The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-03
TIE WEALTHY CLASS.


healthy and vigorous individuality and to
healthy and vigorous social organization.
For both individuals and communities 1t
furnishes the concrete basis of visible unity
ard continuity in life, character and purpose.
Selfshness, in this sense, is duty, for it is
identical with the principle of self-preserva-
ton. And unselfshness in the sense of the
utter suppression of the avaricious instinct
merges into vice; for it lays existence open
to dissolution, and violates that loyalty to
self which, as profoundly construed by the
great dramatist, includes all other Royalties
and excludes the possibility of falsehood ''to
any man." No one has a right to be poor, in
the sinister acceptation of the word, ifhe can
honestly be well of. Poverty that is honestly
avoidable, is dishonest. Every man owes it
to himself, to those whom nature or fortune
makes dependent upon him, and to society
which must feed its drones as well its pro-
ducers, to acquire and preserve a substantial
competency. Within these limits avarice is a
virtue, and wealth positive utility and
blessing.
1t is the pursuit of wealth, as the slunmlrnl
JOnum of existence, which has been justly
stigmatized, in both ancient and modern
satire, as one of the capital vices. Widely
spread, it impoverishes the spirit, and en-
feebles the manhood, not only of the rich,
but of those who abstractly worship the
Almighty Dollar; rendering the one class
mean and supercilious, and the other class
mean and obsequious. And if all should
worship this god on the same plane of uni
versal opulence, the catastrophe that would
follow is happily described by Southern
author of talent and promise, when he says:
wealth is like the right of suffrage-make
it universal, and mankind would start to the
devil at lightning speed, and increase their
velocity in ratio with the distance to their
stopping place"
Laying aside these general reflections, it is
to be remarked that one of the most curious,
ana perhaps the most ominous, phenomena
connected with political and social conditions
in the United States, is the general self ostra-
cism of the wealthy class of the country. Awri-
ter in Northern magazine shows, by the sta
tistics of taxable property owned in New York
by VIM. B. Astor and nine others, that these
ten men possess one tenth of the wealth of
that city. The total valuation of their New
York estates is s51, sos, 500, while the whole
taxable property of the city is valued at $685.
442, 012. This estimate takes no account of
property which they own outside of the city,
and which in the case of Mr.. Astor alone
would swell his entire real estate to not less
than sixty millions of dollars. Not one of
these wealthy men discharge, or have ever
sought to discharge any important public
functions. Scarcely one of them is ever heard
of in connection with political movements and
struggles. And yet they are not inactive.
They are powers, and within their sphere
are constantly growing more powerful In
the words of New York journal "Most of
these rich men grow in wealth in every year.
Probably no one of them spends half his
income; probably few of them spend more
than ten per cent. The remainder is rein
vested, and, in the greater number of cases,
in real estate. Thus half of the ten are, bit
by bit, picking up New York; as a famous
Mississippian once said, they like New York,
and nnaan m bny il "
But it is the custom of these men of vast
and progressive accumulations to live retired
from the public eye. This retirement has be-
come with them, Intentionally or uninten-
tionally, mark of caste. They take pride in
avoiding official life. They shun popular
notice as though it were indecent to draw that
notice upon them. In all that relates to
public reforms and social ameliorations, the
lives Of these men are negative and sterile.
The journal before quoted only indicates a
part of the unimproyed possibilities of their
wealth when it says
Suppose these ten took il into their heads to
destroy the present cruel and debasing tenement
house system without touching their principal,
without devoting more than half their joint in
comes TO the purpose, they could in five years
adOrn the city with stately rows of healthful aud
well arranged tenement houses, and make decent
and comfortable the lives of the working men
and women of New York and it is probable that
in doing so they would double their wealth.
Or suppose these ten wished TO reform the city
government TO break down the ring whose watch
fulness and corruption every year drive the best
citizens into the suburbs, and by a law of seec-
tion fatal to our future, more and more leaves in
New York only the very rich and the very poor
will any man doubt that they could secure an
economical and efficient administration, clean
streetS, cheap re0tS-lOr rents rise WIN the IN
crease Of tsxes-every comfort to which so great
a society as this is entitled for the taxes it pays?
This picture is noteworthy, for it applies
with more or less force to the same class of
men in all the other great cities of the United
States, not excepting New Orleans. No one
thinks of going to them for active assistance
when important public enterprises are pro-
jected. 1t is men Of moderate means, men
in prosperous business perhaps, but not of
wealth stored beyond the fluctuations of
trade. upon whom such enterprises usually
depend for successful prosecution. 1t would
seem, indeed, to be the accepted American
theory that, wealth once safely established,
it is the supreme duty of its possessors to
hold fast to il, and watch its growth
for all the rest of their days; brooding
over it forever like so many grifons
watching subterranean treasures. We have
said that there was something ominous in the
general abstention of the wealthy men of the
country from various public activities. 1t is