Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-27

Enterprises have grown to what in the
past would have seemed impossible
proportions, and these gigantic enter
prises demand the services of men who
combine character with ability. Ability
alone is abundant. Character alone is
equally abundant. The difficulty lies in
getting the combination and in keep
ing the supply equal to the demand.
"At no other period have the oppor-
tunities for young men been so great
! as now. You have heard men say that
the future looks dark for our youth;
that trusts and syndicates and great
corporations were robbing him of his
opportunities that he will have to be
content hereafter to become a mere
hireling and subsist on the crumbs that
fall from the table of the high and
mighty.
"All this would be true If these gi-
gantic institutions could be wound up
by the stockholders like an eight-day
clock and permitted to run automatical-
ly. But, alas! with all of mans in
| genuity and inventive powers, nc
method has yet been devised whereby
great enterprises can be made to run
| with perpetual motion. Place the most
profitable and superbly organized en-
| terprise into incompetent hands and
10, it will tumble and fall like a house
of cards.
Competent Men Scarce
1.-THE greater and more profitable the
enterprise the more imperative that II
shall be placed in safe and dependable
hands. It is this undertaking law that
| compels great operators to pay such
high premiums for character combined
with ability and that keeps the market
so bare of men possessing these assets
If you doubt this statement, make a
test.
PUT an obscure notice in any daily
paper tomorrow calling for 81 day
men, and as likely as not you will have
an army of men respond, abundantly
able to fill the want. Announce in a
large and attractive space in your lead
ing paper that a $4,000 a year man is
wanted and see how difficult it will be
to find an available man who is worth
| the proposed salary. All this in the
face of the fact that the helpful in
fuence of the home, the school and the
church, the three prime agencies for
bettering manhood, was never so great
as now.
Evil Influences Grow
| One explanation for the dearth OF
| good material for places of.trust, aside
| from the greatly increased demand. is
| the fact that while the influences ror
good have been growing the influences
for evil have been more than keeping
pace.
"The world has never seen period
when so much capital and brains were
engaged In furthering vice as now
Able men and clever women, with the
amplest means at their command, lie
awake nights thinking out schemes of
! how to entice, allure and corrupt youth
and lead it from the path of virtue
and duty into the haunts of vice and
wickedness for the profit of the vicious.
Many Sad Stories
"Pick up any paper. any day. in any
city and you will read the sad story of
young men and women whose lives
| have been wrecked because of yielding
to the temptations with which they are
everywhere surrounded Your ears are
assailed with these stories everywhere.
The other day overheard one 1S-year-
| old lad say to another on a San
Francisco street car on which I was
riding: I won $40 on the ponies today
and l have tip on which / expect to
win twenty tomorrow"
1.-THE same evening a young usher In
theater, as he stood near my seat
awaiting the coming of more patrons
! said to me, in a burst of confidence