The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-05-02
The Worst Inheritance.

While it is true that young men
| who have inherited large fortunes Of
ten succeed in life, and become as
useful to the world as if they had been
born poor, such cases are exceptional,
for it is a general rule that the pos
session of unearned money, whether
inherited or acquired in any other way :,
is the greatest obstacle to life Of
usefulness.
This must be true in the nature OF
society and of money itself, for money
is nothing more than symbol of work
done, an order on society for value
received. Society itself is an organi-
cation for voluntary cooperation in
all work necessary to support life or
to increase it's comfort, and money is
the symbol of labor product. When
man has dollar it is an assertion
on it's face that he has freely and on
his own accord, on his own account,
done so much for the comfort of his
fellow men, and is, therefore, entitled
to so much from them. If he has
not, then the dollar is false pre-
tense, and he is usurper when he
uses it to control their action and to
obtain power over them for his own
pleasure OF benefit.
The curse of such pretense as that
which attaches to the use of unearned
money is never to be avoided or e7ad-
ed. There are those who can take
unearned money fortuitously into
their possession and, instead of using
it to control men and women for their
own pleasure, can use it for the good
of mankind, but such cases are rare.
For nearly all the temptation is too
great. Not one man in a hundred
thousand can freely and fully deny
himself qualification that law and
society offer him, freely and without
the price of his own effort to return.
1t is very seldom, indeed, that a
man attempts to accumulate an i'm
mense fortune on his own account.
/ BE does it for his family. he wishes
to put his daughters and his sons sbe-
yond the reach of want and he does
not at all reflect that in striving to do
so he is striving to free them from the
only always reliable incentive to use.
fulness; to work for the benefit OF
others; to take a part of the great
scheme Of free cooperation through
which the world grows better and men
grow freer and less brutal.
The man who leaves his son yearly
income os $4,000 does not know that
he is saying to the boy: "Here is the
labor Of a thousand men for twenty
days in every year. For twenty days
in every year the product Of that labor
is yours without your doing anything
in return for society. I thus put you
beyond the reach Of want; beyond
the need of doing anything whatever
to help the world. Live as you please.
Be idle and useless if you please
And when the boy who has received
this legacy Of usefulness squanders
his money to buy power over disso!ute
men and women, and finally to buy
the brains and learning of criminal
lawyers, who in return for it, strive in
vain to free him from the operation of
the iron laws which govern human
nature in its transgressions, we all
wonder that he should have "abused
such advantages" when, in fact, the
ignorant and cruel benevolence of his
father has placed him at most deadly
disadvantage.
The best legacy any man can leave
his children is highly developed and
accurately trained intellect. Educa-
ton means knowledge of human
nature at all times and under all con-
ditions and of the best means Of USE
fulness to mankind. Poverty means
the necessity of using intelligence for
the good of others, that through such
use Of it mutual benefit may arise and
the sum of good in the world may in
crease.
The man who puts his children "be-
yond the reach Of want )" who leaves
them with unframed and undisciplined
minds, freed from the necessity OF
serving their fellows, leaves them the
worst curse of the ninth circle of the
cruelest hell of torture there is in the
uniyerse.-St. Louis Republic.