In A New Century

IN A NEW CENTURY - 1908 - CONTENTS - PAGE Too MUCHS UCCES . S . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PROCLIVITI A E N S D COMPUNCTIO . N . S . . . . . 23 CHARACTE A R ND MONEY . . . . . . . . . . 134 Is HONESTYST ILL T HE BESTP OLICY . . . . . 2 51 iii CONTENTS IN A NEW CENTURY TOO MUCH SUCCESS THE fortunate people-the truly fortunate-are not so much those who succeed in life as those who succeed in living. There are some who do both many who do neither, and some who do either one, but not the other. Success in life, so called, can be overdone, but hardly success in living. It seems possible to succeed too much in various lines of attainment, legitimate and sincerely piofitable in themselves, but success in living involves getting the most out of life, not in a day or a year or a decade, but in a lifetime. That involves living wisely, and you cant live too wisely. If you could, and did, it would be unwisdom, and that would be a contradiction in terms. Of course, succeeding too much is not, and is not likely to be, a common mistake. Comparatively few people ever get a chance to fall into it. The great majority of adventurers dont succeed enough. To succeed notably calls for qualities that are rare very valuable qualities, most of them. Yet there are familiar cases of success so commonly held to have been overdone that consideration of them will at least be helpful to discussion. The basis of the prevailing jealousy of trusts and corporations is the feeling that some of them have succeeded too much. Those that have failed-a great number-have not excited jealousy. They have merely brought sorrow to their stockholders. In particular, there is one great and conspicuous corporation that set out years ago tosucceed in business, and managed its concerns with such energy and sagacity as to make its methods a model for its rivals and neighbours, and its name the very synonym for success in trade. The man who managed it showed a genius for business. The associates whom he a l l aa rSap s 01 smrs sry ur papaaaans ay may1 Lq raj ssauaarpaga nay1 30 uorlsanb OU SBM aJ3y L . SSaIq nJr B U B J J B M U ssaursnq ay2 03 Su p oam IsJom a raM Laql rayl lay cam . r l n . a y1 30 s saly lol su p roa - 3s InjMsI a laM day aqlay-passnasrp aq alaq lou paau spoqlam srH Illural raa uos ads nor . l . r qms u g - ssaursnq dus jo no laB 01 pagsrlas uaaq psy mrq a rojaq dpoqbua l . t y a oj JO asp LpoqLus o j Ir . ur . ljal 8urylLus aq plnoni arayl aaylayfi uaaauoa Inoylr . M ssaur . s nq ay1 ur . ss aaayl 11s la8 03 parure aH - suorlendss sry 01 Ir . u rr . I ay1 ss paa ras as uaaq aJojaq Jaaa psy 1vyl ssamns pra rarnmoa jo amsaam alnlss f uam 8ur . a r . 1 - luaaap pa110 lu03- 1as unmatched in familiar history. He enriched himself preposterously, enriched also every one who cast his lot in with him and left it there, and made the corporation of which his spirit was the soul the most remarkable-perhaps the greatest-business concern in the vorld. Get away now from the personality of this man of commercial genius and consider merely his corporation. Did it succeed too much There are, no doubt, gospel and philosophical reasons for saying that it did, but pass them by as inapplicable to a corporation. There is no certain indication of oversuccess in the mere possession by its shareholders of embarrassing riches. There may be such a thing as too much money, and some of them may suffer from it, but all that ishopelessly debatable...