Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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"BACK TO B James 13. Dill, a N"ei cusses 3?rese Oberlio, 0., June 28.?James B. Dill, a prominent lawyer of New York city, today delivered the annual com mencement address at Oberlin Col lege, the topic of which was, VBauk to Beginninas." Mr. Dill spoke of the post-graduate education the stu dents wonld likely get from the world, and from his own experience what, as educated men and women, they would encounter in future attempts to edu cate themselves in the world, or, more accurately, in the world's at tempt to educate them. Mr. Dill spoke in part as follows: A lar^e part of our modern prosper ity consists of an overproduction of fraud and sham. The orisis is ao?t*,. A feeling of distrust is flowing throughout the country. Many branches of financial business have been in one way or another taken possession of by the unscrupulous for the purpose of decoiviug the un wary. Trust companies have been made the mediums of the flotation of spe cious and fraudulent promotions. Some life insurance companies, the highest and what should be tue most sacred form of investment, are, as we all know non, conduits through which the savings of the polioyholders are steered into operations for specu lative purposes. Credit and good faith, not money, arc the basis of business. Good, or bad, our modern prosperity is founded on public confidence. Take that away and the whole fabrio falls. Well, we are taking it away. Distrust?the rust which corrodes public confidence?is spreading in the land. Suspicion is taking the plaee of belief, Eccptism is taking the plaoo of pu'ui'c faith; many are inclined to view an honest investment with a feeling of doubt and fear; many re fuse to invest in new enterprises, be cause they prefer to place their funds in savings banks, trust companies, insurance companies, where they think their saving? ?re safe. And there also, we are hearing, these sav iogs are used by those in control for private speoulation. We hear aright. These facts make every, educated man and woman stop and ponder, as I bid you stop and ponder now. But what I want you to see is how human these faults are; how natural, how they come home to all of us; and how we? you and I?arc the peopla *o blame, the people who alone can check the evil. But note that this indiotment of our business life is not based upon an inherent, incurable defect in Ameri can oharacter. > If this were.true it would he use less to dis ou sa the matter further, for, however keenly we might rebel against the situation, we must perforoe either tSEQe!*7 on Vim if qt> -to Jr. in ?n? v?nt fr\r> easily acquired wealth of which these evils are the outgrowth. The faot is that the unprecedented material growth of the country, the resulting creation of immense private fortunes,. the bringing together, of great aggregations of 'corporate capi tal, industrial combinations and rail road mergers, all have tended to cen ter the attention of the people upon great financial deeds and to rank men accordingly, causing the people to forget elementary virtues of private individual life. The effect upon the great men themselves?presupposing that they are of the same, honest make-up as the average , American?of turning their entire energies and attention to the tremendous projects possible only in this country of tremendous possibil ities, has been to cause them to forget the same elementary virtues in their business life, however carefully they ' may attempt to adhere to them in | their religious, family or social rela tions. . So in a spirit of optimistic rather than pessimistic analysis we look at the recognised evils in oar national life and trace, if we may, their bo The early temptation that domes to sa educated man or woman is to wem rathex'than tobe. It may not eoom very wrong to yo? ?nd me to pose, and yet th? poser j a a incipient fraud. It is passing a oman counterfeit on toe public You and I are, not only the coin, but tho manufactuisrs of tbe coin, and if we keep what w? at tempt to get for it?an - opinion of the pablic thai we are batter than wo are? *e aro chargeable with theft. \\ Are we not attempting every day to ?over tip cur deficiencies with a patch ?f pretenso rather than ny hard work ?Bdeavcring to eliminate" tuet?? Neither men nor women can persist *od continue in an attempt to mla EG1NNINGS." ;v York Lawyer, Dis nt Day Evils. lead the public without misleading themselves, and the moment they ac quire the power to dull their sensibil ities, to stifle their consciences by presuming, assuming, and finally be* lieving that they are what they are not, they have praotioally accomplish ed their own self-destruction by pass ing counterfeits upon themselves. The pretender becomes a bor rower and tho borrower becomes a thief. Wealth, to most people, is something that is sought for largely because other people seem to enjoy and prize it, not because of a oonviotion of in dividual need of it. It is the adop tion of another's standard or criterion of happiness. It is the attempt to put on another man's ooat because it ?eems to look well on the other man. i jenow of lawyers, great legal minds, who would be happy if they v/ero merely practicing law, but their clients have money so they want money. They have caught the dis ease and they are not happy. They devote their lives to acquiring riobas; they sacrifice every other aim and purpose in life; they become and are riehj but that is uor. what they want to be, or what they are fitted to be. And what is the disease they have oaught? It is the malady of making money easily. Mark the word "eas ily." We have heard for years that the American people worship the dollar. I tell you they are led astray by the "easy dollar," by the ease with which great wealth is often accumulated. It is the desire for unearned wealth which sidetracks educated men and women from their real careers. 