South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-08-22
An Appreciation
BY JOHN HENRY zUVER.

bigness of soul. God made him, he
passed well for a man, and goes TO
join the superman. In the realm of I'M
circumscribed vision, unhampered by
the flesh. and the dust Of worldly ambi-
tons, tolls and cares, this most lovable
of men. unloosed. unbound. sees and
understands through the eyes of the
Immaculate Whole.
That great, big heart. that ever
rested upon the arms now folded
across his unheaving bosom. is stilled
never to beat again in benefactions to
his fellows, or love of his kin.
That was a heart that pumped life
blood, not alone to feed the body. but
into other veins and channels discon-
nected. Gabriel r. Summers while
primarily a mere business man. was
more. He was a true PhilanthroPist to
more of his fellows than the world will
ever know; not in the sense of erecting
Libraries. building monuments, or the
founding of public institutions; nay.
nor in giving In great sums, to public
movements or causes. He was an in
dividualist; one that helped others, in
dividually. to help themselves. His
right hand never knew what his left
hand was doing. On the fingers and
toes of a score of men who live here
about, they can count other scores ow-
ing success, emergence from some rut,
and not alone to his advice, but hnan-
cial assistance.
1t was a generosity too, frequently
abused. as such generosity frequently
is-when confidence in mankind be-
comes too over-conhdent. One OF the
quickest ways in the world. sometimes,
to incur a mans enmity, is to be his
benefactor:
"Blow! Blow! Thou winters wind!
Thou art not half so unl1ind as
mans ingratitude!"
sang the Bard of Avon. Mr.. Summers
made enemies. more than in any other
one way, by being kind; by his willing
ness to help-and inability to refuse
Uncustomary as it is to point to a mans
weaknesses on the way to mis- grave;
that was Mr.. Summers great weakness.
He wanted to see those whom he
knew. get along, and occasionally for
from which he never complained.
Thus there are weaknesses that are
in themselves but virtues. Mr. Sum-
mers was no apostle of Nietzscheism;
no adherent of the Spencerian law of
survival Of the httest. in the Metz
scheian sense. He took concern IT
making the unfit fit; believed in oppor-
tunity as mans greatest boon. So he
became a philanthropist more in the
making of opportunities, than the Civ
ing of sifts-but this is his own paper.
and perhaps. should not herald his
praise too loud.
Still word from his employees here
in the shop. He has not visited us as
often of late as formerly but whenever
he has. his presence has been a bene-
diction. His smiling face, one that
radiated concern for everyone. an
anxiety to know how the men were get
ting along. personally, as well as in
their work, sobriquetted him the old
G. r, but with deep affection and
never in derision.
He went out and rubbed elbows
with the Boys, as he called us ALL
and the Boys viii not forget him
soon. More of his sort and less labor
troublesl 1t is quite as much a ques-
ton of social democracy as it is a wage
problem that confronts the world of
capital and labor more a question of
social democracy than of industrial de-
mocracy. The big boss who is one
of the boys and can radiate a realiza-
ton of that fact to his men, has his la
Dor problem half solved to start with.
MIR. Summers, in family life. in the
business world wherever he CHANGED
to be. was always the same He was
clean, upright, loving, lovable. What
more can be said?
The curtain fallsl From beyond the
vel, whence no traveller returns. there
sounds the rustling of wing,-and
what is written. is written
Life is a never ending stream, con-
Meeting two great lakes; two grand eter-
mites. There is no death. What we
call death is but a ripple in the stream
of life. caused by the separating shock
tvvixt mortal and divine 1t is the Mia
CARA where the soul and body bid their
first and last adieu. and separated leave
the body lifeless dust Thenceforth
the natural law does functioning in the
spiritual world and
Eye hath not seen. nor ear