Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-01-29
COMPENSATION.
BY HARTMAN

what does compensation" mean to
you. my friend?
Money? just money? The price you
get for the work you do?
That's the generally accepted view,
/ know.
But there's more to the word than
that.
Here's the broad view:
You are what you are and where you
are largely as a matter of compensa-
There's no such thing as luck; cir
cumstance and environment are COM
paratively small matters.
Almost everything-good or bad
mat mas come to you Is compensation
for something you've given or done.
Good health is the compensation you
get for taking care of yourself physic-
ally.
Better pay is the compensation for
putting your soul in your work.
Self respect-and the respect of 9TH
ers-is the compensation for living
along right lines.
Happiness Is the compensation for
keeping your heart free from envy,
Jealousy and backbiting.
The esteem Of your employer is the
compensation for proving to him that
you are interested in his welfare.
And-Just as truly-bad health, in
ferior position, self scron and the scorn
of others, unhappiness and a bad stand
ing with your employer, are almost in
variably compensation for acts Of your
own.
Compensation is fair-whether you
think so or not.
It's a natural law, and nature never
dces anything unfairly.
Good for good, and evil for evil.
every act OF yours, or mine, or the
otner reiloW,s, is balanced in some way.
Squarely balanced; not a waver of
the scale beam on either side.
Nothing in your life-or in the world
goes well or Ill of itself.
The law has always been and will
always be.
You can't change it.
There's no use in arguing against 1t,
or quarreling with it.
The thing to do is to accept il intel
ligently.
Study it out.
See just how IT has applied to you
In the past-how it applies to you
now.
Remember that you've got to live by
1t, whether you want to or not.
Decide that you might as well get
good compensation as bad.
compensation has two phases-posi-
tive and incidental.
The positive is the result of an act
or a series of acts that you can figure
on.
The incidental accompanies the act
and can't be exactly figured on.
Because nobody who reads this is GO
ing TO do a really wrong thing, well
take a wrong thing as an example.
There's an orchard with a high wall
around II. n jail is certain for who
ever is caught t~respassing.
Some chap decides to take chances
rails on the wall into the orchard and
breaks his leg.
The accident is the incidental COM
rensation-with the pain and fear, and
a possible limp for the rest of his days.
Inc positive compensation comes
along later, for, soon as he can hobble
around, the trespasser goes to Jail.
Looks like he's getting paid twice for
the same job. doesn't It?
No; he's simply getting it in two en-
velopes.
I'm going to let you recall for your
SELF some illustration OF these two
been good.
In the long run every man gets ex-
actly what's coming to him.
No man ever went higher-on a lad
der or in position-without the exertion
OF climbing.
Effort. o see-and getting up high
err Is the compensation for a effort.
D1h oOiA0tilAhS " COiloiuCT III
connection with being higher up.
You have to be careful about falling.
At the foot OF the ladder the danger
is slight.
With every round the danger in
creases you have to hold harder and
watch your footing.
Compensation again.
When ! was a youngster. I envied my
foreman.
One day / found that he envied the
superintendent.
And q little later I decided that the
superintendent envied the boss.
Then one day the boss. told me he
wished he was a boy again. doing what
l was.
I lost all my envy on the spot.
Emerson says: The farmer mag
ines power and place are fine things.
But the president has paid lear for his
White House. 1t has commonly cost
him all his peace"