1 believo that not 20 per cent, of the young men and young women in this audience are meant to be rieh. They are meant to be great phy sicians perhaps, or great lawyers, or great preachers, or great teachers, or great painters: but when they go out I ( into the world probably 80 per cent. ! j will be tempted to seek wealth, to join ia the chase for what the other man wants. If 1 could persuade those of you who are meant to be teachers, or preaohers, or writers, or lawyers, or musioians, or painters to teaoh, to preach, to write, to plead and to paint unswerved by the tremendous in?uenoe of the great majority, I j should have done a sufficient service y for this day. But that is not my thought. What I want to tell you you must do if you ( are to save yourselves and this ooun- j try is to avoid the pursuit of unearn- j, ed wealth, the acoumc'-i??on of easy { money. That is graft, ihe man who t gets a dollar without earning it does ( himself an injury, and the world a. ? wrong. Such a man is an abstractor. He is not a producer. He seeks to | j support himself by the sweat of anoth er man's brow. He does himself au injury, because he disables himself. He loses the ability to create, to pro iuoe, to earn. He beoomes a grafter. And be does the world a wrong be-.} sause th? man who gets his heigh-1 % bor's money without earning it, with 3ut giving his neighbor full return, is | ^ aot only a robber; .he makes >the world ?'Vaft." (Traft is the advanced stage of the c sraie for unearned money. Primarily J it is not so much the desire to ret f 3om.etb.ing for nothing, or, rather it is not only the desire to got something ? Tor nothing, but it is an attempt to " get something f?vr the grafter In eon iideratipn of his parting with some thing that does not belong to him. it is a wrong greater than that of jhe counterfeiter who merely makes ind passes counterfeit coin. The graf ,or is a man who robs the counterloit >r, who made .the coin; the grafter ;heu passes the spurious coin to the iblio aeI genuine. The grafter is a double villain. Tho essential element Of graft is a jreaeh of trust/ Graft io well nigh universal., We neet it in its various forms every where. Its most common form.lhow rrer, ia tho illicit, use of power or minority. The legislator who is in taenced. by the argument whioh ap~ )ealsto his pookot rathe? than to hie teuse Of oivio obligations, practices a orm of graft which is dangerous to ho community. The public is awak med now to the danger of this, man ivYknow him; we understand him some day, and nono too soon, v/e hall refuse to vote for him, and then le will pass away. ; Another form of graft is that of the >ank official, tho officer in a financial nstitution which "is influenced in the ise of tho funds of tho institution by ny reason other than the sood of the institution. Such a man is danger* ijgj^:'to the community? as dangerous a the political gTafter?but we dc hot Sways recognize him. His position is bo high and his form of graft is so insidious that its existence ofttimes is not suspected until the explosion resulting from his gnvfting has injur ed the community and mado the man and his practices notorious; but too late. The director of a corporation who directs the affairs of a company from the viewpoint of his own pocket rath er than from the standpoint of the stockholders' interest, although he may not be indicted by a grand jury, is none the less a social highway man. The officer of a company who is in dividually or as a member of a firm the seller, and in his representative oapacity aots for his company, the buyer, may be guilty of a legal as well as a moral crime. And this crime is common. It is an everyday occurrence. It is an ordinary form of graft. ' There is ground for tho assertion that because the men who do these things are too high up, because they have too much money and too much influence back of them, their acts are designated "operations" rather thaa "crimes;" and as such they are ap plauded, not punished. The dummy director of a great com pany who dummyizes himself for pay whether by the year or by the job, who uses his position to control the use and disposition of other people's money for personal gain is in no posi tion to oritioise the clerk who falsi fies his acoounts, or the employe who | embezzles. Yet we all know of in- | 9tanccs where men who have stolen a million have sent to jail employes who took only hundreds or thousands of dollars. Now