Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1908 — What a Man Is Up Against. [ARTICLE]

What a Man Is Up Against.

Recently we were handed a slip of paper on which the following was type written: “If you save your money, you’re a grouch; If you spend it, you’re a loafer; If you get it, you’re a grafter; If you don’t get it, you’re a bum; So what the H ’s the ute.” There is not inUch optimism in the lines, and we should like to believe that there was not much truth, but a careful survey of the people around us makes us believe that the author knew about what he was about when he penned the lines. Truly, the’ man who saves his money and deprives himself to accumulate a little or tries to lay some by for a rainy day is Called a stingy old miser and about half the people are knocking him because be don’t open up and spend his money. They don’t figure that he is simply economic and that he has as bis example in his efforts to secure a competency every man who has ever made a success from a small beginning. They don’t care what his plans are for the future; they don’t care how honest he may be; they don’t care how willing be may be in the support of worthy charities; they don’t care what the direct purpcse of his thrift and economy are, if he don’t go out with the boys and spend every last cent he makes he’s a grouch and a miser, and therefore no good on earth. The second proposition Is nearer the truth, with the possible exception of the use of a wrong word. The fellow that spends his money is not necessarily a loafer. There are people that work long hours and diligently too who never have a cent, yet who loaf but little. A better word would be spendthrift. The public soon learns of the habits of a young man and if he gets rid of all of his money they learn about it and talk about it, and there is many a young man who makes good wages about whom the public are truthfully saying, “He’s a spendthrift.” It is a bad reputation for any young man to get, and it is not the repuattion but the habit that injures the person that has it. He had better be cal ed “stingy,” “grouch” and “miser” and have the money, than be ca led “spendthrift” and be without it Concerning the third propositicn there does seem to be a dispcs ti n on the part of the public to speak of any' man who has accumulate! money as a “grafter.” A man may have got his start by the hardest knocks, and simply have been cn his guard all of the time to keep others from getting the belt cf him in a business way, and nev«.r l a\e had a tainted dollar in his possession in his life, and yet there are many people who believe that sue e s can only be attained by dishonest means, and lately there seems to be a little prejudice by some against those who have been successful in tie accumulation pf money, and it Is not inf equent that we hear of men of me a s referred to as “grafters.” And yet Rensselaer is largely made up of I men who have made successes in a 1 business way by the greatest diligence and econemy, and there have been very few who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. This atttu’e on the part of many is really covetousness or envy and If unchecked leads to crime and destroys tie grandest privilege in our boasted land of freedom. It is not the case that the man who has the money is a grafter, but there are lots of people who allege that it is, and who treat the man with money like he was really dishonest.

And on the other hand It Is net true that the man without money Is a bum, although the bum is usually without money, and perhaps long ecntinued money drouth would make more or less of a bum out of a man. The great trouble Is not In getting It but In keeping It, and It is not every one who can act on the plan of "getting all you can and canning all you get" Unless there is seme natural reason, some misfortune, some lack of faculties, every man can "get" some money and then it is up to the man as to what he does with It It is not what a man gets but what he saves that counts, and the fellow that gets it and has the public call him a "grafter” and the one who saves it and has the public call him a "grouch" has considerably the best of a bargain. True, many find It difficult to meet the needs of every day life with their earnings, and yet men have saved from the smallest incomes until they had enough to make some investment, for which their keen eye has been looking and beckoned them on, and they have become successful, while others with many times the Income are constantly in debt If the object of life were to please the people there would, indeed, be little use, for the public is prone to criticise. With some a man is too brash, with others he is too back-

ward; with some a man Is too partisan, with others he is too lukewarm; with some he is too fast* with others too slow; and, of course, everybody has an opinion of everybody else. But we do not live for the opinion the public or any part of it has jef us, and the man who is going to lay down and give up the struggle because of criticism won't amount to much. A successful man once said that whenever he heard of an unkind thing being said about him he just tried real hard to think of something good about his critic and then tried to make the man ashamed of himself by publicly praising him. In the matter of what one has or has not, how they got it or failed to get it, public opinion should cut but Ett e Importance, and the man that tries to regulate his habits and his manners to suit the public is not so apt to succeed as the one who is “just himself’ all of the time without regard to what people may think. If trying to appease public opinion was the only aim in life, the e wouldn’t be much use, but as the aim of man should be higher the:e is considerable “use” and a little pessimistic suggestion should not mar the ambition of any one.