The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-02-21
rs WEALTH AFRAID?
1HAUNCEY DEPEW AND WARD M,AL.
LISTER SEEM TO THINK so,

nat If Any Arc Frightened They Are Few,
and There Il No Immediate Danger.
That Mysterious Influence ut Chicago
Plain Talk on Money.
One evening recently Chauncey M. De-
pew addressed an audience of well to do
men and women in private New York
residence on the subject of the prevail
ing distress In the city and the so called
'<charity" which aims at it's relief. A
local paper says that the speech of Mr..
Depew upon this occasion was sfull of
happy hits and witty sayings" and
laughter" ''more laughter" and ire
newed laughter, :" inclosed in parentheses,
were literally scattered through the alb
breviated report of the great humorist-
philanthropist's address. OF course Mr.
Depew boosted of the splendid hberality
OF his class in giving of their means to
aid the poor, but he rather made side
swipe at the halos his audience were in
imagination seeing around the heads of
the soft hearted coupon clippers in these
suggestive words, which were applaud
ed: "The disgraceful examples Of those
who have and fail to give of their aban-
dance are happily SO few among US that
no dangerous result from the disappoint-
ment of the many who have not need be
apprehended."
So it seems that those 'among us"
Who have given a mite from their album
dance to assist the poor in fighting starva-
ton have not, after all, been actuated by
those high Christian motives of which
we hear so much these days, but to ward
of dangerous result from the disap-
pOintment Of the many who have not. -
do not believe that fear of the wrath of
the hungry is the inspiration of all the
sivers of assistance. am sure that with
the vast majority of those who are con-
tributing to the relief funds fear of per-
sonal consequences if the suffering is
not kept within bounds has little if any
influence, if it is ever considered at all.
But that it is the handspring of action
with comparatively small number, ex-
cessively large in their possessions-the
'public be ID" set-there is not the
slightest doubt. Evidences Of this are
constantly before those who read and
look about them.
Ward McAllister, accredited spokes-
man of New York's Four Hundred, has
recently uttered some very peculiar Ito
draw it mildly sentiments. Millionaire
dom and the -Four Hundred are not iden-
teal. though many of the latter are
among the richest persons in New York.
It is generally understood that member
ship in the Four Hundred is limited to
1.-THE old families" It is an aristocracy
of blood and not of wealth, though riches
are not an unacceptable companion to
pedigree. For obvious reasons I make
this explanation before quoting some of
the very interesting things Mr.. McAllis-
ter said. He opened the ball with this
conundrum, us the millionaire afraid of
the poor mani" Not being the million
aire myself and not counting him among
my confidential acquaintance, / shall
not presume to answer the question, but
will allow Mr.. McAllister to do so:
10 nOC hesitate 10 say CQaC WQen the winter
opened there was much apprehension felt by
all classes of society that the financial panic
would put an end to all entertaining. have
personal knowledge that many of the Million
aires of this city anticipated bread riots and
@wlessness. But the rich men of this city are
as rule quick of perception and full of energy
TO carry out project once planned. If this
were not true, many Of them would never have
been rich. Under the circumstances they re-
solved that there was but one thing to do, and
they did it. All knew that Chicago was the
headquarters of anarchy-that if the spirit of
Rwlessness could have started and gained any
strength there it would have magnitied thou
sandfold and spread over the entire country
with enormous rapidity. Hence these men
took measures to suppress any uprising of the
revolutionary class in that city. Their fore
sight nipped in the bud the attempts of the
large class of ignorant disorganizers to stir up
dissension. The task was unusually difficult
because the closing of the Worlds fair in Chi
eago left stranded large number of unem-
ployed. who could have been easily induced to
take part in any scheme to appropriate to them
selves a portion of the wealth Of the rich no
matter how lawless the scheme might have
been. 1t may be fact not generally known
that several of our richest men directed their
personal attention to this matter, and by going
to Chicago and laboring hard there actually
prevented any such Uprising. No wave of So
eialism was permitted to rise and gather
strength and burst upon us here
Mr.. McAllister arouses my curiosity.
would like to know what it was the
rich men did that was so successful in
snufing out the incipient revolution.
They went to Chicago and "labored
hard" says McAllister, but it is such an
unusual thing to associate the million
aire with ''labor" that one is at loss to
know just what it was they did on that
sus-auspicious occasion. Possibly the
explanation is to be found in another
of Mr.. McAllister's statements, in this
one, for instance. Socialism has been
suppressed, and the unemployed have
been brought to realize that the rich
man is their friend" One thing is sure,
and that is that bringing the unem-
ployed to such realization would Of
fer to the rich men large field Of 'labor"
in Chicago or any other place. By the
way, it occurs to me that the coupling Of
SOCIALISM" and the unemployed" might
be distastefnl to some Of those who come
under the latter heading.