whose fault is this? It is ours. It is the fault of public opin ion, and public opinion is our opinion, yours and mine?yours of me," mine of you, ours of all the rest. We have to learn to recognize graft and the ?rafter, however respectable their dis juise?and to punish them, not alone by imprisonment and fine, but with ill the might of the terrible scorn of society. We have to reoognize that the seeds of socialism, anarchy and revolution are sown by the man of }ur own class and kind who pretends to be what he is not; - they are culti vated by the bank and the insurance officer, by the man in power in finan cial organizations, in short by any ;rafter who in his dealings with the publio departs openly cr secretly from jld-fashioned Ten-Commandment hon ?sty. I say again that the fault is not with the corporate form, the aggre gation, the association, but with the individual. I repeat that the reformer who only ittaokB corporations inveighs against :orm rather than substanoe. He is nissing, perhaps he xb avoiding, the ssue. It is easier for the preaoher to dis ?uos sin in the abstract rather than rom the pulpit to indicate the mem >ers of his congregation who are sin ters. So it is easier to condemn heoriea, associations, platforms and organizations rather than point the Loger at the man or men and speoify he wrong. But this is too easy, and t is too harmless. Our national ivils are personal evils and reform oust begin with educated men and romen. We need, we must have oharacter. Many men of eduoation, of power, inaucial and political, seem to de* rslop a double-barrelled conscience, ine for business use and another for he individual life. This is fraud. I say that the man who attempts to to business upon one basis of morals nd live as on individual upon another lasis'is a fraud. . The mao who would not oheat in i $1.50 transaction but would do so n ? 91,000,000 deal is Hying on a also basis. ' If any man attempts to pluck bis leart out of his living body, hoping o replace it without becoming a Orpse and staying a corpse, he makes , physical mistake. The man who at ompts to take his conscience out of its' body as he enters his banking louse, or his business house, or who rhen he attends directors' meetings r a syndicate o. onf ere nee, attempts to save his conscience on the door Step ike a half-burned cigar, while he at endo to business, will find nothing uta cold remnant when he returns? deau conscience. The practice of doing things, or eralt?ag things to be done by men a syndicates or as members of a eor orate aggregation whieh the individ si would not do in his private life pon the theory that syndicate orporate morality Is one thing, and idividual morality is another, results % the total suppression of individual oojsty and morality* In short, the man who inserts lank m hi il tneologioat belief is corporate aots will be judged ce ?tendard and his individual act y another, here or hereafter, m mistake. No man can have two. standards torals, one for his individual life ad th? other for hip, business ithout the inevitable result, that Rser standard will prevail. As' man is in his business life, so will he become in his privato life. The man who attempts to play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde invariably suf fers the doctor's fato mentally and morally. The direct result, the inevitable re sult, the logical conclusion of a false standard of morality in business ?s j the corruption of our laws and their interpretation. The man who in his business life shields himself under the fact that he is but ono of an aggregation, a mem ber of a syndicate, an officer of a cor poration, a director of a trust, tho man, who takes as his code of morals that which has been publicly an nounced by many men, viz., that cer tain things were done because they were not forbidden by tho statutes? that man is sowing tho Beeds ef social ism, anarchy und despotism. The man who makos tho only metes and bounds of right and wrong the cnaotments of the legislature and the interpretation thereof by the courts, has for his God, his religion, his con fidence and his guide, a movable standard and tho tendency of the movement is downward. The man in reality asserts might is right so lon^s au it is not forbidden by statute; that the ex^roise of merci lose power is justified so long as it has not been expressly prohibited by hu man law. Man is always keen to invont a new way of perpetuating a profitable wrong, and if the wrong to him is a wrong only when, if and after it has been so defined by the legislature, he endeavors to deal with the legis lature. The impairment of our legislature follows. If might is right so long as it is not forbidden by statute, then if the e'.at ute is in the way tho first step Is to get it out of the way. Statutes are man-made formulations, and men are human; the majority of them are influenced by their environ ment and their concomitants, hence power and capital supply the conco mitants whioh result in the r?novai by legislatures and municipal bodies of the offensive restrictions. I will not pass by the responsibility of the lawyer in these matters. It is said that when a man retains a lawyer he retains the