St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-05
RIGHTS OF THE RICH.

There has recently been formed in
this city an organization of rich men for
the purpose of eXerting an influence on
the course Of local politics. They have
once or twice sent committees to appear
before our legislative delegation, and to
suggest measures Of political reform.
Their most aggressive endeavOr thus
far has been to effect reduction of 10
per cent in the salaries of our public
employees who are now receiving more
than $1,000 year, and OF 20 per cent in
the salaries of those who are receiving
more than 1000 year. These gentle
men are all from among the best of our
citizens, and have knowledge. expert
ence, worldly wisdom and personal at
fractions to high degree. The GLOBE
finds nothing to criticise in their form
ing club, whether for social, business
or political purposes. Guilds of one
kind and another have been in exist
ence among EngliSh-speaking people
from time to the contrary CT which
the mind Of man does not run, and there
is no more objection to rich men flock
ing together than there is to birds or
tinSmiths or locomotive engineers doing
the same thing.
What the GLOBE will criticise, how
ever, will be any attitude of superior
wisdom in public affairs or any superior
claim to be listened to which the mem
bers of the organization may assume.
Perhaps they VIII not attempt anything
of this kind because it will be incon-
Sistent with their idea of good manners.
But it may be well to suggest to them
that, if they would have their side of
the case heard, they should take care
that their bearing is not indicative of
their having any such feelings in their
own minds. This has been the chief
sin of similar clubs in other places, and
one of the chief reasons for their in
variable failure. The average man
hates the Pharisee who says 81 am
holier than thou" and they snow him
under at the polls because they do not
believe him.
The acquisition of moderate wealth
by man is an evidence of his possess
ing important qualities of character
which count in good citizenship. But
the ability to do even this is not essen
tial to his having the profoundest wis
dom and acumen in public affairs. The
leading thinkers in our political history
have been men who have never been
able to exc out more than the bareSt liv-
ing. Less than half score of years be-
fore ABRAHAM LINCOLN undertook his
great task of destroying negro slavery
he was starveling country lawyer,
experimenting his inadequate income
by lecturing in school houses through
the hamletS of Southern illinois.
MICHAEL KERR, the speaker of the first
Democratic congress after the war, was
so poor that when death smote him at
his post Of duty his assets were hardly
enough to meet his funeral expenses.
SAMUEL J. RANDALL, the great COM
mOner, whose brave voice killed the
first force bill, left an estate of not more
than $4,000 as the fruit of life of
honest toll. And yet even when they
were alive, and much more now when
their death has hushed the partlsan's at
tacks, these men and thousands Of others
like them received and receive high
honorS from our people, and were and
are recognized as equal to the hardest
tasks and the noblest achievements.
These examples suggest that wealth
does not necessarily go hand IN hand
with political wisdom. The GLOBE will
90 little further than this, and say
that the honest mechanic who works for
daily wages is apt to have clearer con-
ceptiOn of what is good for the commu-
nifty at large than even the man of mod
crate independent wealth, and an in
finitely clearer idea than the typical
millionaire. Rich men get an exaggeI-
ated idea of the value of existing lnsti-
buttons because they have brought them
profit, and they come to confuse their
own selfish interests with equity and
right. They very quickly forget the
days of their poverty, and grow out of
sympathy with the true feeling of the
wage Garner and the artisan. All these
results are inevitable, and no amount of
learning and experience can save them
from it. The moral aspects are as val
liable in mems Judgment of things as
the intellectual; and mems moral nat
ureS are as much warped i'll the sue
cessful struggle for gold as they are by
the failure to acquire it.
This, perhaps, is not the ordinary
way of regarding such questions, and it
is very common to attribute to the mill
ionaire the possession of the highest
qualities of mind, if not of character. 1t
is true that the man who acquires large
fortune as the result of devotion to some
legitimate productive enterprise stamps
himself as superior to his fellows.
Such one becomes an example, as
well as benefactOr to the world. But
the largest fortunes of modern times.
which have introduced such serious
complications into our social life, have
not been acquired in this way. They
are largely the fruit Of chance working
in unison with vicious laws. The
greatest accumulationS of our day have
been founded on some one or more of
these things. The first is the owner
ship of some monopoly rendered pos
sible by our wicked tariff. The second
is the creation of fictitious values in
connection with the operation of quasi
public enterprises like railroads and tel
egraphS. And the third is the rise of
the price of land, the unearned in
crement from which has been permitted
to go TO its chance owner. Had the Wis
dom of our legislators been equal to the
problem. it would have been illegal to
acquire wealth in any of these ways,
because they are all wrong in their
every fiber, ana have distorted contem-
porary society out Of all harmony and
peace. But it is impossible to say that
the capacity to take advantage of any
one of them gives the man vino has
done it the right to the admiration of
his fellows. as one of superior intellect
ual and moral qualities.
The COM ING METHOD.
Recent mention has been made of the
favorable attention given cremation ny