The Washington times., 1928-02-02

laufelS Oh DuSIueSS ulOI6 last
Business has been steadily
heightening it's prestige, and it
now draws the flower OF AIneri-
can youth, who in earlier periods
might have been attracted to-
the learned professions.
Frequently America Is criticized
for its alleged backwardness in
the fine arts. One reason for
! this is that the major energies
OF the people have been turned
toward the practical arts-to the
conquent of a continent.
New Aristocracy
Scan the list Of those leaders
Of society who attend present-day
functions, and you will find
among them chiefly affluent in
dustrialists. brokers. and bankers.
In an earlier age, the social lead.
ers would have been generally re-
cruited from the great land own
ing classes, and from the military
profession.
Until a decade or so ago. bust
ness was largely q process of
matching wits-unformulated into
any definite creeds. OF late, 1t
has become scientific. and schools
OF business in the leading univer-
stiles are offering higher degrees
to future practitioners of the arts
OF commerce.
The chief anti Babbitt of the
countryside esthetic III. l.. Memo
ken, the bad boy of Baltimore
recently advised an inquirer to so
put his sons into business IL he
wants them to become great men
in America, saying:
IAN estimable customer writes
to me from a. town of the Middle
West, saying that he il a medical
man in modest but comfortable
practice, and. asking me, as an
elderly and VIGOROUSLY judicious
fellow, what think he ought to
do with them. My answer, already
in his hands. liz that I think he
ought to train them all for busi-
ness. And my reasons are the
same that would have prompted
me TO advise a Prussian junker
in the old days to put his SONS
into the army or q Munchener
in this our own day to make brew
ers out of them. For business Is
the national art of the American
people. and not only the national
art but also the national delight
and passion. Mo- man among us
gets more Of the benefits which
flow out of being an American
than the successful business man.
No man is more lavishly admired
and willingly honored.
Finer Culture
Sometimes outside critics at
tack Americans for their pre-
occupation with material develops
ment, wnl Durant; anthor of
that staple business known as
"The Story of Philosophy, Z takes
the optimistic view that az q
result of its prosperity America
In on the threshold of building
q finer culture.
DIR. Durant says:
&c We have become wealthy,
and wealth il the prelude to
art. In every country where
centuries of physical effort have
accumulated the means for lux
ury and leisure, culture has fol-
lowed as naturally as vegetation
grows in rich and watered soil.
To have become wealthy was
the first necessity: a people, too,
must live before it can philoso-
phize But soon our matu-
rity will come; our minds will
catch up with our bodies, our
culture with our possessions =
~A ~
ence liberty as well as wealth,
we, too, shall have our Rena1s-
sance."
With business drawing on the
best elements in the population,
it IL not surprising. that com
n1ercial ethical standards are ris-
ing.
Secretary Of Labor James ].
Davis. in making q plea for
continuance of the 60-year -oldsters
at work, has emphasized the fact
that men of the present gener-
alton are making better progress
in surmounting the hazard of
age. At ST, Daniel Willard, pres
ident of the Baltimore and Ohio.
has announced he always intends
to remain so.
Where the will to achieve is
buttressed by talent, physical
frailties apparently are no insuper-
able barrier to success.
Distinguished List
DR.. J. Arthur Myers has COM
piled for Hygeia the suhjoined
list of human beings who have
attained great distinction in va
rious fields. despite the handicap
of tuberculosis: Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, poet; Frederic Chopin.
composer: Artemus Ward. humor-
list: Niccolo Paganini, composer
and violinist; Johann Friedrich
Schiller. physician and author;
Xavier Bicart. anatornist, biolo-
gist, physicians: Rene Theophile
Laennec, discoverer of the stetho-
scope and famous physician;
Leigh Hunt, famous author; John
Keats, poet; st. Francis of As
sisi, priest, founder of great re-
lIgious order; Christopher Math-
ewson, most noted baseball pitch
er; Will Irwin, author and jour
nalist; Eugene O'Neill, perhaps
Americas leading dramatist; Sid