LUCK v. RICHES.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 9, 23 January 1906, Page 2

LUCK v. RICHES.

—o — The American insurance scandals have, amongst other things, demonstrated the fact that it is better to be born lucky than rich. It you are born with plenty of money and

no luck, the odds are that thieves either with or without the sanction of the law (but most probably the former and more numerous kind) will break, through and steal it. But if you are born with lots ot luck and no cash, you might have wealth thrust upon you. Take the case of a young gentleman who had luck to have the founder of one of the big societies involved in the scandal for his father. When he left college he at first, according to the evidence, “reiused to take a salary,” but in a short time “ was prevailed upon ” to accept a trifling honorarium of £6OOO a year. After muddling along on this pittance fos three weary years, and reaching the age of 29, he had the amount raised to £20,000. And all because he was the son of his father. In America nobody’s sou has a prescriptive right to be President; but what is Roosevelt’s billet compared to that which the heir of a big insurance company’s founder may inherit*? It is not to be supposed that as soon as this young man left college the blaze of his genius for managing insurance companies so dazzled the seventy million people of the States that he was run after by big corporations, and “ prevailed upon ” to accept a salary that the Chief Justice of the Republic would not sneeze at. The chances are that there were hundreds of fellows drudging in the office for a few dollars a week who, “ on public form,” could be backed to give better value for the money than a raw young man from school. But they had not been born lucky, and that made all the difference. The duties which the founder’s young son performs for his £20,000 a year have not been specified, but that is hardly a pertinent question. “ What do ye do to earn yer big salary ? ” says the policy holder to the director, according to Mr Dooley, explaining the matter of the insurance scandals to Hinnissy. “ I don’t earn it, says the director, 1 vote it.”