Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1891-03-28
rHE mrLLroSAIREs, CLUB.

The Metropolitan Club recently estab-
lished in New York, ii is reported, is to
confne its membership wholly TO million.
aires. No man with less than about .
million will be eligible for membership.
One thousand millionaires are to be in
vited to join ths club, 500 Of whom may
be non.residents. 1t is the first club in
this country that was ever founded x
clusively on . money basis. By natural
affinity, gravitation, or whatever iniu-
ence it may be, rich meu come together.
II is an old saying that the rich seek the
society Of the rich. Within q few years
the list of m~illionaires has rapidly in
creased. The man with q single million
is not now counted very rich, because OF
the large number whose fortunes mount
up to many millions. One thousand
millionaires who are to be invited to join
the Metropolitan Club will not exhaust
the number by q long way. The oppor-
t~unities for making fortunes have been
greater in this country than anywhere
else in the world.
The above is from the San Francisco
Bulletin. The Bulletin might have gone
on and told why the opportunities in
this country have been so great to &C
cumulate fortunes. This has been q virgin
continent with boundless resources. A
few great fortunes have been honestly
and legitimately made through develop
ment Of these resources but the major
part Of the ~millionaires In America to-
day became such through the operation
Of unequal laws. No law is 3 just law
that does not affect every human being
precisely alike. When we give bouDties
and subsidies and tariffs to one set Of
individuals we do SO at the expense Of
all the rest of the people. 1t is the few
against the many in every case. In this
way We are making m~illionaires by the
wholesale. And the worst of it all is
that we are building up an aristocracy of
wealth under a government supposed to
be based upon Democracy. We do not use
the word Democracy in its partisan sig
n~i6cance, but for it's other meaning
which, implies universal equality in a
Republic. Great wealth seems to exert
a singular influence on human nature.
Rich people have N affinity for each
other and are in the habit of feeling
Inundated il thrown in contact with poor
folks. Out of millions of people in New
York, Ward McAlister says there are
only 400 ft to move in the upper crust
of society along with the Vanderbilts
and Astors and the rest Of the Nobodys.
Men are never satisfied. No millionaire
ever yet got all the money he craved.
His whole nature and better impulses
are dwarfed to this one end. A million
aire is a glutton on another line. And
the fabulously rich usually want honors
with their contemplate dollars.
They buy titled husbands for their
simpering and pampered unAmerican
daughters and United States Senator
ships for themselves. A book Of herald
ry is next in order. Crests and footmen in
livery are already a part of the trappings
Of the very wealthy in this country.
Some pedigrees go no farther back than
the wsshtub. But no matter. II we
continue our present policy Of enriching
the classes at the expense Of the masses
we will have here all the worst features
Of European ~snobbery in less than forty |
years. The new club in New York for
the exclusive benefit and pleasure Of
m~illionaires indicates very forcibly the
drift of the times.