Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-29
THE COMPANY We KEEP.

THE bringing OF MI. SnontS mere,
| says a New York journal, complaining
Of traction conditions on the metropoli-
| tan lines, will not restore confidence
| altho he may be able to make merger
| securities worth more in Wall street.
/ Some months ago confidence in Mr.
Shonts as the chief of the greatest en-
gineering project of modern times, was
general, and freely expressed He
would build the canal, a waterway for
the convenience of the worlds COM
merce build it for utility, convenience
and rapidity in transferring the trade
foa coasts and helnispheres heretofore
widely separated. His work was
worlds work for world not scram-
/ Bile for an extra eighth of one per cent
in the stock market. Today Mr..
Shonts' efforts are classified differently.
He is keeping different company.
Whatever may have been the actual
inducement that took him from his
place on the isthmus whether Mrs.
Shonts failed to receive the social rec
ognition she craved and considered
mart OF the honurarium of her distin-
guished husband, friction between him.
self and others engaged on the work.
or the offer OF larger pay, the fact that
he left the greatest place in his pro-
fession to take service with al street
car company Classics him. No man
can become the servant of a modern
corporation like the one Mr.. Shonts has
elected to serve and retain the conf
ience of the people that his efforts
will be toward better public service,
rather than the most money to be
gathered by the cheapest means. "Ali
the traffic will bear is the motto of
transportation companies Mr.. Shonts
in accepting the job took the motto
with it, He will be known by the CONF
pany he keeps. Justly.
Under our system, Mr. Shonts has
perfect right to do as he pleases about
this. So have other men. 1t is the
right of brains and Drawn to sell Them
selves in the market that suits and at
the prices that seem to them most al
Turing. But under present conditions,
~, mo Ia "a coll
lar of our modern feudalism is welded
as firmly as that of the ancient thrall.
1t speaks for itself as the badge of
ownership. No man can serve two
masters.
1t has come to this: that the great
minds traffic and trade in their splen-
did ability. We say the man is faith
full to his client. If he is the leading
lawyer for corporations that evade the
laws, such fidelity includes search
for loopholes and hidden thoroughfares
whereby the guardians Of public good
may be outflanked. If he Is a govern
nent official the same fidelity puts a
guard at every one of these avenues to
prevent what faithfulness to the other
client demanded
Men come and 60 The petty tri-
umphs of a social season, the extra
$40, 900 added to an annual salary all
ready large enough for needs and hap
pifless and content, are incidents of
day, but they are not the great things
of a human life or OF splendid ca
reer. Men who live on and whose work
touches the end OF time are not the
type. The gathering of
great riches is not one of the problems
of large life. Roosevelt, who as much
as any other modern public man repre-
sents the higher type in public life, is
not in the market open to the bid of
any corporation or any salary He is
not rich, as riches go in this age. But
he is something better.
There is something sordid and mean
about this prostitution of talent and
genius to market price and the high
est bidder. 1t is evidence of a low
idealisln. We need greater men, not
brainier or more active men, but
greater men.