The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-06-19
MAD MONEY CHASERS.
MEN WHO MOVE THE, WORLD AND
CRUSH THE PASSERSBY.

Millionaires Who Remember the Pleas
ures of Poverty, but Have Evidently Had
Enough of It-Specalation Described by
the Great French Word Painter.
According to Herbert Spencer and An
drew Carnegie, Henry Georges "Prog-
ress and Poverty" is trash" Mr.. Car
negie says that the book sis founded
upon the two statements that the rich
are growing richer and the poor poorer,
and that land is going more and more
into the hands Of the few" These state
ments the iron king declares to be un-
true, as "the rich are growing poorer
and the poor richer" Without consid-
ering Mr.. George at this time, how does
Carnegie's utterance look as sample of
"trash" to the informed reader? All the
slick figuring of men of the Carnegie
stamp will not hide the truth.
General prosperity" and increasing
national wealth" are handy terms for
the jugglers of capitalism, but every
one who reads knows something about
the little gang of millionaires which has
been created during the past thirty years
and the big army of tramps. Carnegie
couldn't have been thinking of his own
experience and the experience of the
workingmen he has robbed when he said
sthe rich are getting poorer and the poor
richer" A voice in contradiction comes
up from the mills and mines of Pennsyl-
vania. Such sstrash" as went to make
up Carnegie's latest article would not
have been printed if it had been signed
by other than millionaire.
This man writing about ssthe advan-
tages of poverty and at the same time
grinding his fellow man to add to his
own wealth looks like the worst kind of
buncombe. But probably he is mag
unanimous, and wants his employees,
whose wages he reduces when he can,
and many of whom he has thrown out
of work, to enjoy all of the advantage.
He certainly is willing that they should
remain poor, while he, in spirit of self
sacrifice, accepts all the disadvantages of
wealth. When in a Sunday state of mind
he says ''wealth is sacred trust"
Yes, and sacred things must be held
fast. But we have had enough of
s'trusts," sacred" and profane. What
the poor want are the right to use Gods
gifts to man and the products of their
labor, and not SO much hypocritical
goody goody from the robber barons.
John w. Mackay says, ssI enjoyed
fighting poverty" If Mackay means
the kind of poverty have in my mind
the tenement house kind or that which
besieges the door of the coal miners
shanty-I don't believe him. Any man
who says he enjoys the struggle for
bare subsistence, which is the lot of so
many; that he is happy in the sight of
jaded wife and half starved children,
tell him he lies in his throat, and he
knows it. There must be greater enjoy
ment in the other way, for there is not
any evidence that the millionaires are
moving into the slums or looking for
jobs at the Worlds fair excavations. =
It tickles the millionaires to see their
faces in the newspapers along with
statements to the effect that they were
happy when they were poor, and now
find wealth very burdensome; but they
don't deceive any one, unless it is them
selves, and doubt if they do that-they
are not fools. Undoubtedly the posses
sion Of vast wealth carries with it great
and irksome responsibilities, especially
if any considerable portion is employed
in 'sbusiness." Many rich man tosses
on his pillow night after night worrying
over his enterprises" but this is not the
fault of wealth, it is the curse of avarice.
There are few rich men who are not
so cursed. But with the majority the
richer they become the farther from
poverty they want to get, notwithstand-
ing their touching "reminiscences" The
fear of poverty brings mental suffering
as acute as poverty itself. Many mill
ionaire is only miser with business
head on his shoulders. The knowledge
that they can get more by employing
what they have is what keeps them from
hiding it in old coffee pots under the
floor.
Money" the latest work from the
POWCI1u4 pen Va 14i11A0 <4OAc, oOPiSeo Al
all its horrors the passion of the mad
money chaser. The book has just been
translated by Benjamin R. Tucker, of
Boston, and though it will be condemned
by many because of its extreme French
mess in relating some of the details of
the immoral lives led by the aristocracy
of Paris, yet it presents graphic picture
of the debasement of those who make
money their god. The following are ex-
tracts from Money"
To fight. to be the strongest in the stern
war of speculation, to eat others in order to
keep them from eating him, was, after his
thirst for splendor and enjoyment, the great
cause, the sole cause of his passion for busi-
ness. Though he did not hoard, he had the
other joy, the struggle of big figures, fortunes
launched like army corps, the shocks of oppos-
ing millions, with the defeats and victories |
that intoxicated him. He lived only
in the hope of triumphant stroke of specula-
ton, and having struck persistent vein of i'll
luck he thus sank all tho profits OF his busi-
ness. The worst OF this fever is that one be-
comes disgusted with legitimate gains. and
finally even loses an exact idea of money.
- ''Know, then, that this is nothing yet,
all this; that this paltry little capital of twenty
five millions is a simple fagot thrown under
the machine for kindlingl that hope to
double it, quadruple it, quintuple it, as fast as
our operations enlarged that we must have
hail of gold pieces, a dance of millions If we
wish to accomplish down there the prodigies
announcedl Ahi am not responsible for the
breakage; we do not move the world without |
crushing the feet Of few passersby."