The Washington herald., 1911-12-31

danger of being crowded out by bigger
rivals"
And I tell you, father, that Ii Is
question of relative growth! answered
the young man, impatiently.
! And 1 tell you that you haven mad9
| that clear to me by any means IeJoineu
| his father. firmly.
Wilbur frowned With a mixture OF I'M
patience and the effort of rapid thought
Then his face suddenly cleared.
See here, father! You never went 10
| for sports or athletics much, did you !!
No! Well, that's unfortunate, but THINK
| l can make clear exactly what mean IN
| spite of your ignorance of the subject.
| Il don't know whether the rule stu
| exists or not, but it used to prevail In
! trottIng races. Supposing there are three
horses in a race and first and second
and third prize. You would naturally
suppose that every one of the three
| would be sure to get prize. But that
| isn't true. If the third one is so far back
Il have forgotten the distance-but so
| far back that he was never in the con-
/ test, his prize is divided between the
first two. He was distanced.
The analogy is perfect. Observe, the
third horse was going forward all the
| time-'growing'-and he thought that he
would be sure to get the third prize with
out any danger Of straining himself, but
! he was left so far behind that there was
no prize for him.
His father smiled his admiration at the
| aptness of the smile, but stuck to his
| guns.
You are very happy in your choice Of
comparisons, Wilbur" he said, with
! touch Of irony. The modern methods of
some of our big inanciers bear a great
| deal more resemblance y betting on the
/ races than to banking"
The young man laughed.
NONSENSE he said. THE only diff
ference between what you-what we-ars
doing now and what want to do is that
we are now risking so cents to make
cents, and 1 want to risk s. to make
$50"
His father shook his head.
There is very little risk in our bust
ness, conducted along the present lines
And the returns are proportionate to
the risk" rejoined the young man.
But why increase the risk" protested
his father. You do not want the extra
IA that you talk about. You have ad-
mitted as much
Wilbur hesitated moment and then
! with deep breath he broke out:
Shall l tell you the real reason.
father? It's just this: Do you suppose
that 1 want to take over from your
hands a big financial institution and de-
vote the rest of my life to keeping 1t
just where it is? What do you suppose
my youth and courage and ability were
given to me for? You are an old man,
and yet you handled this bank faultless-
ly and could do IL now. II an old man
can do this, why was my youth given to
me? With the start that you have given
ought not / to take up the work where
you left Off? What right have 1 to sit
back like a weakened coward in the
chair that you leave for me and say to
myself: We'll, I'm glad father made
things so soft for me-
IF you had been a soldier and retired
as colonel, would feel that was I'M
worthy to be your son If I didn't retire
general. If you had been a lawyer, I
would have felt that II was up to me to
be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
As it is, your are a banker and I feel
that 1t is up to me to be bigger and
greater one! How can I, the son of
John Emerson, face the world at-say-
his forty-fifth year, and admit that he
was crowded out of the banking business
by bigger menu
AS the young man paused, his face
shining with the passionate earnestness
Of his speech, his father slowly passed
his thin, delicate hand across his ewes,
and was silent for several minutes
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT SUNDAY.