DR, FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 147, 12 September 1927, Page 14

DR, FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

INHERITANCE (Copyright, 1927) . JVrOST uormal men and women live for their children. Beyond getting what satisfaction they can out of their own lives, they want to see their children get satisfaction out of theirs; they want to see they have a better chance and more advantages than they themselves had. Just how to accomplish this requires much thought and calls for all our intelligent planning. It is pretty well established that leaving your children a lot of money does them no good. More wrecks have been caused, more lives ruined and more characters undermined by having things made too easy for children, by giving them too many unearned advantages than by anything else. It may be safely concluded that if any man has a grudge against his children and wants them to be failures the surest way is to leave them a lot of money. Thinking people know that other things, such as character and the like, count more than money. Just how to leave our dear ones what they require is rather difficult. In the first place, we ought to do what we can to bequeath to them an orderly and law-abiding society, a state in which the laws are respected and obeyed. The second thing is character. It is our duty to our children to give them a good biological inheritance. This we can do by living clean lives ourselves and, In the final analysis, most of the good we do other people depends on how well we take care of ourselves. If the children are healthy and strong and normal physically the next thing they need is moral character. Unfortunately, this is a more difficult thing to come at. Out of many a family with the highest ideals and the most blameless practices can come a descendant who is absolutely lacking in moral stamina. About all we can do is to give as good an example as possible and good teaching. The result then is in the lap of the gods. We can’t help it and we are not to blame If the young scion turns out crooked. It is lamentable, but it is inevitable. Another thing we can leave our children is friendship and association with the right kind of people. This we can only do by associating with the right kind of people ourselves. The best that can be done, in a nutshell, is to know our children, becompanions with them and influence them by our own character as much as possible.