lawyer's con science as well. Many a lawyer has sunk his indi vidualism undor his retainer. Less frequently we hear of the law- ] yer who says to his client, "That may be legal but it is wrong and I will not I approve of it or aid you in the doing I of it." The lawyer too often adviseB his olient, his corporation and the direct or a how far they may go with- I out subjecting themselves to a civil S Dr oriminal liability. Lc?a frequently he raiseB the question of right and I wrong. He says he is not there for that purpose. In so doing the lawyer commits his J clients to the doing of things against j a third party for whioh, if the lawyer J himself were the third party, he would I Peel justly resentful. Too many lawyers are forgetting to lay the high standard set for them in I the doctrine that the attorney is the I ceeper of his client's conscience. And .heso lawyers are prosperous, some of .hem are the leaders of the bar and as I inch they are admired by the most of I is. N \ I cannot here and now lead yon I hrough all the ramifications of the I )vils whioh are burning baok of the I smoke of modern criticism. I have I mown, I thick, that these evils, I whioh are undermining the foundation I >f Ameriean business and the insti-1 .ution of American government, are I 'ounded in the weakness of American j itandards of greatness and if not I ibeoked will ultimstely undermine j American eharaoter. My point is that I 'American eharaoter" means your j iharaoter and mine, and it does seem J o me that the question* of the day I s "What are we going to do about J t?" ! My answer is suggested by your I lommencement. We must all go, where you are, 'Back to Beginnings." I think that the simplest reform? j he hardest, but the first?is to make I ip our minds not to do ourselves hose things whioh the other man is I loing, but whioh are wrong. The next reform is to reform the I ther man. This is the reverse of the usual pro- j ess. The eommon procedure is to J ry first to correct others. But we ail because we soon see that if we I ush that sort of reform to the last I nalysis, we interfere with our own I raft; or, if our fundamental honesty j f brave enough, we realise that we j re not fit to. throw the first stone. 11 So I say that we older men and wo* I ?en must go "back to beginnings," I ind, as for the younger men and wo-1 ?en, you whoso commence aient day I his iB, you who are at the beginnings -to you I say: Stay there. You can | brow stones. Throw them, and ] brow them straight and throw them ard, and above all things do keep ourselves fit to throw them always. Don't pose, don't be frauds; Be j enuine. Be true to yourselves. Be ourselves. Seek what you really ant. Take no course in life simply mM^i^ I UtdW<>MTSWIiMH>mlMl>l>f " I **\ > H I H M Ii I h Ml II I I I eoauso others take it. Put ou no man's coat because it is becoming to him. Make your point of view your standpoint. Don't proclaim it as tho hub of the universe, it is only a firing line, but stand on it and fire. Don't ehaso the easy dollar. Mon ey is good, but money will oome if you do your work well. Give the world full value, and tho world will prize and pay you for the character your honest effort will have developed. And even the bad world appreciates oharacter. Did you not notion how a few weeks ago one of the great finan cial institutions, under charges of financial graft, searched this country to find a man of national reputa tion and of shining purity of char acter? Get that character and reputation, get for yourselves the benefit of tho exercise of mind and body that comes from earning money, but let your dol lars bo but tho evidenco of tho recog nized value of your work in tho world. Having that, however, having char acter, require it of others. Help to oreate a demand for honesty. Hav ing dono your duty as a man or as a woman to yourselves, do your duty to the rest of us?do tho work of a member of society, of a citizen of the ! world. In a freo democratic nation such as ours, wo?you who aro at your com mencement aud I who have oomo baok here to the beginnings?I tell you that we need men and women who not only will not lie, or Bteai, or cheat, or bribo, but will make crimen crimi nal and fraud and graft a disgrace, even though the wrongdoers live next door, belong to our olub, go to our churoh. That I may not in any wise bo mis understood I say to you again that this indictment of our business life is not based upon an inherent, incurable defeot in our Amerioan oharacter, but, on the contrary, these evils are an outgrowth of our American strenu osity in the riotous race for the easy dollar and the many dollars. I wish to distinctly avoid leaving the impres sion upon your minds that an unduly large proportion of the American peo ple aro of the class whioh I have sought to call to account. Rather let mo, in conclusion, point you to the silver lining to this cloud; emphasiz ing tbe fact that although the indict ment is well founded, nevertheless, we may rest assured that in the hearts of the genuine men and women, the plain people as well as those who have had the advantages of higher educa tion, and I will not include those who have had the advantages or disadvan tages, as