Success

One span of horses was without a driver.

In desperation the owner sought the aid of the young slave because of his mighty arms, and begged him to take the place of the missing driver. As Ben Hur picked up the reins, a mighty cry went up from the onlookers.

"Look! Look! Those arms! - where did you get them?" they howled, and Ben Hur answered: "At the galley's oar!"

The race was on.

With those mighty arms Ben Hur calmly drove that charging span of horses on to victory; victory that won for him his freedom. Life, itself, is a great chariot race, and the victory goes only to those who have developed the strength of character and determination and will power to win.

What matters it that we develop this strength through cruel confinement at the galley's oar, as long as we use it so that it brings us, finally, to victory and freedom. It is an unvarying law that strength grows out of resistance. If we pity the poor blacksmith who swings a five pound hammer all day long, we must also admire the wonderful arm that he develops in doing it.

"Because of the dual constitution of all things, in labor as in life, there can be no cheating," says Emerson. "The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself.

For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs.

The signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent; namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen."

Henry Ford receives fifteen thousand letters a week from people who are begging for a part of his wealth; yet how few of these poor ignorant souls understand that Ford's real wealth is not measured by the dollars he has in the bank, nor the factories he owns, but by the reputation he has gained through the rendering of useful service at a reasonable price.

And how did he gain that reputation?

Certainly not by rendering as little service as possible and collecting for it all he could filch from the purchasers. The very warp and woof of Ford's business philosophy is this:

"Give the people the best product at the lowest price possible."

When other automobile manufacturers raise their prices, Ford lowers his. When other employers lower wages, Ford increases them. What has happened?

This policy has placed the Law of Increasing Returns back of Ford so effectively that he has become the richest and most powerful man in the world. Oh, you foolish and short-sighted seekers after wealth, who are returning from the daily chase empty-handed, - why do you not take a lesson from men like Ford?