South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-30
Woodrow Wilson
on when a Man
Comes to Himself"

industry and particularly for zone
of the most distinguished and most
Justly hOnored of our great philan-
thropists" is expressed in a small vol
ume by Prest Wilson, reissued yes
terday by Harpers. The little book
is entitled When a Man Comes 10
I Himself"
The great philanthropist" is not
named by Mr.. Wilson. Those who
guessed that IL was the elder Rookie
( Teller recalled that Ambassador Page,
Mr.. Wilson's former publisher and
present ambassador, WAS also Mr..
! ROckefeller's publisher ar d a eulOgist
of his philanthrOpic motives.
Writing Of those who are not fas-
cinated by the glitter of gold" and
for whom business is more interest
ing than pleasure" Mr.. Wilson says:
1t was this fascination that had
got hold upon the faculties of the
man whom the world was afterward
to know, not as prince among mer-
chants-fOr the world fOrgets mer-
chant princes-but as a prince among
benefactors; for benefcence breeds
gratitude, gratitude admiration. ad-
miration fame. and the world re-
members its benefactOrs. Business, |
and business alone interested him, or
{ seemed to him worth while The first
I time he was asked to subscribe money
for benevolent object he declined.
Why should he subscribe? What af-
fair would be set forward. what in
crease of efficiency would the money
/ buy, what return would it bring in -?
WAS good money TO be simply
given away, like water poured on
barren soil, to be sucked UP, and yield
nothing? 1t was not until men who
understood benevolence on its sensi-
] 10 rfr.v,
helpful side explained it TO him as an
investment that his mind took hold
OF ii and turned TO il for satisfaction.
He began to see that education was a
! thing of infinite usury; that money
| devoted to it would yield a singular
increase to which there was no cal
culable end, an increase in perpetuity
increase Of knowledge and there
| fore of intelligence and efficiency,
| touching generation after generation
with new impulses. adding to the sum
total of the worlds fitness for affairs
an invisible but intensely real spir-
!tual usury beyond reckoning. be-
cause compounded in an unknown
ratio from age TO age. Henceforward
beneficence was as interesting to him
as business; was. indeed, a sort of
sublimated business in which money
moved new forces in a commerce
which no man could bind or limit.
He had come to himself-to the
full realization Of his powers. the true
and clear perception of what it was
his mind demanded for it's satisfac-
ton
This is the positive side Of a mans
discovery of the way in which his
faculties are TO be made TO fit into
the worlds affairs, and released for
effort in way that will bring real
satisfaction"
AS an Introduction TO his theme the
president writes:
There is no fixed time in a mans
life at which he comes to himself 1t
is change reserved for the thor
oughly sane and healthy. for those
who can detach themselves from
tasks and drudgery long and often
enough to get a view of the proper
tiOns of life and the stage plot of its
action"
Ofttimes. the president writes. 1.-The
most immediate and drastic means"
of bringing the more imaginative
and impatient reformers" to them |
selves lis to elect them to legislative
or executive office.
THAT will reduce oversanguine |
persons to heir simplest terms. Not
because tn find their fellow-legis- !
lators or o. icials incapable of high |
purpose or Indifferent to the better !
ment of the communities which they
represent. only cynics hold that to be |
the chief reason why we approach the |
millennium so slowly. and cynics are
usually very ill-lnfOrmed persons Nor
is it because under our modern demo- /
cratic arrangements we so subdiVide /
power and balance parts in govern /
mont that no one man can tell for /
much or turn affairs to his will.
1T is not that such men lose cour- 1
n1N ac|
charged with the actual direction of /
the affairs concerning which they
have held and uttered such strong. /
unhesitating drastic opinions. They /
have only learned discretion"
When asked at the white house
during his regular weekly conference /
with the newspaper correspondents.
who the great philanthrOpist was
whom he described in his book Pres't
Wilson said that he had forgotten his
name,