The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1914-06-26

bers or this graduating class or lilo
High School, and upon all young people
here before me, before we pass from
the lower realm into the higher, from
the. natural into the spiritual; from the
necessary, yet sensuous, selfish and COM
mercial struggle of our animal exist
ence into he world of thought-into that
transcendent region of real life men,
toned as the climax of this language.
Money here, l say, is pronounced a
blessing, like knowledge; a protection,
a defense. And such it is, for what
could man do without it? No more than
he could do with it, not knowing its
value or its use.
How different this statement from
the sentiment afioat that money is a
curse How different the declaration
of Gods word from the brainless har-
angue of the would-be reformer and
revolutionist Of our day concerning
what he calls 'cursed gold How op-
posed to the political fanatic who rants
about all moneymaking as crime,
hurls his anathemas against all the
prosperous and the rich, impunges the
motives of every philanthropist who is
blessing the world with his honest
wealth, and would quote from this book
as Scripture what was never written
there, that money is the root of all
evil Dangerous is such sentiment to
the individual and fraught with immi-
nent peril to society and the state.
1t inspires the young man with the
false belief that for generous manhood,
he must throw away his money on the
pleasures of the hour, spend his sub
stance in riotous living and let to-
morrow take care of tomorrow.
at is responsible for many of the
evils of the hour. 1t has filled our
almshouses with paupers, our jails with
criminals, our cities and our whole
lands with great army of ragged
tramps. 1t is the plague spot upon our
society, the blight upon our civiliza-
ton. And it will increase despite all
the efforts of the true reformer, all the
theories of the economists, and all the
systems of the political financier. In
spite of all the clamor of the multitude,
the cry of the rabble, and the Utopian
utterances of the communistic philoso-
pher. until man has returned here to
the wisdom of his fathers, to the wis
dom of this book to learn the value of
wealth; to learn that money is neither
his god nor his enemy but his defense.
"And this is the lesson that the
young man and the young woman of
America at this hour should learn,
whose influence is to be felt in the un-
disclosed destinies of this republic.
1--WE regret and deplore with you all
the awful peril of the hour in the ac-
emulation of our nations wealth in the
hands Of few, into trusts, monopolies.
and combinations. And hail, with you
all, every legitimate means for its re-
preston or control, but let us look for
rational remedy.
81 say to you, teachers and fellow
workers, that the civilization of today
and tomorrow, the civilization of the
oncoming generation today, stands not
so much in danger of millionaires as
mendicants, of bondholders as beggars.
of misers as spendthrifts.
"I say fear our fathers understood
somewhat better than we, the practical
value of wealth, that money is de-
fense'; nor need we be ashamed here to
learn lesson from our sires to whose
thrift in the pioneer days of our civili-
zation, we owe tonight our rich inherit
ance.
"They did not have in their young
manhood, the privileges that we enjoy.
Above them, often, on their beds at
night, they looked upon bare rafters
and saw through the chinks in the roof
above the stars of heaven, or felt the
sitting snow. They did not live in cost
ly homes with frescoed walls and hung
with paintings rare. They were poor,
they were sometimes awkward, they
were illiterate, but in one thing they
were wise-they were frugal, without
which all our culture, our refinement,
our larger, broader, grander lives, we
may in the future, suffer want and beg
in harvest time. They saw that the
future would have for them only what
they carried into it from today. They
saw this wisely as you see it in your
pursuit after knowledge and as trust
you also see it here. And you may, fer
what was. theirs may be yours as well
in your glorious struggle after that
which alone can intelligently use and
transmute money into Joy eternal.
"They saw. even with their narrow
vision, what we should plainly see, that
is, that-money is defense, that prop
erty is defense, that home is de-