Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-06
THE DECREE OF POVERTY.


week ago Postmaster General Wanamaker,
while intoxicating the very valuable moral
lesson of trust in Providence and faith for
the future, diverged into some remarks upon
the divine decree of poverty. ut was,
said the Postmaster General, "the evident
intent of God that the majority of mankind
should be poor; that where one man should
occupy a large house twenty must reside In
small ones. The Lord knew we were to be
poor. He thought it was better for us that
this condition should exist.
No thoughtful man will dispute the main
doctrine which Mr.. Wanamaker sought to
impress upon his hearers, namely the moral
duty of preserving a cheerful faith, and
abstinence from worry over worldly
matters. But the collateral assertion of the
doctrine that poverty for the many and
wealth for the few is a divinely ordained
condition, is open to criticism. 1t is the
theory that is most relied upon BY the
classes that enjoy wealth and social superb
ority as a privilege, and is very often as
serted by those who build up great fortunes
by means which make those fortunes repre-
sent just so much money accumulated at
the cost of the many.
We should be careful to acquit Mr.. Wan
amaker from belonging to the latter class.
His wealth is an honorable example of
fortune gained by the class of trade in
which every cent Of profit is gained by Of
fering to the people in an equal benefit As
contrasted with the devices by which profit
represents the ability to make the masses
pay high prices, his profits have been Sc
cured by the ability to sell to the public at
the lowest prices. In other words, his bust
ness has, by giving consumers their share of
the benefit in the economics of trade, been a
benefit to the public, while those which
force upon the consumers an increased cost
of the necessaries OF lite are burden to the
public.
Nevertheless the spectacle of wealthy
public man inculcating the moral lesson
that the condition of poverty for the masses
and wealth for the few, is divinely or
dained, calls for critical examination. If
this is so, the constant assertion that
poverty is the result of vice and ignorance,
the outcome of improvidence, waste and in
temperance, is a wholesale lie. If poverty
is ''the evident intent" of Providence are
not the efforts of men like Mr.. Wanamaker
to gain wealth by industry and enterprise,
attempts to escape the divine decree? What
incentive can there be, in accordance with
this doctrine, for high endeavor in the busi-
ness walks of life, or what justification for
the works which distribute the benefits of
wealth among the greatest number?
The most thorough contradiction of this
theory that God has ordained poverty for
the great mass of mankind is furnished by
the fact that wherever Christian civilization
has had its most intelligent and faithful
application, there the greatest increase of
wealth among the masses has taken place
While there are still great differences be-
tween rich and poor, the actual condition of
the poor in a civilized nation is almost
equal to that of the wealthy at the time of
Christ. Moreover, the whole spirit of
Christ's teaching was in exactly the opposite
direction from the acquiescence in the
division of wealth for one man and poverty
for the many. The poverty which He
inculcated in His followers was the volun-
tary abjuration of the selfish pursuit of
wealth for the sake of benefting mankind
The very rich furnished the class which was
inconsistent with His doctrines, and He de-
clared the difficulty with which that class
should enter into the kingdom of heaven.
1t was enjoined upon the wealthy man who
wished to embrace the ChristrIan religion
that be must sell all he had and "give unto
the poor''-the clearest indication OF the
divine wish that the poor should be aided
by the distribution of wealth among them.
The whole spirit of Christianity, agrees
with the spirit of democracy, that the widest
distribution of wealth among the masses, is
for the best good of mankind. The assign
ment of poverty to the many and wealth and
luxury for privileged few, is the work of
the vices which Christianity seeks to
conquer and the privileges against which
democracy struggles. Christian poverty is
not the tame acceptance of the economic
injustice; but the voluntary devotion Of
work and wealth to the benefit Of humanity,
by those who fulfill the teachings of Christi
anity, helping the masses to raise themselves
from poverty to comparative comfort