In the last analysis it is difficult to give anything to anybody else. It is perfectly simple, of course, to put your hand in your pocket and take out $10 and give it to another man. After you have done this, he will have the money and you will not have it. Two considerations, however, throw doubt upon the question of your having given him anything. In the first place, most people who give away money to anybody else assume, whether they desire to or not, a degree of proprietorship in the life of the man to whom they have given the money. Even the best of us instinctively feels that the man to whom we have given money owes us something in conduct or in appreciation.

In the second place, it is always extremely doubtful whether your $10 has made the man richer or poorer. If by giving $10, or $100, or $1,000 to somebody else, we could add $10 or $100 or $1,000 to the real wealth of the one we give the money to, we would all be eager to give away money. The trouble is that gifts of all kinds are likely to impoverish the receiver. Emerson summed the whole thing up when he said: "Thy only gift is a portion of thyself." History suggests that the early Christian Church learned this from sad experience and thus gave up the communistic plans referred to in a previous chapter.

Profits Through Investments

This indicates the fundamental difficulty which confronts the man who has gained sufficient for his own needs and desires to take care of the tide of wealth which is flowing in upon him. When I say "tide of wealth," I mean exactly that. In a normally successful business career, the first decade or two of a man's experience is expended in laying foundations, getting the machinery in place, and starting the wheels of wealth-making in motion. The trouble is that after this machinery has been put in place and set going, it is almost impossible to stop it. A man simply sits down in front of the spigot with his bucket and the stream of wealth pours into it. Many manufacturers have found themselves in danger of being swamped by the financial success of their own company. They had all they could use themselves. They had all their most extravagant desires could imagine and yet there was a stream of money pouring in upon them which represented the profits on every "sale" in all parts of the world.

James Couzens, formerly General Manager of the Ford Motor Company, is reported to have received approximately $29,500,000 for 2180 shares of stock said to have originally cost him $57,500. If this is so, every $100 which he invested in the Ford Motor Company returned him over $50,000. Of course, this is not a fair statement, as Mr. Couzens gave his life to the Company, rendering service which no amount of money could fully repay. There are, moreover, numerous illustrations showing that even original investors have made considerable sums without giving any time to the business. For instance: $100 invested in Burroughs Adding Machine returned $41,340.

$100 invested in Welsbach Mantle returned $50,000.

$100 invested in Westinghouse Air Brakes returned $47,856.

$100 invested in Bell Telephone returned $201,000.

$100 invested in Janney Coupler returned $18,680.

$100 invested in National Cash Register returned $42,870.

$100 invested in Duplex Rubber Tire returned $125,000.

$100 invested in American Radiator returned $49,000.

Any man, therefore, who is inclined to take life seriously and to regard himself as something more than a mere peg to hang riches upon, is confronted by the question of what he is going to do with this stream of riches when once he gets it started. He is confronted also by the dilemma of devising some rational and really beneficial means of taking care of it. It is not enough simply to get away or to stand and let the stream spill itself upon the ground.

We may, however, take it for granted that any honestly constructed and really useful money-making machine, when once it is started, ought not to be stopped. Such a machine is making a vital contribution to the wealth of the community. It is a social crime to put a stop to such productive power. The man who has started it, therefore, must devise some way to save his own soul and at the same time keep the machine going.

Two Big Problems

Two big problems are forced upon the man who started the machine. One is that of saving his own soul and the other is that of discharging his duty to the community. The two go hand in hand. If the man fancies that because he has enough for himself he has, therefore, earned the right to go off in a corner and enjoy it, he has disregarded not only the interests of the community, but the interests of his own life. There may come a time in the career of an active man when he can honestly and rightfully sever his connections with life and go off somewhere to spend the remainder of his days in satisfaction. That is a question which may be raised. For the most part, however, a man's duty is to be found in so directing the results of his own wealth-making machine and so relating himself to the community where he lives, that his plant and the wealth which comes to him may be a true and enduring investment, both for himself and for the community.

However important the man himself may be, he would never have been able to start his machine and the wealth would never have begun to come in if it had not been for the community. The community has thus made him and it is his duty to do what he can to aid and benefit the community. After all, there is no duty which so vitally rests upon the shoulders of every man as the duty of bearing his part in the community.

It is clear, therefore, that the duty of continuing in business and devoting oneself to business activity rests upon a man even more heavily after he has made his pile than before. When he was making his pile, he was working for himself. Selfish interests alone may have been dominant in his mind. Now that he has made his pile, it may be possible for him to justify his own selfishness by consecrating the very powers and capacities which enabled him to become rich in his own right to the enrichment of the community.

More Rich Men Needed

The man who stands at forty or fifty in a position of independent wealth, which has come to him through productive enterprise, must give up the idea of simply turning over his profits to the community. That alone will not be sufficient. He must regard himself more than ever as the servant of the community which has given him his success. The best work and the finest portion of a man's life may be those years after forty or fifty when he can divest himself absolutely of selfish aims and consecrate the remainder of his active years to the task of producing wealth for the community and rendering real service to the men and women who have consciously or unconsciously helped to make him what he is. Any man who has hammered out financial success for himself is worth more per year himself to the community than the profits which come from his business are worth. It is, therefore, such a man's duty to devote himself with all possible energy to the service of society.

Society wants and has a right to ask of the successful business man not only his profits, but his time. The most valuable thing about such a man is not the stream he has set running, but the powers that he himself has. It is these powers that the community really needs. By making himself rich, the man has set himself free from selfish ends and made himself available to society. To meet this obligation - to embrace the opportunity - is the great test of the man himself.

Investing For Eternity

Of course, the stream of profits will continue. How they shall be disposed of is another question. The important thing is so to dispose of them that they will endure over a long, long period, and if possible, through eternity. All men must admit that the length of life of investments varies from those that endure only a few minutes to those that endure many years and even generations. Furthermore, it must be admitted that money invested in character building, scientific investigations, and certain educational work, endures forever. The building of a hospital is a far better investment than the building of a factory, although the latter may be commendable. But a study which leads to the elimination of dis-eases is even a better investment, while, the work of those who arouse the souls of men to conduct such studies, comes from even more enduring investments.

Of course, winning souls to Jesus would be the most enduring investment of all procurable. It would be the most satisfying and the most profitable. Moreover, in saying this I am speaking as a statistician and not as a preacher.