The Indianapolis journal., 1883-05-26
THE RUST OF RICHES

threaten its peace and quiet. For the brui-
sers and bummers that revel in disturbances
and brawls there is the prison and the work
house. For murderers the penitentiary and
the scaffold. For all overt offenders against
the law of high and low degree, some pre-
sumably adequate punishment is prescribed.
But there are other and far more dangerous
classes that the law does not always provide
for Perhaps the most dangerous class, be-
cause possessed of most power to do evil, are
those who amass vast fortunes. The wealth
at their command enables them to WELD
great influence, and they are thereby
able to work harm to their fellows to a de-
gree that is dangerous. One man fighting in
the street or running amuck in drunken or
insane frenzy needs not be a source of general
alarm to the community. The authorities
will soon have him in charge. But the evil
disposed fellow who has dozen, or fifty, or
. hundred followers, as desperate and reck-
less as himself, may with reason be feared by
many. His capabilities are multiplied and
his opportunities increased. 1t is so with
regard to the man of limited means. The
financial world has no fear of him. and there
need not be the least apprehension Of
danger from him But just so soon as
he becomes the owner of accumu-
lated wealth to an abnormal degree,
just that soon is he in possession Of a power
that enables him to do HARM And worse
still, the very possession of a colossal fortune
seems, in all too many cases, to be an incen-
tive to use it in expressing others. The
mountebank without following may be
blatant but he will not commit an overt
breach of the peace. But let the canalle
take him up, and initiate him with the idea
of his importance, and he may do much mis-
chief, and the very novelty of the sensation
urges him to try it.
The nouYeau richie, the millionaire, is
dangerous man. Not that he is likely to
commit any breach of the peace, bat that his
influence will be against those below him in
point of wealth. Intoxicated by his greatness,
he IS no longer in sympathy with the masses,
and their feelings, their wants, their rights
are matters of supreme Indifference to him.
The drunken dream of gain urges him on to
get more. Enough is not sufficient. Once
million was the limit of his aspirations; then
it was two millions, three, four, five; and now
ten millions must be gained. These almost
incalculable sums must he his, honestly if
possible but they must be his To secure
them he will bring every energy, every in
fuence to bear where they will do the most
good in the furtherance of his schemes.
With the means at hand, where he cannot
gain his end by legitimate methods he will
buy it. He will naturally become the cor
rupter of courts of justice and
of Legislatures. If he finds
them above his Establishments, and
shat his money cannot buy them it is still
in his power to attain his end by hiring poll
ticians of low degree to fix conventions and
to secure the nomination and election of
such men as will do his bidding This dan
ger is one that seriously threatens all coun-
tries, and its influence has been felt every
where. In monarchies where the rule of
entail and primogeniture obtains, the dan
ger is greatest, for this great source of power
is kept in the hands of the few, who, through
generations of undue and unjust advantages
over the less fortunate, lose all sense of SYM
pathy for them, and are thoroughly blinded to
their natural rights which, though often with
held from them, can never be surrendered.
In republics where the masses of the people
are equal before the laws, the danger is ne~ly
rs great, but the remedy is of easier access.
The corruptionst may bribe a Legislature,
or buy the opinion of a court but when he
goes far enough to arouse those upon whom
the evils of his unlawful practices must
eventually fall, they may at once overturn
it all by the operation of their rights of suf
frage 1t cannot be denied that there is a
fearful possibility of political corruption in
the United States. The dangerous element
in our politics, made up of vicious and de-
PRAYED men, is the source of vast power
and harm. Under the manipulations of
moneyed men equally unconscionable,
they have it often in their power
to shape the laws of the nation and of States,
and it is only natural that their depraved
natures should so shape them as to work in
justice and oppression. These are the ready
tools of the man or corporation of vast
wealth. There is but one way to defeat
them, and that is to elect men to office who
cannot be bought by any bribe, however
great, and who will see that laws are enacted
that shall eliectually protect the general
public in their rights as citizens.
1t is clearly imperative also that men
lleoted to executive offices be imbued with