244 Our Poorer Brother 



The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to 

 rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings. 

 If an American is to amount to anything he must 

 rely upon himself, and not upon the State ; he must 

 take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle 

 to envy the luck of others; he must face life with 

 resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept 

 defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his 

 fellow-men a responsibility which is not theirs. 



Let me say in conclusion, that I do not write in 

 the least from the standpoint of those whose asso- 

 ciation is purely with what are called the wealthy 

 classes. The men with whom I have worked and as- 

 sociated most closely during the last couple of years 

 here in New York, with whom I have shared what 

 is at least an earnest desire to better social and civic 

 conditions (neither blinking what is evil nor being 

 misled by the apostles of a false remedy), and 

 with whose opinions as to what is right and practical 

 my own in the main agree, are not capitalists, save 

 as all men who by toil earn, and with prudence save, 

 money are capitalists. They include reporters on 

 the daily papers, editors of magazines, as well as of 

 newspapers, principals in the public schools, young 

 lawyers, young architects, young doctors, young 

 men of business, who are struggling to rise in their 

 profession by dint of faithful work, but who give 

 some of their time to doing what they can for the 

 city, and a number of priests and clergymen; but 

 as it happens the list does not include any man of 

 great wealth, or any of those men whose names are 



