LORD INCHCAPE’S CAREER

Evening Star, Issue 18046, 14 August 1922, Page 6

LORD INCHCAPE’S CAREER

MAN WHO LOVES WORK. In a speech richly reminiscent, full of humorous touches, and throwing iuteresting sidelights oh the work of the Geddes Committee, Lord Inchcape returned thanks when presented with the freedom, of the burgh of Arbroath a few weeks ago. His lordship announced that ho intended to mako the town a gift of £20,000, the interest on which he desired the Town Council to disburse among the widow's and dependent relatives of men connected with the sea. “ I have sold for the Government,” he said, “a considerable number of steamers and crafts of various descriptions, realising about £60,000,000, and as a punish-, merit for railing against Government extravagances, in speeches in the House of Lords and on many platforms, I was arrested in August last by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and sentenced to six months’ hard labor on the Geddes Committee, We began our work in my home at Glenapp, and instead of shooting grouse, blackgame, wild duck, partridges, and pheasants, and sometimes casting a tly, as I had hoped to do, I was tied to a table and engaged on masses of figures which showed how you were all being taxed out of existence. I confess I never felt happier than I did when in February last wo had finished our labors, gjgned our report, and thrown it at the head of the Chancellor. I am sorry the Government has not adopted our recommendations in full. It has cut our suggested cats by a good many millions, but I think the country will have something to say if the Government does not go in for further economy. Week in, week out, after we left Glenapp we sat at the Treasury in London, from 10 till 7, and often later. The Treasury was very good to us, -and w r e had half an hour for a frugal lunch which it supplied. Wo felt extremely grateful, and after wo bad finished our work and had sent in our report an incident occurred which led us to think that economy had really begun. Wo each received a bill for our luncheons, which we paid without a murmur. “ Any success or supposed success I may have achieved is nob due to myself. Had it not been for my good fortune in winning the lady who sits by my side I am perfectly certain you would not have been giving me the freedom of the burgh to-day. All through our married life she has been by chum -and my constant adviser, to say nothing of what she has done for me by a very stern course of discipline. It is to This more than to anything else that I attribute any good fortune I may bo supposed to have had.” Proceeding, Lord Inchcape said he acquired the rudiments of his business training in the oifice of his revered lord and master, the late Mr Francis Webster. He had the magnificent salary of £5 the first year, £lO the second,, and £ls the third, but there was compensation for the meagre salary in the long office hours. They began at 9 a.m. and were supposed to finish at 8 p.m.; but it was more frequently 10 or 11 at night before the office closed. “The instructions I got from Mr Webster on the lust morning I entered his office,” said his lordship, “ were brief and to the point. He called me into his room, which I entered with fear and trembling, and he said ; ‘Now, Jeemei, you are to do as you arc bidden, and not a word must go out of the ofiica cither black or white.’ _ I endeavored to observe that rule -during all the time I was under his -and' other people’s orders, either -in business or in Government service, and I -shall always bo grateful to Mr Webster for instilling into mo a sound principle, which, I, too, have tried to pass on to those who_ in the course of time have become responsible to me.

THE WORLD OPEN TO SCOTSMEN, “Perhaps 1 might before I sit down say a word or two to those who are about the age which I was when I left Arbroath, in 1872, just fifty years ago. _ Let me recommend them not to bo afraid to go out into the world. There is no scope in Scotland for the energy, the brains, the initiative, and the ambition of ah the youth of the country; but England) and the rest of the British Empire, China, the United States, South America, are full of opportunities for well-educated,_ hard-working, persevering, self-denying, intelligent, ambitions, and 1 honest Scotsmen, and if there is no prospect for you hero the sooner you get away the better." ‘ Referring to his passion for work. Lord Inchcapo said: “ I have looked on work as recreation, not as drudgery, and certainly half the time I have spent at work has been either in trying to make money for other people or in" the service of the State. My experience is that there, is no greater pleasure in this world than' that which, is derived from work. Occupation is the cheapest form of amusement you can get, idleness is the most expensive. It’s not work that kills—it is worry, and if you have lots of work I don’t care what kind of work it is so long as it keeps you occupied and yon do it conscientiously you will have, pleasure in it and you won’t have time to worry.”