The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-12-22
OUR PHILADELPHIA LETTER.

OUR PHILADELPHIA LETTER.
CHARITABLE REQUESTS TO
CHARITABLE OR BENEVOLENT IN
STITUTIONS ARE SELDOM EITHER
CHARITABLE OR BBNEyoLENT-COL-
LosAL SUMS OF MONEY-THE POWER
OF MONEY! MATTER OF VITAL I'M
PoRTANCE TO THE AMERICAN PEo-
PLE-sTARTLING FACTs-A NATION
AL PERIL-wEALTH COVERS INFAMY
AND SUCCESS KNOWS NO sHAMK-A
sEETHING CALDRoE OF DIsCONTENT
URDERLIEs SOCIETY," NEW PENN
sYLvARIA RAILRoAD-A GOOD COM
ING oUT OF AN EVIL, ETC, ETC.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. Is, 1882.
DEAR MCPIKK-I have been ponder
ing over the subject OF charitable giving.
The subject of charitable giving is one
In which most people need much better
training than they have yet enjoyed. 1t
is plain to the most casual observer that
many worthy objects are shamefully ne
elected by the very Ones who ought to
support them. All humanity wants
credit for giving, but in any way, except
in good wishes, don't respond to chari-
table appeals. There is but little differ
ence between the Jew and the Gentle
in the matter of hberslity. The Jews
Of old were expected to give one-tenth
OF their incomes to the poor, but to
what extent they lived up to their re-
sponsibility and privilege in this partic-
ular, and to what extent they lodged
their duty, have no accurate means of
knowing. do know, however, that
now -A-days, with nearly all who could
do, they let wishing take the place OF
doing. Bequesss to benevolent or char
liable institutions are seldom either
charitable or benevolent. Those who
live life Of close fstedness, when they
have to die try to compromise for years
OF wicked stinginess by leaving IN their
wills beQueSts to certain cbarita able and
benevolent institutions but had il not
been that they had to go away and leave
their wealth the charitable and benevo-
lent concerns would never have received
a penny of it. 1t IS true that a miser's
money is just as good to charitable in
stitutiOns as that given to them by
liberal Christian, but how much better
1t would have been for him to have Civ
en- some needy persons the benefit of his
money while living. There are objects
Of ofsbenefcence which every wealthy per-
son knows of, or can learn of while liv-
ing, but which they shamefully neglect.
COLLosAL SUMS OF MONEY.
While 1 am not a communist, must
say that look with great apprehension
at the rapid accumulation of countless
millions of dollars in the hands of a few
individuals. The power of such tre-
menduous wealth as that of Vanderbilt,
Gould, Mackey and others is not ouly
great but dangerous. The concentra-
tion of such collosal sums of money,
only few of which have now in mind
and to which will refer, will be a mat
ter of great Importance to the A American
people some day. Not very long since,
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
sent to New York its single check for
fifteen millions of dollars to pay for the
stock of the Philadelphia, Wilmington
and Baltimore Railroad, which the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company had
absorbed. Jay Gould bought up all the
loose odds and ends of railways in the
southwest and northwest and welded
them together into the Union Pacific
Railroad system. Gould gave his check
for five millions or ten millions OF dol
lars (he forgot which); with which he
captured tie Western Union Telegraph
Company. Just think of it When
Gould launched his monster monitor,
the Western Union Telegraph Company,
he didn't know whether his piratical
craft had cast him five millions or ten
millions of dollars. William II. Van
derbilt sold out his small interest in the
Western Union for eight millions of
dollars, and received a check for that
amount. How many coupon bonds of
the Government Vanderbilt holds hea-
ven only knows. 1t is impossible to
tell, even to attempt to tell, how much
any very wealthy man is worth. Van
derbilt is probably the richest man in
the world. He has fifty or one hundred
millions of dollars more than he has use
for. He has over fifty millions of dol
lars deposited in the treasury vaults in
New \ OTk city. His income on city
property alone is over two millions q
year. Counting his railroad stock and
other stock and bonds, his real estate,
etc., his wealth is bswildering. Taking
the wealth of Vanderbilt and letting it
increase for ten or fifteen years as fast
as it has increased during the last ten
or fifteen years, and what is there he
Will not be able to accomplish !? Ten =,
yes, hundreds of millions of dollars is
no obsticle to the accomplishment of
any design to such men as Vanderbilt,
Gould and other money collosals.
Take Jay Gould, for instance, whose
power over the railroad and telegraph
lines of the country is boundless, what
infamous project is there that he could
not successfully carry out The large
sums of money that are at this day be-
ing transferred through the single check
of a corporation or a single Individual,
is startling. The Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company not long since handed
over to the Panama Railroad Company
check for twenty millions of dollars in
payment of the stock of the latter COM
pany, and it's authority was afterwards
given the directors to issue 400, ,000
shares of new stock, to be sold and ap-
piled to the purchase OF the P. W. and
I B. railroad, which 400, 600 shares at par
will amount to twenty millions of dol
lars
A NATIONAL PERIL.
Here in the United States, notwith-
standing the evidences of prosperity on
every hand and means of rapid advance
ment in material wealth and influence,
there are many indications of stoIm.
Indeed, all over the world things pre-
sent stormy appearance. A glance
over the general condition Of things pre-
hnrnCcOr.a " 1T