The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-08-10
The Only Life
Worth Living.


THE only life worth living is life
of service" said Governor Vardaman
in commenting on the Mississippi sen
atOrial result. He added that it is
still his chief ambition to serve Mis-
sissippi and Mississippians."
In these two utterances, the Mis-
sissippi executive enunciates one great
truth and lays down two excellent
texts for sermons on civic duty.
1t is, safe to accept the testimony of
the late Russell Sage and of John D.
Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie
that the life that is not one of service
TO its fellows is life wasted. 1t is
not easily apparent that Mr.. Sage
really believed this, for, while he was
not among the great moral perVer-
sions of finance, his passion seemed
TO be to gouge the masters of finance
even as they f1eeced their victims at
large But the colleges, the institu-
tons of scientific research, the libra
ries and other facts show that, when
men of the Rockefeller and Carnegie
school of life, one has to admit that
they show in some ways their partial
realization that. as Governor Vardaman
said at Jackson, the only life worth
living is a life of service
1t is easy, when one has thriven
for years on the hearts of men and
the tears of widows and orphans, to
do little restitution and call it serV-
Iceland 1t Is an easy way to get much
acclaim for relatively small return to
humanity in exchange for much wrest-
ed by brains and ability from men and
women, and it is easy for the individ-
ual who does so to be honestly de-
ceived as to the measure of credit due
him.
1t is obvious, however, that those
who are, early in life, possessed by
the idea of service can not hope to
acquire much for themselves. The
politician may, but the statesman is
not apt to. The spirit of service,
Il
commercial calling, usually finds for
a man so much to do for others
that he has little time to do for him.
self. Sam Adams, craftily and not
always scrupulously, but always unset.
hshly, working TO destroy British pow
er in the colonies, points the argu-
ment by comparison with his less
uRselfish and more successful and
therefore, more nlustrious. cousin
John Adams. And history is full of
such illustrations. The great patriots
whose patriotism leads to wealth. are
very, very few-and the reason is
found in the fact that the only life
worth living is a life of service" and
acccntuated by the fact that many.
after years of ruthless acquisition.
seek justification in their own secret !
sight by works whose effulgence Of
ten blind the buildeSs TO the make |
shift nature of the work and deceives
only those who are glad to be de. |
ceived
II uOSS MOI IOllOW, Oh course, IlaCl
all the material failures in life" are
unselfsh victims of the law that
makes virtue its own reward. for the
vast majority of men fail to amount
to anything" either because of sloth,
inability or fortuitous selection of vo-
cations for which they are untitled
but it is a fact that the really great
hearted servants of the human race
seldom, if ever, acquire much for
themselves. And still it is true that
man can have no greater blessing,
next to peace with God. than the hon
Orable consciousness that his life hasit
wronged no one, that it has benefited
some or many, and that he has been
able to provide. if not luxury, the
necessities of those de- ,
pendent on him by either chance or
choice.