Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
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[1UJIC TIRADE
V O L . LIX. N o . 7
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, Aug. 15, 1914
SING L E
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ENTS
$ 2 OO P ER\E°AR
The Great Essential—Human Happiness.
ONDITIONS sometimes force us into professions for which we are perhaps temperamentally
unfitted. Many of us find that out later, much to our regret and dissatisfaction.
A man cannot always choose his business as he would a hat or a suit of clothes. There
are always certain forces which obviously are beyond his control that impel him lo one thing
rather than to another. Then, when a man is not making a marked or satisfactory success in life he is
apt to say he could have succeeded so much better had he chosen another trade or profession. You
will hear this cry from many men who feel that they have not achieved as great a success in life as in
their opinion their ability entitles them.
Now, success should not always be measured from the dollar viewpoint.
A friend of mine the other day remarked that he found that he was at first out of place in the
piano business, but being in it he was glad of it and concluded to make the most of it. He said that
he did not feel that the piano business was usually productive of great fortunes. Now, that did not
mean that he was a scoffer before the shrine of Mammon. Not at all. He realized that the money evil
is a necessary evil, and he sought it not as an end in itself but as a means to an end—that end being hap-
piness. When the quest for gold clashed with the quest for happiness, he gave up the former. Is
not his reasoning correct?
Does not great wealth lessen rather than increase human happiness?* Great wealth is obtained
oftentimes at the expense of the happiness of others. Such means are not employed in the piano
trade. It supports an army of workers and treats them as human beings. It pays them living wages
and good salaries, and the generals in this industry do not find their way to the top by trampling
down unfortunates. When they reach the top they stand on pedestals that give them support—not
on the shoulders of slaves. It is an industry that employs only men fitted by nature for their work.
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There may be men who oftentimes get despondent because they do not reap the great big golden
rewards which they believe theirs by right of work.
I recall once when I was in Europe of seeing an inscription on an altar built by a great sculptor.
The altar had two figures on it—one of Hope and the other of Nemesis: "the former that thou
ma vest have hope; the latter that thou mayest not hope too much."
If a man is in an enterprise of any kind, he should endeavor, through his own efforts to secure
all the happiness possible out of it. It was Epictetus who said that "great
wealth may up to a certain point give men happiness and security, but
the happiness and security of men in general depends upon the tranquil-
ity of their souls." No dollar pile there, but rather the great essential—
human happiness, which does not always come with wealth.