“What do you think of the opportunities to-day? Has the recent war
aided us?”
“It is the best thing for the young men of to-day that could have
happened! The new possessions mean everything to young men, who are
going to be old men by and by. We, as a nation, are going to find,
by the wise utilization of the conditions forced upon us, how to
add incalculably to American enterprise and opportunity by becoming
masters of the sea, and entering with the surplus of our manufactures
the markets of the world. The solid merchants are to undertake the
extension of American trade, but the young men will be called in to do
the work under their guidance. The young man who is ready is naturally
the one chosen.”
“You think a tide of prosperity waits for every young American?”
“It may not exactly wait, but he can catch it easily.”
“It is said,” I went on, “that any field or profession carefully
followed, will bring material success. Is that the thing to be aimed
at?”
“Material success does not constitute an honorable aim. If that were
true, a grasping miser would be the most honorable creature on earth,
while a man like Gladstone, great without money, would have been an
impossibility. The truth is that material success is usually the result
of a great aim, which looks to some great public improvement. Some man
plans to be an intelligent servant of some great public need, and the
result of great energy in serving the public intelligently is wealth.
It never has been possible to become notable in this respect in any
other way.”
“It is often said that the excellent opportunities for young men are
gone.”
“If you listen to ordinary comment,” said Mr. Depew, “you can come to
believe that almost anything is dead—patriotism, honor, possibilities,
trade—in fact, anything, and it’s all according with whom you talk.
There was a belief, not long ago, that the great orators were dead, and
had left no successors. Papers and magazines were said to supply this
excellent tonic. Yet orators have appeared, great ones, and in the face
of the beauty and grace and fire which animates some of them, you read
the speeches of the older celebrities, and wonder what was in them that
stirred men.”
“And this field is also open to young men?”
“Not as a profession, of course, but as a means to real distinction,
certainly. The field was never before so open. I have listened to
Stephen A. Douglas, with his vigorous argument, slow enunciation,
and lack of magnetism; to Abraham Lincoln, with his resistless logic
and quaint humor; to Tom Corwin, Salmon P. Chase, William H. Seward,
Charles Sumner, and Wendell Phillips; and, as I look back and recall
what they said, and the effect which they produced, and then estimate
what they might do with the highly cultivated and critical audiences
of to-day, I see the opportunity that awaits the young man here. Only
Wendell Phillips strikes me as having possessed qualities which are not
yet duplicated or surpassed.”