The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-22
DIFFERENCE IN ATTITUDE OF
OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

| After your Impressions of Europa have
| settled and clarified you find one feature
| very conspicuous. This is the radically
different attitude toward life of the Euro
pean and the American, writes George
Hamilton Fitch in "The Critic in the Oc-
cident." In every European country the
ambition of men is to acquire a compe-
tence and then to retire and enioy life
In this country, although a man may de-
celve himself with the hope of getting
out of business, he seldom withdraws from
active work. The American in business
life or in the professions works for the
mere sake of achieving thngs-a spirit
absolutely alien in the Old World Most
young men in Europe who are heirs to
large fortunes simply learn how to con-
serve and administer their property: they
seldom give any thought to increasing it,
and they do as little actual work as pos
sible. Many have intellectual hobbies. and
in this way they make their fortunes
yield them fame.
In America the heir of millions usually
works hard as his fathers clerks or
else he spends his time and his money in
dissipation. Even the large American
cities have practically no leisure class
man who wises to live without work
usually finds the atmospheer in America
uncongenial; he must go to European
cities to find associates in sympathy with
his ideas of enjoying a life of leisure
On my way to Greece / met a genial
and learned physician from Amsterdam.
who spoke excellent English and who was
genuine philosopher. In discussing ma
tional character he defined the dominant
American trait as love of work.
Il spent three months in America he
said, and everywhere I went l found
professional and business men actually
In love with their work Few had any
literary or scientific hobbies: few were
book lovers or read regularly the stand
ard authors, but all were so enamored
of their chosen work that they never
tired of the labor of the office. In Europe
a man seldom works more than he is
compelled to in order to make a COM
Portable living, and he always looks for
ward to retirement when he is between
so and 60 years old. He is satisfied with
a certain fixed income which permits him
to enjoy the pleasures of his station
But in America every man | met had an
Unstable ambition to achieve things ir-
respective of the money results. Able
engineers who had made large fortuneS
were still keen to develop new ideas and
bring the great forces of nature into har-
ness. Great railroad managers were
reaching out to perfect new systems and
combinations. and to increase the effi-
cheney of labor. And so 1t was in every
department of American life. / have two
sons and / intend. when they are Is to
send them to America for an education. in
order that they may absorb something
love of work, which l regard as
the great driving force that has led to
f.'1er en- achievements in the material
and scientific world
his sums up the radical difference be-
tween the old and the New World. We
wolld gain enormously by absorbing the
European spirit of culture and enjoy
ment of intellectual and artistic things:
but 1t would be national misfortune
should this country ever lose it's keen
desire to achieve things and to make life
better worth living for the man who la
bors in the sweat of his brow.