burgh. A committee called upon Mr. Marvin and asked him to subscribe an amount of money to pay the rent for the Y. M. C. A. headquarters in the building of Oliver McClintock & Co. They were promptly informed by Mr. Marvin that he would not subscribe one dollar to pay rent, but he would give them $1,000 toward a building that the Y. M. C. A. should own, and it has always been a pleasure to him to know he was the first citizen to propose a gift of $1,000 to secure the building at Penn and Seventh street. And, lest we forget, may it be said he has annually for 50 years given the association a substantial lift. E. S. MORROW, CITY CONTROLLER. T HAS been said that a Christian man cannot be active in politics and maintain his religious integrity. Our veteran City Controller, Eustace S. Morrow, gives the lie to this statement from the political viewpoint. And there are others, both in politics and the wider domain of business. It is observable that God has often called men to places of dignity and honor when they have been busy in the honest employment of their vocation. Saul was seeking his father's asses, and David keeping his father's sheep, when called to the kingdom. The shepherds were watching their flocks when they had their glorious revelation. God called the four apostles from their fishery, and Matthew from the receipt of custom, Amos from the herdsmen of Tekoah, Moses from keeping Jethro's sheep, and Gideon from the threshing floor. The explicit instructions of the Sovereign Ruler of the World to Jethro are in these words: "Moreover thou shalt provide, out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens, and let them judge the people at all seasons." Clearly the above takes in Presidents and all public officers down the line to police magistrates. The Christian man should therefore dominate in politics as well as in business; and this does not imply perfection in either vocation. None of us live any day as we meant to live when we set out in the morning. We mistake, however, when we think that only great deeds make worthy service. To quote Rev. Henry van Dyke, we should live each day determined to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to covet nothing that is our neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manner; to think seldom of our enemies, often of our friends, and every day of Christ. This will make us the highest type of Christian citizen, and our life will be a blessing to the world as well as the community in which we live. Follow this plan and one will be a success in business or politics. Character building is the grandest work in the world. Other things. crumble and fall to nothing, but when we have helped God build a character, we have built something that is going to live as long as God lives. So, "Count that day lost whose low descending sun views at thy hand no worthy action done." I know it is hard for the Christian man to live the simple life, but we must get down from our dignified perch and let the Master have his way in our hearts and lives. The simple life will give the Christian man in business and politics the influence the Gospel intends he shall have and will successfully controvert the oft-repeated challenge of the worldly man that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has ceased to attract men. "What we call democracy and solidarity are just the ancient Christian virtues of kindness, brotherhood and justice, adopted into national morality and made into laws, courts and administration. Christianity has not disappeared, it has become incarnate in wider and more powerful political and economic organizations and institutions. Hence a Christian man, to find his duty, must not only study his Bible, but also his economics, politics and sociology; and there also he will discover his religion at work, demonstrating its truth and goodness by deeds. If religion is not dominant in business and law it is powerless in the petty circles of individual relations. "In the modern version the Good Samaritan not only takes the robbed and wounded to a hospital, but immediately goes after the robbers and brings them to justice; and for this he must have the help of other useful citizens, and of government itself; hence nowadays the good man goes into politics."Charles Richard Henderson in "Social Duties." The great want of the age is men. Men who are not for sale. Men who are honest; sound from center to circumference; true to the heart's core. Men who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves as well as in others. Men whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the pole. Men who will stand for the right if the heavens totter and reel. Men who can tell the truth and look the world and the Devil right in the eye. Men that neither brag nor curse. Men that neither flag nor flinch. Men in whom the current of everlasting life runs still and deep and strong. Men who do not cry nor cause their voice to be heard in the streets, but who will not fail till judgment be set in the earth. Men who know their message and tell it. Men who know their places and fill them. Men who know their own business. Men who will not lie. Men who are not too lazy to work nor too proud to be poor. Men who are willing to eat what they have earned and wear what they have paid for. These are the men to move the world. THE CHARLES M. SCHWAB HE war prosperity of Pittsburgh recalls the remark of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, made some years ago. He predicted that by 1920 the United States would be making 40,000,000 tons of steel annually. At that time the United States was producing only about 11,000,000 tons. The tremendous forward march of steel is now indicated by the fact that, two years in advance of the date of Schwab's prophecy, the United States is producing 50,000,000 tons of steel, and of course Pittsburgh produces the larger share of it. THE JOHN A. BRASHEAR. 'HE name of John Brashear caught my eye the other day as it was reported he had been telling of the early years of the war, and at once my mind reverted to John's early experiences in mastering astronomy. The writer had heard of John Brashear through his family connection, Robert D. Bryce, of the glass firm of Bryce Brothers, having been one of Brashear's most devoted friends, helpers and advisers. Mr. Bryce took took a deep interest in the work of the plain little millwright, who was modestly, but earnestly, working night and day to acquire knowledge of the planets, and spent many evenings in his crude laboratory on the Southside hills, which with the many evenings in his crude laboratory on the Southside hills, which, with the machinery, was built by Mr. Brashear near the head of Eighteenth street. Here was Brashear's machine shop, looking more like a library save for the machinery. For the genius of that shop was the devoted wife of Brashear, who kept it in trim "like a new pin." And as she watched the machinery grinding the mirrors, Brashear lay prone upon his back on the grassy slope adjoining, communing with the stars and planets. This work had been going on for days, and weeks and months without the sound of brass bands. Brashear, when his labors in the mill were ended, was moving in a current where the rattle of musketry, the roll of thunder, the noise of wheels in the busy streets and the laugh of a child mingled and blended in delightful harmony. The world little knew of the genius being developed on those Southside hills-many a time while almost the whole of the people south of the river lay quietly sleeping. So one night it was planned by mutual friends that the writer, a newspaper representative, should go to the laboratory of Brashear and take a trip with the local astronomer and relate his experience. Greetings from Mr. and Mrs. Brashear over, the faithful guardian of the shop proceeded with her duties while the doctor-no, John-and his guest lay down side by side to watch the panorama of the starry host. And what a moving picture show, for while the guest now and then followed a moving meteor, Brashear was fairly starting and stopping them in every direction. The guest would soon have been sound asleep on unpronounceable names had he not asked Brashear to realize that he was not talking to Dr. Schlessinger, but merely to a homemade newspaper reporter hunting an item in the primary department or kindergarten of astronomy, and then John figured the cost of a trip to the moon for the reporter at the prevailing railroad rate at the time-three cents a mile. Brashear was reminded that it was only Jonah who paid his fare and went ; that the Chronicle force had passes and that unless "free transportation" were issued the proposed excursion to the moon would likely have to be canceled, as the price of a round-trip ticket would be within the reach of only a Rockefeller or Carnegie. Well, the next day after the night at Brashear's laboratory the Chronicle told the discovery of one of the greatest astronomers of the age and in quite a lengthy article, too, and this truly modest man has not at this distant day discovered how in the world that young newspaper fellow could absorb as much as he did in that one interview of perhaps three, not over four hours' duration, and to this day he refuses to notice the writer of that article if he dignifies him |