The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-06-23
SUCCESS BROUGHT RUIN.
Woodrow Wilson Says What Men
Called Duty Wrought Disaster.


their own lives and, through their in :.
creasing number, threaten the econo-
mic supremacy of the country, were
discussed by President Woodrow Will
son in a baccalaureate address before
| the graduating class at Princeton I'm
iversity today.
President Wilson spoke from the
Gospel of st. Luke: "We are unprof-
liable servants; we have done that
which was our duty to do.' He said,
in part:
1--WE have not done our duty; we
have not even earned our wages,
| when we have done merely that
which We were obliged to do. We
have done our duty only when we
have done that which we know COM
| pletes the service, when we have put
the best that was in US into the task
our hearts into the bargain.
"You know what the usual stand
ard of the employe is in our day. 1t
Is to give as little as he may for his
wages. Labor is standardized by the
trades unions, and this is the standard
to which 1t Is made to conform. No
! one is suffered to do more than the
average workman can do. In some
trades and handicrafts no one is suf-
fered to do more than the least skill
full Of his fellows can do within the
hours allotted to days labor, and no
one may work out of hours at all or
volunteer anything beyond the mini
mum. l need not point out how econ
omically disastrous such a regulation
Of labor is. The labor of America is
rapidly becoming Improbable under
its present regulation by those who
have determined to reduce it to a
minimum. Our economic supremacy
may be lost because the country
grows more and more full of unprofit-
able servants.
eve have just passed through an
era in which men kept their legal OBJ
legations as well as usual, and yet
came near running the country; piled
up wealth and forgot how to use Il.
honorably; built up business and
came near to debauching a nation.
need not remind you of the various
abuses in the business word, which
recent legislation has been more or
less unsuccessfully attempting to cor
rect; of the thousand and one ways in
which what were thought to be the
business interests of the country were
pushed forward without regard to
anything but the profit Of those i'm
mediately concerned.
THAT profit, stated in terms Of
wealth was signally we'll served. What
was intended was accomplishment
with the results you know. What has
not been sufficiently noticed and en-
phasized Is that most of these colos-
now fallen under our condemnation
were conducted by honest men who
were keeping within tn bounds Of the
law. There We're rOgues among them,
OF course, but no more than any age
will show, and they were almost al
ways rejected by their comrades when
ha
whole huge game, so far as it's sue
cess was substantial and lasting, was
ar honest mans game; no crooks or
blacklegs were Willingly admitted in
to it. Every man served his own par
t!cular interest with extraordinary
nt.nsity and devotion and with i'm
mense success, and could have told
you with frank and steady eyes that
he had done that which was his duty
20 do.
"But. what Improbable servants
they were-unprofitable even to
themselves and to the business enter
prises they served. Many of those
enterprises are for the time being dis
credited, their prosperity almost ia
tally checked by universal distrusl
and suspicion, by hostile legislation.
by arrested credit. Everything that
for their sake should be steady has
been thrown out of. poise and balance.
Their very success has been question
able, If you demand Of success that it
bring enjoyment and content with it.
Success has heart and you should
icok into it, 1t is often of lead, some
times of gall, sometimes of dry pitch,
only sopetimes a source of living Joy.
The men who brought disaster
upon business by success brought it
because they ran with binders upon
their eyes saw only the immediate
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