The Honors of Men

Many honors are conferred upon people for various purposes. There are honorary and earned degrees, awards for discoveries in science, for literature, for excellence in the arts, prizes for contributions to that elusive peace which hasn’t yet been found; honors and titles bestowed by many orders and organizations for all kinds of accomplishments, ranging from the trivial to some of world significance. Some honors are prompted by merit and some by motives other than merit.

Some are sincerely deserved. Some are purely for publicity. Some are passed out by one political party and not recognized by another. Thus bridges, dams, highways and public places may have their names changed, and unchanged, and markers and monuments may be made and unmade as one dynasty succeeds another, when, as the old saying says, there comes a new “Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” _ or if he knew him, at least he didn’t like him.

It is good for men to recognize the honest merits of other men, but honors ultimately mean no more than the judgment and motives of those who confer them, and the character and qualifications of those who receive them. And what is true of people is also truce of products. They are what they are, and they are only as good as they are, regardless of what is said concerning them. And in a day of much pressure and much publicity, one often wonders. And honestly looking at the subject, this seems certain _ that there is no title that means much expect as a man actually merits, by the worth of his work and by the way he lives his life.

The honors of men may be flattering, but what really matters is what a man is inside himself. And in a sense, the same is true of products as it is of people.