South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-05-22
WITH OTHER EDITORS
THAN OURS
POVERTY AS AK ASSET.

1t may sound like preaching to
call attention TO a statement of the
Book that life does not consist in
the abundance Of the things a man
possesses" Things are not true be-
cause they happen TO be in the Bible,
but they are there because they are
true and would be true anyway even
if they were not there. 1t is simply
a statement of what has been proven
10 be a fact by the millions upon
millions Of tests that have been
made since humanity began its life
upon the earth and the fact that
the result of the test was always
the same has shown that it is one
Of the fundamental laws of the Gre
ator.
There are many things more trou-
blesome than poverty. There is a
freedom and exhiliratiOn about pow
erty that is immense. Did you ever
try it? All the world without be-
longs TO the man who is poor and il
doesn't cost him a cent. Broad parks
stretch out to the horizon with their
fragrant shadows. their carpets of
green, their bird songs and the CLINT
of shimmeTing garments of fairy
children that sparkle among the
trees and gambol about the emerald
lawns, and air that is pure and
boundless as the skies is there to fill
his lungs and quicken his blood, and
1t hasn't cost him a cent The
folks who have been burdened with
a bunch of money must pay the bill
The man of poverty takes his
stand on grassy, fragrant banks of
living velvet and watches the man
Of money. pale-faced and troubled
drive past in his massive touring
car, burning up the gasoline pur-
chased from John d. Rockefeller
and blowing up a forty dollar tire
occasionally in hunting over the
world for an appetite that he can
not find: for freedom from corrod-
ing troubles that lie ahead in the
morrow; searching for the thing
called sleep that comes not to his
pillow, and growing tired and trou-
bled and wrinkled more and more
as the days 20 by. In fact the au-
tomObile which the man of money
thought would relieve him of the
necessity for the drudgery Of walk
ing. has done its stunt. but il has
given him a reduced vitality because
Of lack Of proper physical exercise:
constipation and headaches and de-
caying kidneys and stiffening limbs
and a showdown of the old time
briskness that presages early de-
generation of the vital forces be-
cause the very laws of nature have
been violated. The abundance of
transportation has destroyed the
power Of his being. The man Of
poverty sees and wonders. His an
petite is ravenous. his sleep comes
like the sleep Of a boy after a hard
days hike; his limbs are strong and
his step il firm because he has been
favored by omnipOtence with a lack
Of rusting riches and been COMPEL
ed TO walk as humanity was intend
ed TO walk His aches are nil. His
children. clothed in coarse garments
and not too many even Of the coarse
type. dig IN the dirt and stretch their
little legs over the earth by feet that
are bare. they run and call 10 their
fellows and coax from the fresh air
| into their cheeks the colors that vie
with the roses in richness. But the
differences are as numerous as the
experiences of human life. with the
advantage for real happiness with
the man who is the reverse of rich.
Life does not consist in the abund-
ance of things that a man pos
sesses"