The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-10-24
SENTIMENTAL LAMENTATIONS.

We have always had some doubts IN re-
gard to the evil representations on the
accumulation of vast wealth in the hands
Of the few. While there are evils that
any obscrvant man will recognize and
appreciate, they do not warrant every
moralist becoming jeremiah and filling
the pages Of the daily press with lamen-
tations and predictions Of great calami-
| ties and untold evils.
Great wealth legitimately made is the
outgrowth Of individual energy and ca
pacity applied to certain line Of bust
ness helped out by fortuitOus opportuni-
ties. This ought TO be and is encouraged,
and if the result is that few Outstrip
the masses and gather unto themselves
! colossal fortunes there is but one rem
edy for it consistent with that encourage
ment to individual effort and that is to
inspire the masses with more intense and
energetic rivalry.
This general lament over the concen-
tration Of great wealth in. the hands
of a few men, and the prediction of
irremediable and general ruin and an
archy is a most unwholesome way to
cure the evils that it brings with it. 1t
must be acknowledged that it comes from
laudable enterprise and most persistent
endeavor in some line Of business, and
the very thing that all of us would Guilt
vatc in our own sons, or it is in obedi
ence to the DEGREES of an allwise God for
purposes unknown to us, but from the
nature Of it's author we must believe it
is for the good of the people
The generally serene and happy nature
of Canon Farrar has been stirred to it's
very depths by this one thing, and quite
contrary to his disposition of looking at
the bright side Of every picture he joins
the .Jcrcmiahs with a louder lamenta
ton than them all. In the North Ameri |
Dean Of Canterbury sketches an outline |
Of some Of the causes and the perils that |
menace us in the not distant future from |
this accumulation Of wealth in the hands |
of the few. He says:
Among them are the enormous growth |
fectual diminution of those malarious
marshes of struggling poverty and of the
waste places fertile in sorrow, which the
French describe under the general name
of La Misere.' When zones of plethOric
riches, of selfish luxury, of Undertaking.
egotism, are cOnterminOus with zones of
squalid wretchedness and practical heath
endom such juXtaposition, as a wise bish-
op has warned us, tends to produce cy-
clones.
He also considers the abnormal growth
of great cities as a menacing evil, but he
exhibits the poetic and sentimental side
Of his nature in doing it. He laments
that the "old sweet country life is being
merged into the struggling life of towns
a life which has been called the grave of
the physique of our race-which is also
too often the grave of it's morality" That
IS pure and unauthorized sentiment. The
old country life was very sweet and its
environments very delightful. but it did
not contribute to the education, growth
md development of our kind. But for
The fact that it was so sweet socially it
would have become stagnant pool in
which the higher faculties and energies
Of man would have been buried in its
winding sheet of egOtism and exclusive
ness. Men flock to towns and cities be-
cause better and larger field of enter
prise and rivalry is offered by towns and
cities. Certainly it is often Il risky ven
turc, but he who would win fair lady
)r renOwn or even success cOmmensur-
ate with his talents and ambitions will
make the venture or fail to win the
prize.
We do not agree with the dean in this
regard, but there is something in his sug
sestiOns as to the wealth acquired by
the few that means more than the supe-
'iOrity of those who acquire it. There
S something radically wrong somewhere
hat permits men to reap where they did
not SOW. to obtain railroad charters and
With millions in their strong boxes. The
utility to accumulate vast wealth in this
country is confined to two or three chan
lcls that it is difficult for the law to dam
Up, but we contend that these things
will be remedied before this large wealth
brings on us the predicted evils. At the
same time, as we have stated there is =,
10 remedy for the successful rivalry of
men in the legitimate lines of commerce
II enterprise, but greater effort on the
part of others. As long as the world
stands some men will waste and just as
certain as they do waste there are 9TH
+ men who will gather to themselves
his waste, and the more that some men
waste the faster and greater will be the
wealth that other men accumulate.
The small boy is on tin toe and the eIe-