The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-09-17
THE RACE FOR RICHEs.

THE RACE FOR RICHES.
The SOCIAL Economist for August con-
siders the much preached-from subject,
1.-The mad race for riches" and asks per-
tinently how is poverty to be dis
possessed, unless riches are raced for
with continuing energy2 While the
socialists declaim against "the fierce greed
OF the capitalist" the inquiry suggests it
self, who is to pay the workmen their
wages, if there is to be no large accumu-
lation Of capital to keep going the works
that employ men and render them the aid
of the devices of science and mechanical
discovery to accomplish the most in the
least time and with the least output of
strength? The Economist, in advancing
its own doctrine, says:
Charitable organizations may hold out their
mats Tor contributions on a large or small
scale, but If they are TO get the money and pay
II out where 1t never gives returns of earnings
where snail enterprises get their backing out
OF which, because they increase production, so
many can be permanently supported and en-
rlehed? XII other methods proposed by well
meaning people seem to us to propose some
thing which either leaves things much as they
are, or TO enrich the poor by impoveTishing
Ihe already rich, and SO adding 10 the num-
Der OF the poor. We alone contemplate the
abolition OF poverty by increasing the num-
Der OF the rich till there are no more poor
ANA our method is the very plain one of in
creas1ng wealth by increasing the production
OF wealth. Could anything be simpler or
surer to do the work?
Without pausing to treat the Econo-
mtSt's theory, we are prepared to say
that of one thing no. reasonable person
can make denial; that is, that seven
tenths of the moaning about the aggrega-
ton OF capital is senseless. Great for
tunes and great enterprises in a few
hands are not so beneficial to society as
large fortunes in many hands and great
enterprises promoted by capital widely
held. We are not at all short-sighted
concerning the danger that lies in the
vast accumulation of riches by the very
few. Yet we realize, as should all men,
that the ambition of every man is to ac-
quire moderate fortune or "a great one,
and that everyone knows that in no land
under the sun is he so favored in that de-
sire, and the means for its accomplish
ment as in America. Wherefore, there is
less reason for exclaiming against condi-
tlons here than in any other part of the
world.
We are favored people, capitalists
and workers alike; we are necessary to
each other, and upon each other are de-
pendent; we are constantly changing
places, too, and he who is at the foot to-
day may be well on the way towards the
top tomorrow.
There is no folly greater than that
which under certain conditions as here
prevail would endeavor to establish an
order Of things that will trim men bv
one measure and weigh them by one
standard. In the wise administration of
affairs we may determine what shall be
the burdens of wealth to be borne for the
State that makes it possible and protects
it. But it is not likely that society will
ever take kindly to the ideas of the level
ers OF capacity and of the desire to accu-
mulate of this worlds goods. We may
say to wealth that such a portion shall be
its tax for the State; that such sum of
gains only shall it be by law permitted
to transmit by devise or bequest; that of
oppression and wrong it shall not be
guilty toward men; that of so much only
of realty shall it possess itself; but So
ciety will not in this day, or any one in
the early future, put bit in the mouth
OF invention, measure ability by the
standard of least intelligence, or capacity
by the accomplishment of the least
skilled; nor yet will it have it that men
shall not engage in the race for wealth.
They who are content with a little never
have and never will object; the outcry
against the racing comes from those who
cannot get on fast enough in it. They
who prefer loftier things than wealth and
find life's best in other struggles than
that for gold will not and do not object;
the complaint that some gain more than
others comes, in the main, from those
who would, if they could, be chief among
the winners.