you may ohooae. & compe tency, there is an appreciation of the importanoe of oharacter; that the rank and file of the Amerioan people not only believe in, but stand for right living and a oonsoienoe undimmed and unfettered by business environ ments. Therefore, right and honesty will triumph; a saturnalia of graft and an era of grab will find itself short lived, eliminated by the uplifting influenc?e of educated men and women of char acter, a consummation whioh will re ceive fresh vigor and renewed impulse from those who today are "baok to beginnings." You and I have enough of the opti mist in our make-up, we have suffi cient faith,in the ultimate destiny of our country, to feel oonvinced that there is no indication of the presenoe of an ineradicable disease in our na tional life. In fact, I have spoken thus plainly beoause I am. eonvinoed that a eure is possible and that this oure will oome through the efforts of men and women suoh as you. Wherefore, ladies and gentlemen of Oberlin, 1905, start right, steer right, stay right and?make the rest of ub oome "baok to beginnings.'* Reward for Saving Train? Asheville, N. C, June 26.?For saving the lives of a score of passen ger? preventing a wreck by flag ging a train, Nannie Gibson, 11 years old, has received a reward from the Southern Railway, and it is just what Nannie had said that she wanted most, an education. She had reoeived a letter from the railroad company agreeing to give her a college eduoation and to see that she is well provided for. Nannie lives in * little mountain hut with her father and mother in the Blaok Mountains. A big slide occurred on the mountain while she was at home alone. Breath lessly she ran down the track, waving her petticoat. A heavy train' was stopped by her 10 feet from where the earth had fallen. Below was an abyss several thousand feet deep. KILLth. COUGH and CURE thb LUNC8 with Dr. King's New Discovery Ifor 0 ONSUMPT10N . Pries 0UGH8 and 5Cc*$1.00 LOS Free Tris). Surest end Quickest Oure for all THROAT and LtTNO TROUB orttONEY BAOK. Rydale's Tonic a new, scientific remedy for the Blood and Nerves it purifies the bluod by eliminating tho waste matter and other Impurities and by destroying tbo {remis or microbes that infest the blood. It builds up the blood by restoring ami multiply* lug tbe red corpuscles, making (be blood rieh and red. It restores and stimulates the nerves, Causing a full free Mow ?>f nerve force throiuji out the entire nervo system, It speedily cures unstrunK nerves, nervousness, nervous pros tir.tion, and all diseases of the nervous system. s ree.1 cure for Malaria, ? \ RYDALE'8 TONIC Is a specific for all forasttV of Malaria. It nets on a new priuciplo. It kOtoi the microbes that ,?odueo Malaria. The catso being removed, tho disease quickly disappears.. \ RYOALE'S TON1U is guaranteed to euro tbc< most obstinate eases of Malarial Fever, C'hiltei and Fever, Ague, etc. We author iz<; all dealer?; handling our remedies to refund the pun hose, price for every bottle of II Y PALE'S TOKIO that does not give satisfaction. RADICAL REMEDY COMPANY, HICKORY. N. C. FOR S?LE BY EVANS PHARMACY. IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY? A Buggy Or Harness, We want a chance to sell you. If you OWE US you don't know-how we would appreci* te a payment theselpmchingLtimea. VANDIVER BROS. & MAJOR. Now comes the "Good Old Summer Time" when you want one of our. Up-to-Date VEHICLES for Pleasure, Carriages, Surreys, Phaetons, Buggies, Run-a-Bouts, Back board, Traps, And in fact anything you need in the Vehicle Hue you will find at o ur J*,z> positories. A line line of HARNESS, SADDLES, UMBRELLAS, CAN OPY SHADES, DUSTERS, Ac. .-?tf Call and examine for yourself, and if we cannot nuit you it will be" out fault. ? Very truly, FRETWELL-HANKS CO., Anderson, S. 0. THE SOUTH'S GREATEST SYSTEM! Unexcelled Dining Car Service. Through Pullman Sleeping Cars on alUTrains. ConvenientlSchedules on all Local Trains. WINTER TOURIST RATES are now Sn^effect to all Florida J Pointa For full information as to rates, routes, etc.,||consult][neamt Southera Railway Ticket Agent, or R. W. HUNT, Division Passenger Agent, Charleston, S. C 4 i S 35 M W " S % 0 < M F s OD < ?2 ? s ? Q M OD w g c II g > w O 2 o o s M S 63 one car of hog feed. Have just received one Car Load of HOG FEED (Shorts) at very close prices. Come before they are. all gone. Now is the time for throwing?j LIME Around your premises to prevent a case of fever or some other disease, that *?ill cost you very much more than the price of a barrel of Lime ($1.00.) We have "? a fresh shipment in stock, and will-be glad to send yon some* If yon contemplate building - a barn or any other building, see us before buying your? CEMENT and LIME, As we sell the very best qualities only. O. D. ?NDER80N. MORBID ? WE have moved our Shopand office below Peoples' Bank, in front oj Mr. J. J. Fretwell'a Stables. We respectfully ask all our fcbnds that need any Rocfing done, or any kind of Repair work, Engine Stacks, Evaporators, or any kind of Tin or Gravel Roofing to call on us. as we are preparcd{U?do it! promptly and >n best maoner.tt?oh^iting'your parroriage, ws are. ~ Respectfully,! BURRIS8 A DIWEB.