The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-23
DOROTMY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY Dix
Worlds Highest Paid Woman writer.
Does Selfishncss Pay?

Does SeifishncSS Pay?
All intelligent people recognize that
apart from any ethical considerations.
honesty is the best policy. The mer-
Giants whose goods always came up
to specifications have made fortunes
While those who gave short weight
and measure have gone bankrupt.
There was never d burglar who could
mone.r had he spent the same skill,
intelligence and energy in following
any legitimate occupation that he did
in porch climbing, or 1immying his
way into bank safes.
1t is a pity that selfish people can
not be made to realize that just as
honesty is the best policy. so is UNI
selfishness the greatest gain and that
greed and Jack of consideration for
others, defeat their own ends They
are invariabl:- boomerangs that fly
back and destroy the hand that
hurled them.
In reality. there are no people so
short sighted as the selfish. They
never look farther than their noses.
They never see that in grabbing the
thing that is Immediately before
them. they miss something far finer
and better, a little farther way. Still
less do they perceive that they are
the everlasting chump who perpetual
~ sells his birth-right for mess of
cottage.
OI course, LOT d laIIlc, lIlS SSlAlSh
seem to prosper like the green bay
tree and it appears to those of US who
look on that the way to have things
is Just to take them by hook or
crook without regard to the feelings
or rights of your fellow creatures,
but this is only superficial view OF
the subject. Sooner or later selfish
ness is it's own undoing and the
greedy find out that the fruit they
have snatched away from others
turns into dead sea apples in their
g.asping hands.
A very wise old banker once told
me that there was no one else in the
world so simple, credulous and easily
hoodwinked as the selfish. and that
tho greedy were the foreordained
prex of confidence men.
Nearly all Of the money that is
lost in investments" he said, sis lost
by the overly selfish. the people. who
are not willing to take fair and just
interest on their money. 1t is the
grasping and the greedy who are new
er satisfied, who want more, and
more, and more. who buy goldbricks
and wildcat mining stocks.
And it's the selfish, grinding en-
ployers who arr determined to get
every ounce of work out of their Ia
Dor. who have employees who work
with one eye on the clock and do just
as little as they can do to hold down
the last penny in every trade who
always gets the hot end of a trade IL
anybody can hand it to him. Selfish
ness doesn't pay even in business.
If selfishness doesn't pay in bust
ness, still less does it pay in the more
intimate relationships of life
In nearly every ia nily there is one
supremacy selfish individual, one who
runs rough shod over all the balance
of the household, one who pre-empts
the~bes seat by the fire. the tidbit at
the table who gets the best clothes,
the trips and who refuses to bear any
of the ia mily burdens.
The one who thus grabs the best of
eterything for his. or her. own be-
hoof and benefit does it by sheer force
of selffshness. At the time it seems a
triumphant thing to do. for the de-
cent members of the ia mify submit
rather than fight with the greedy, ike
dogs snarling over a bone. but what
the selfish do not take into account
is that the others keep a little account
with them in their hearts and against
every selfish act. set down a little
debit of hatred and resentment
And this is not what the selfish
want 1t is the essence of greed that
it desires to eat its cake and have il.
too. It wants to sacrifice everybody
and everything to its own pleasure and
profit, and still have their alteration
and admiration 1t wants to be loved
and cherished without ever having
made a single sacrifice to bind an
Others heart to it,
And life makes no such unequal
bargains as that Especially Cupid
doesn't. Love and selfishness are the
two most antagonistic forces on earth.
and when they come in conflict they
fight things out to a finish. One or
the other must succumb. They can
not exist together.
But they are fools and dreamers