility toward wealth and in another
the shape of brutal arrogance on the
/ part of certain men of wealth Each
one OF these states Of mind, whether it
/ be hatred, servility or arrogance, is in
! reality closely akin TO the other two;
for each Of them springs from fan
tastically twisted and exaggerated
idea OF the Importance of wealth as
] compared to other things. The clam
or OF the demagogue against wealth,
the snobbery Of the social columns of
/ the newspapers which deal with the
doings of the wealthy and the miscon-
duct or those men of wealth, who act
with brutal disregard of the rights Of
others, seme specifically to have no
fundamental relation; yet in reality
they spring from shortcomings which
are fundamentally the same; and one
4 OF these shortcomings is the failure to
have proper ideals.
Suggests Remedy.
This failure must be remedied in
large part by the actions of you and
your fellow teachers, your fellow edu-
Gators Throughout this land. BY your
/ lives, no less than by your teachings.
you showthat while you regard wealth
as good thing, you regard other
things as still better. 1t is absolutely
necessary to earn a certain amount Of
money; 1t is mans first duty to those
dependent upon him to earn enough
for their support, but after a certain
! point has been reached money making
can never stand on the same plane
with other and nobler forms of effort
The roll of American worthless num-
bers men like Washington and Lin
coin, Grant and Farragut, Hawthorne
and Poe, Fulton and Morse, ST. Gaud-
ems and MacMonnies; it numbers
statesmen and soldiers, men of letters,
artists, sculDtors, men of science, in
yentors, explorers, roadmakers, bridge
builders, philanthropists, moral leaders
in great reforms; it numbers men who
have deserved well in any one of
countless fields of activity; but of rich
men it nun bers only those who have
used their riches Alright, who have
treated wealth not as an end, but as
a means, who have shown good con-
duct in acquiring it and not merely
lavish generosity in disposing of it.
Thrice fortunate are you to whom
it is given to lend your lives of reso-
lutte endeavor for the achievement of
lofty ideals, and furthermore, to in
still, both by your lives and by your
teachings these ideals into the minds
of those who in the next generation
will, as the men and women of that
generation, determine the position
which this nation will hold in the his
tory of mankind"
KANSAS LAW KNOCKED OUT.