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Money And Morals

Money And Morals image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
February
Year
1893
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

University hall was crowded to its utmost capacity Saturday night, with an audience gathered to heai and honor, the greatest journalist o. our country, Henry Watterson. The speaker received an ovation which showed him that he had already gained the sympathies of his large audience. In prefacing his lecture the speaker said: "It is not my purpose in undertaking to state a few incidents touching those great forces of life and thought to dweil very long upon the economie aspect of the one or the abstract relations of the other." "My experience has demonstrated to me that there are two sides to every question, and that the more positive and emphatic a man is the more likely he is to be wrong. ' ' "I am not going tobe prismatic," said the speaker, "but as I have the floor, I can go on and in case of disagreement you must give in." In describing the extent and grandeur of the American continent, Mr. Watterson made use of the following striking climax: "The outline of this continent follows the north star along the frozen seas, sweeping past the coast of New Foundland, traveling through the gloomy north and teeming south until finally it reaches the gulf stream and 'fades at last into a visión of paradise under the southern cross, amid the silence and solitude of eternal summer'." "This vast expanse with all its wealth and inspiration is destined to be some day included in the one great sisterhood of States. Speaking more directly on his theme, the speaker said: "Money is the great material fact of which the world is composed, but I am inclined to think that with me it has been an instrumeht and not an end." "It is a good thing to have plenty of money, honestly earned and hongstly applied and I hate to think that the possession of it is a bar to salvation." Neverthe less, it is unioubtedly true that it will harden md corrupt the owner in ten cases ivhen in one case it will soften and mprove. In how few cases has it ;nlarged the mind and amplified the soul." "The world has been misled by some of its maxims, or by their in:erpretation. We are told that oerseverence conquers all things tnd that love conquers all things, pet perseverence may be misdirected ind become vicious, and love often :al s a victim to its own excesses." 'That which by our exertions we ïave obtained, often fails to bring :o us that which we expected of it." "It often happens that we fix our lopes for happiness on one thing, "noney or wife, and imagine that the ittainment is suqcess in life; when if ye could know truth in advance, ;hat is the one object upon which we would look back with horror. Material things do not bring happiness and comfort. Millions of money may bring distress. Happiness is a creation of the mind and heart, and not of the stomach. ' ' "Ambitioa is the cause of many evils, and amongthem is hypocracy. There is a hypocracy so deep that it goes meandering through the world mistaking itself for virtue, and there is a hypocracy which springs from cowardice." "Every age has its idiosyncracies; every country has its crown of gold and its crown of Ihorns. The dangers of a nation lie initssins. The dangers attending its various disturbances arising from municipal troubles, the race and labor problems are not fatal to this country. No political issue at present bodes ruin to the country. After terrible trials and battles our country emerged stronger and more united." "The moral danger to the republic is in the relation of money to the moral valué of the people." 'Put money in thy purse' is an injunction so thoroughly obeyed in this country that the trail of the trade mark is over us all. Honorable poverty is almost a lost art." "Each section of our country can learn lessons from the others, the people of New England may learn from the old time planters, the people of the South may study the Yankee and learn how to get along better." In closing Mr. Watterson said: "Thus I would bring the good that is in one section face to face with the good that is in another section, instructing both in the truth that we are the most homogenious people on the face of the globe; our differences are purely local and external; and thus I would rebuild our national fabric on a firrn foundation of morality and manhood, the only genuine sources of a people's worth . ' '

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News