Neverthless, while laying all stress on this point, while not merely
acknowledging but insisting upon the fact that there must be a basis
of material well-being for the individual as for the nation, let us
with equal emphasis insist that this material well-being represents
nothing but the foundation, and that the foundation, though
indispensable, is worthless unless upon it is raised the
superstructure of a higher life. That is why I decline to recognize
the mere multi-millionaire, the man of mere wealth, as an asset of
value to any country; and especially as not an asset to my own
country. If he has earned or uses his wealth in a way that makes him
of real benefit, of real use,--and such is often the case,--why, then
he does become an asset of worth. But it is the way in which it has
been earned or used, and not the mere fact of wealth, that entitles
him to the credit. There is need in business, as in most other forms
of human activity, of the great guiding intelligences. Their places
cannot be supplied by any number of lesser intelligences. It is a good
thing that they should have ample recognition, ample reward. But we
must not transfer our admiration to the reward instead of to the deed
rewarded; and if what should be the reward exists without the service
having been rendered, then admiration will come only from those who
are mean of soul. The truth is that, after a certain measure of
tangible material success or reward has been achieved, the question of
increasing it becomes of constantly less importance compared to other
things that can be done in life. It is a bad thing for a nation to
raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no
falser standard than that set by the deification of material
well-being in and for itself. The man who, for any cause for which he
is himself accountable, has failed to support himself and those for
whom he is responsible, ought to feel that he has fallen lamentably
short in his prime duty. But the man who, having far surpassed the
limit of providing for the wants, both of body and mind, of himself
and of those depending upon him, then piles up a great fortune, for
the acquisition or retention of which he returns no corresponding
benefit to the nation as a whole, should himself be made to feel that,
so far from being a desirable, he is an unworthy, citizen of the
community; that he is to be neither admired nor envied; that his
right-thinking fellow-countrymen put him low in the scale of
citizenship, and leave him to be consoled by the admiration of those
whose level of purpose is even lower than his own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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