The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-23
THE ABUSE OF WEALTH.

An aristocracy in England, whatever
may be its faults, is no. merely plutoc-
racy, but in America those who ape the
infrmities and ignore the virtues of En-
glish society are never anything but pIu-
tocracy nimicking the aristocratic pomp
OF our English cousins We pretend to de-
spise. Better Americans than that glori-
fed peacock Yankee peddler, Jim Fisk,
have made a vulgar display of their wealth
10 make the groundlings grin and cheer,
but the vicious philosophy of life is the
same with them all; the dull, vulgar ma
terialism that prompted the Israelites to
worship the golden calf while Moses was
framing the finer faith that was expressed
in the Ten Commandments. which, among
other things, forbade covetousness.
The use of wealth for the enlargement
Of personal privileges and public iadepend-
ence of action is commeniable, but there
Is an abuse Of wealth thzt when publicly
wrought exercises most dangerous and
corrupt influence. G-sz. wealth Is great
moral as well as material trus;. and II Is
fairly charged against many q the rnush-
room rich Of America tia; .hey are re-
sponsibie largely for TIE violent discomfort
Of labor with its l0i. beczlss they have set
an unwise and in6isc-ee. example Of bar
barrie extrsvagEnce. They have corrupted
the socisi well being OF the people By ex-
traYsgaat osieniation and foolish waste of
money. Ike that represented by the IA
nous Croker wedding few years ago.
when the wedding presents we're estimated
at million OF dollars. Mrs. Leland STAN
ford's gift Of jewelry to the bride alone
standing for 5000
The lesson Of these displays 10 the peo-
pie IS that wealth is not merely means.
but the chief or only end Of life. The
crowd catch the contagion, which spreads
down from its top to its lowest depths
where Turk the hungry foxes of theft and
the gaunt wolves OF anarchy and murder.
Every rascal in embryo who can read. and
thousands who are not rascals in thought
or deed, are injured by the spectacle Of
the raging thirst Of the very rich FOR more
gold and the vulgar vanity which wickedly
wastes vast sums in idle show that stands
for no valuable object lesson Of patriotism
or public veal.
Fifty thousand dollars expended in
iewelry for the private personal adorn-
ment of anybody IS as dead an investment
as a bag Of gold buried in a desert; i.
stands for so much power Of living, rnoy-
ing industrial enterprise, so much oppor-
tunity for Organizing charity in shape
Of hospitals, Libraries, churches. schools.
etc. that the investment OF a vast sum In
personal jewels seems akin 20 the abuse
and misuse Of wealth that Cleopatra was
guilty of when she tossed oil her pearl >
with her wine. Cleopatra went step
further than our modern plu.oc-ats, be.
cause she dissolved her pear. in drink,
Just as drunken, reckless Vanderbilt
might light his cigar with 5000
coupon bond. but the Oriental sp:-i.
which withdraws vast wealth from .he
working world and tu-ies il in glitter.nr
ornaments for the person, has plenty o.
imitators among our modern, mushroom
rich. Diamonds do not become toad
and yet they are most iavishly worn BY
people whose souls are as soiled, noisoms
and repnlsive as dirty shirt
Fifty thousand dollars in gems for per.
soual ornaments stands for nothing in tht
industrial world compared with So. 90 in
vested in any line of business that mean.
work and wages directly or indirectly
20 many persons. Place $4,000 in found
ing a blast furnace, in working a mine
huildinp n railrosd and IL Donrs h{Oor
increasingly into the industrial veins o;
society that is wrestling day and night for
food, fire and shelter. An industrial in
vestment in manufacturing, trade, mines
railways is the nim6le sixpsnce tina.