r
lands, have come to men who have performed great and far-reaching
economic services--men who, with great faith in the future of their
country, have done most for the development of its resources. The man
will be most successful who confers the greatest service on the world.
Commercial enterprises that are needed by the public will pay.
Commercial enterprises that are not needed fail, and ought to fail.

On the other hand, the one thing which such a business philosopher
would be most careful to avoid in his investments of time and effort
or money, is the unnecessary duplication of existing industries. He
would regard all money spent in increasing needless competition as
wasted, and worse. The man who puts up a second factory when the
factory in existence will supply the public demand adequately and
cheaply is wasting the national wealth and destroying the national
prosperity, taking the bread from the labourer and unnecessarily
introducing heartache and misery into the world.

Probably the greatest single obstacle to the progress and happiness of
the American people lies in the willingness of so many men to invest
their time and money in multiplying competitive industries instead of
opening up new fields, and putting their money into lines of industry
and development that are needed. It requires a better type of mind to
seek out and to support or to create the new than to follow the worn
paths of accepted success; but here is the great chance in our still
rapidly developing country. The penalty of a selfish attempt to make
the world confer a living without contributing to the progress or
happiness of mankind is generally a failure to the individual. The
pity is that when he goes down he inflicts heartache and misery also
on others who are in no way responsible.

THE GENEROSITY OF SERVICE

Probably the most generous people in the world are the very poor, who
assume each other's burdens in the crises which come so often to the
hard pressed. The mother in the tenement falls ill and the neighbour
in the next room assumes her burdens. The father loses his work, and
neighbours supply food to his children from their own scanty store.
How often one hears of cases where the orphans are taken over and
brought up by the poor friend whose benefaction means great additional
hardship! This sort of genuine service makes the most princely gift
from superabundance look insignificant indeed. The Jews have had for
centuries a prec