The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-11-28

value received. Society itself is an
for voluntary co-opera-
ton in all work necessary to support
life and increase its comfort, and money
is the symbol Of labor product. When
a man has dollar it is an assertion on
its face that he has freely and of 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 pretense, and he is
an usurper when he uses it to control |
their action and to obtain power over
them for his own pleasure or benefit. |
1t is very seldom, indeed, that a man
attempts to accumulate an immense
fortune on his own account. III does
it for his family. He wishes to put
his daughters and his sons beyond
the reach of want" and he does not at
all reflect that in doing so he is striving
to free them from the only reliable
incentive to usefulness: to work for
the benefit of others; to take part in
the great scheme of free cooperation
through which the world grows better
and men grow freer and less brutal.
The curse of such pretense as that
which attaches to the use of unearned
money is never to be evaded or escaped.
There are those who can take unearned
money fortuitously into their posses
sion 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 hundred thousand can freely and
fully deny himself qualification that
law and society offer him freely and
without the price of his own effort in
return. The man who leaves his son a
yearly income of $4,000 does not know
that he is saying to the boy: Here is the
labor of thousand men for 20 days in
every year, or of so men for the entire
year. The product of all that labor is
yours without your doing anything in
return for society. must put you be-
yond the reach of want: beyond the
need of doing anything whatever to
help the world. Live as you please.
Be idle and useless as you please
In nine cases out of ten the young
man so provided for against want
starts out to see life after the manner
of young Wanamaker, who squandered
$4,000 in one orgy in Paris lately, or
young Osborn, who, left with all annual
income of 100000 began to gamble at
20, drank, frequented evil houses. tray
eled about the world in company with
actresses and when he found himself
penniless, with wasted body, shattered
nerves, lowered vitality and emptied
mind, he found life as flat and tasteless
as water after wine, and destroyed him.
self. Of course, such career is only
possible where young man comes in
to possession of wealth that he has a
legal but no moral right to. AS son
of indulgent parents Osborn had grown
up. as many others are growing up, in
the belief that life is only for pleasure
and that responsibilities are only fol
the poor. Parents who allow their
children to hold such a notion are tc
blame if their children act upon it in
later years.
1t follows, therefore, that the best
legacy any man can leave his children
is a highly developed and accurately
trained intellect. Education means {
knowledge OF human nature at all times
and under all circumstances and of thu
best means of usefulness to mankind
Poverty means the necessity of using
intelligence for the good of others, tina
through such use of it mutual beneh
may arise and the sum Of good in thu
world may increase. The man wh'
puts his children beyond the reach O
: want:'' who leaves them with UNFRAMED
and undisciplined minds, without self
: respect and self control and freed from
the necessity of serving their fellows
l leaves them the worst curse of tn
Il ninth circle of the cruelest hell OF tor
ture there is in the universe.-Minne
apolis Times.
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