Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
WEALTH IS DIVINE
Bishop Newman Is a Believer in the
Accumulation of Money.
THE RICH MEN ARE NOT DAMNED.
Labor's War To-Day Is Only Against the
Aristocracy of Capital.
POWER OF DIVES FOR DOING GOOD
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. ]

believe in accumulated wealth. The
acquisition of property is divine git. In
dustry and frugality are the laws OF thrift.
To amass great fortunes is special endow-
ment. As poets, philosophers and orators
are born such, so the fnancier has a genius
for wealth. By intuition he is familiar
with the laws of supply and demand. He
seems gifted with the vision of seer of the
coming changes in the market; he knows
when to buy and when to sell, and when to
hold fast. He anticipates the flow OF popu-
lation and its effect upon real estate.
As the poet must sing because the muse
is in him, so the fnancier must make
money. He cannot help it. The endow-
ment of this gift is announced in Scripture:
''The Lord thy God giveth thee power to
get wealth." And all such promises are
illustrated in the present financial condi-
tion of Christian nations, who control the
finances OF the world
A Wild, Irrational Cry.
Against these natural and lawful rights
to the possession of property is the clamor
for the distribution of property among those
who have not acquired it, either by inheri
tance. or skill, or industry. 1t is COM
constitution of nature or in the social order
of mankind. 1t is the wild, Irrational cry
OF labor against capital, between which, in
the economy of nature and in political econ
omy, there should be no common antag-
onism.
There is a wealth of muscle, and a wealth
OF brain, and wealth of character. He is
laborer who does productive work; he is
capitalist who has S5 or S500,O00. Capital
may be tyrant, and labor may be despot
The employer and the employe have invio-
liable rights; the former to employ whom be
can for what he can, and the latter to re-
spond when he can. The envy of the poor
and the jealousy of the laboring classes are
not excited against those who possess vast
fortunes, but against the supreme ease and
the supreme indifference of the rich.
The Mission of Wealth.
Wealth has the noblest of missions. 1t is
not given to hoard, nor to crafty, nor for
the show of pomp and power. The rich are
the almoners of the Almighty. They are
His disbursing agents. They are the guard
ians of the poor. They are to inaugurate
those great enterprises which will bring
thrift to the masses; not the largest dividends,
but the largest prosperity. Capital makes
it possible tor the laborer to enjoy a happi-
When the wealthy build libraries of learn
ing, museums of art, and tenn Piles of piety,
they will be esteemed the benefsctors of their
kind. When the wealth of capital Joins
hands with the wealth of intellect, the wealth
of muscle, and the wealth of goodness for the
common good, then labor and capital will
be esteemed the equal factors in giving
every man life, liberty, and the pursuit OF
happiness.
Founded in Nature
The right to property is founded in nature
sustained by organized society, and pro.
tected by the sanctions of the divine law.
This right has its origin in prior fact, tn at
each human being is a distinct individual
ity, adapted to all the purposes of self gov
ernment, and responsible to God and to So
ciety for the manner in which his powers are
employed. By his physical nature he is
connected with the universe, which is modi-
fed to supply his wants. He is SO created
that he is dependent on the air, the sun
shine and the products of the soil for .he
continuance of his HE, and that end is at
tanned as he puts forth his natural powers
and extracts rom the universe that on which
he can subsist. He has a right to use his
body as he will, provided such use is not an
interference with the equal rights of his fel-
low men.
Possessing an intellect, he has right to
the products thereof. Endowed with a soul
of sensibilities, passions, and aspirations, he
has the inherent right to seek happiness, al
ways recognizing a common right in each Of
his fellow creatures. BY this physical. in
tellectual, and spiritual endowment man is
made for society, and each Individual in his
social capacity is bound to every other in
dividual by the law of reciprocity. If, by the
constitution of nature, man has right to
which may result from the innocent use of his
bodily and mental powers The result is what
men call property.
Divine and Human Law.
In all well-regulated society every man IS ac-
corded the right to possess that which he has
made and the power of control over the same.
He has not only the right to piece of gold by
discovery, or purchase, or labor, but, when he
fashions the same into work of art, his right
is increased by virtue of his skill. Around this
sacred right divine and human laws throw their
awful sanctions Thou shalt not stealu is the
command of high heaven.
Upon the recognition of this right depend
the existence and progress of society Ignore
this right and no one would labor more than is
sufficient for his individual subsistence as he
would have no more right than any other per-
son to the surplus; and there would therefore
be no ccumulation, no provision for the
future means by which improvements could
be made; there would be no noble cities no
elegant homes, no invented means of travel no
advanced civilization. The question involves
the distinction between the savagery OF the
barbarian and the refinements and comforts of
civilized life. A nation of thieves would be a
nation of barbarians.
There is no prejudice against honorable and
benevolent wealth. The war of to-day against
capital IS against the aristocracy of riches and
where wealth is boarded and appropriated for
personal qualification and grandeur, or held for
the love of the power that Issues therefrom.
Angered by the Selfish Man.
1t is this seltisnness of the affiuent that
awakens the wrath of the poor of the laboring
classes. Nor is there violent opposition 10 for
tunes speedily acquired. but public disDleasure
is aroused against the man of wealth who ma
nipulates the market for his own benefit and is
Indifferent to the bankruptcy of hundreds and
thousands whose acquired fortunes are sacri-
feed by his heartless stock gambling.
1t is not true that the rich are necessarily mis-
Large possessions in land and money
do not sour the milk of human kindness that
flows through the VEINS of humanity. To whom
are we indebted Tor those houses of charity
whose gates of mercy stand open day and night?
Who are the founders of those libraries which
spread their ample feast before mankind? The
universities and colleges of our country are the
monuments of the rich. Society has the right
to demand of the rich to regard their wealth as
talent of usefulness TO multiply the comforts
of the laboring classes to diffuse knowledge, to
alleviate suffering, and to equallze. "a far as
possible, the social condition OF their fellow
men. JOHN Z. NEWMAN.
Didn't Use One There.
Boston Herald