The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1896-02-17
4 PROPER USE OF WEALTH.

In yesterdays Oregonian a most re-
markable statement was made in an
editorial, where it was declared that the
reason the charter for certain secret
society, asked for by students in the
University of Chicago, was refused, was
because scrupulous-minded persons de-
sired to avoid fellowship with colleges
like Chicago and Stanford Universities,
"wblch are sustained with money ac-
quired III corruption and dishonor, and
so disqualified to hold up the highest
standards OF moral and ethical culture"
Such q statement will wound the sensi-
bilities of many people who, as admirers
of the Oregonian and friends of that
bissher education Of which the Chicago
ana Stanford Universities fare in the
front rank of promoters, feel that much
Injustice is done them.
It is true that the methods by which
Rockefeller and Stanford acquired their
immense wealth are questioned by
''serupulous-minded persons;" but
this being granted, the institutions
which have been the recipients of their
generous gifts are no less qualified to do
a great and lasting work in showing
bright boys and girls the boundless op-
portunities for advancing and doing
good to the world, which the fields of
knowledge present. Were such logic as
that of the Oregonian correct, all rich
men, who by sharp practice have OBJ
tanned wealth, should be prohibited
from dropping in the contribution
basket as it passed tithe for charity or
for the carrying on of religious work
which teaches that the getting of wealth is
not the chief end of man. Were this
logic, correct, the great benevolences,
which can only come from the class rep
would cease, and the asylums, hospitals
and schools, which every day are doing
grand work for humanity, would suffer
for want of sustenance.
1t is results that count, after all.
Union College, one of the older institu-
tions in New York, was founded upon a
land lottery scheme, method that per-
sons "scrupulous minded would con-
denim, and yet some of the purest, most
high-minded and ablest citizens of the
country were graduated from this insti-
tuition, whose birth was in CORFU ptIon.
Were the history of our greatly endowed
universities unfolded, and the methods
by which their founders amassed their
fortunes laid bare, it is more than likely
the Oregonian would be further dis
pleased. Johns Hopkins, who made
possible the great university and hospi-
tai bearing his name, dabbled in Balti-
more & Ohio railroad stock, and was
spoken of in much the same way as
Rockefeller and Stanford are today
Stephan Girard, whose muni6cence gave
TO Philadelphia an institution whose
name and influence is world wide, made
money where other men could not, and
suffered the reproach and condemna-
tion of those who were not so fortunate
as he, and yet the world is infinitely
better off because Hopkins and Girard
unable to part with their money in their
life time, left it for philanthropIc and
educational purposes. It is better that
a portion of the Standard Oil Company
and Central Pacific earnings be devoted
to causes that are good than that it be
turned in other channels.
Whatever the reason why the Omega
society was not given a charter at Chi
cago may be, we do not know; but
every college and fraternity man will be
assured that there are many causes
which are far more apt to be nearer cor
rect than that given by the Oregonian