THE CURSE OF RICHES.

Lake County Press, Issue 2134, 6 September 1906, Page 2

THE CURSE OF RICHES.

WHAT PRESIDENT ELIOT KNOWS OF RICH MEN'S SONS FROM FIFTY YEARS OF OBSERVATION. (From an Address by President Eliot of Harvard.) The. very, rich are by no means the healthiest members of the community and to escape the perils of luxurious living requires unusual will power and prudence. Great capital at the disposal of a single individual confers on its possessor great power over the course of industrial development, over his fellow-men and sometimes over the course of great public events, like peace or war between nations. It enables a man tc do good or harm, to give joy or pain, and places him in a position to be feared or looked up to. There is pleasure in the satisfaction of directing such a power, and the greater the character the greater may be the satisfaction. In giving this direction the great capitalist may find an enjoyable and strenuous occupation. For a conscientious man a great sense of responsibility accompanies this power. It may become so powerful as to wipe out the enjoyment itself.

There are no more successful business enterprises than those conducted by remarkably intelligent autocrats, and probably the stme would be true of governments if any mode had been invented of discovering and putting into place desirable autocrats. The prevailing modes of selection, heredity and transmission, have been so very unsuccessful that, autocracy as a mode of government has fallen into disrepute. In business enterprises the existing modes of discovery and selection of autocrats seem to be better than in the government, for autocracy in business has been justified by results. The most serious disadvantage under which the very rich have ed is the bringing up of childre* It is well-nigh impossible for a very rich man to develop his children from habits of indifference and laziness. These children a~e so situated that they have no opportunity of doing productive lab< ur, and do nothing for themselves, parents, brothers, or sisters, no one acquiring the habit of work. In striving contrast are the farmer's children, who co-o[xM - ate at tender years in the work of the household. (1011.)