It is natural and inevitable that the various social classes of
each succeeding generation should define their standards of success
concretely, that is, by the lives and achievements of those who
have done great things. In certain social groups the world's
champion prize fighter is the beau ideal of success. Among the
Camorrists of Italy that ideal is the successful blackmailer. In
many sections of our great cities the powerful ward boss, whatever
be his methods, is regarded as the embodiment of success. Too
often in America to-day, both in the public press and in the public
mind, the multi-millionaire is regarded as the pre-eminently
successful man. Although the power to amass wealth is evidence of
marked ability, the homage paid to it is one of the most sinister
tendencies in American life. Ordinarily it means that the
ambitions and achievements of a Jacob, rather than those of a
Joseph, are set before the youth as the supreme goal for which to
strive. A most hopeful element in the present situation is that
many of the world's wealthiest men are proclaiming their sense of
responsibility to society in ways both practical and impressive.
Far more significant than their actual gifts is this public
declaration that each man is indeed his brother's keeper, and that
no man has a right to use his wealth simply for his own pleasure.
Leonidas and his fearless patriotic followers at Thermopylae left
an impress upon Greek life and character that did not fade for
centuries. The spirit of Robert Bruce still lingers among the
crags and heather-clad hills of Scotland. The patriotic devotion
of Garibaldi has imparted a new character to the Italian race. Two
hundred million of the world's inhabitants still bear the imprint
of the fiery faith and fanaticism of Mahomet.
America is rich in its memories of the achievements of such as
Washington, Lincoln, Morse, Beecher and Emerson. What characters
in all history seem to you the best examples of real success? What
men and women in the present generation? How can the great
majority of the boys and girls and the men and women of to-day be
led to accept those higher ideals of success which are the
lodestones drawing on the race to higher achievement?