The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-17

proof or comment What does require
 comment is the explanation for the
 universal interest in the millionaire.
 Why should people be so keenly inter-
 ested in the existence of exceptional
 riches? We believe that the interest
 excited by rich men is derived from the
 fact that money is power. The man
 who has command of millions, disguise
 it as we will. has immense potential
 authority and influence over his fellows
 and an authority and influence which can be exercised with the minimum of friction. Physical power and legal pow
 CT may be obeyed, but they are obeyed always without. pleasure or enthusiasm, and generally with indignation and dis gust. The power of the purse as rule produces cheerful and ready obedience If a man is made to do a thing, he does it grudgingly and with out enthusiasm. If he is paid to it, and thinks he may get another order and another payment, he is happy and full of alacrity. No doubt this fact must not be pressed toos far but 1t undoubt edly does affect the question If the feudal superior of a town orders the toWnspeople to make him a lake, which is to supply the town with water they only obey out of fear. If a mill- ionaire orders the reservoir to be made and only pays for the labor at market rates, he is regarded as a great bene- factor, and if more favors are expected he can exercise as complete a control over all the proceedings of the town as if he had a legal right of veto. A mill- ionaire's power increases with each | million in a rapidly increasing ratio. A man with two or three great houses and establishments, and yacht and a
 pack of hounds, may possibly spend the | interest of three millions without any great difficulty. At present rates of interest it is only some G90,000 a year. 1 It is when he has a couple of millions l beyond, or say, e60000 of extra money
 every year, that his power becomes ob- ! yious and real, The fact that he can | at any moment throw away s60000 of | extra money every year. without pinch l ing himself in the least, diminishing his l capital by a sixpence, or altering a
 single item in his establishment, is the fact that makes the man powerful.
 However rich a man may be, he is not l really powerful if his money is all
 booked" all ear-marked for servants, yachts, and races. It is the free mar
 gin in which the source of power is to
 be found
 But though the ability to spend largely at any moment without feeling
 1t confers so vast power, it cannot 1 be denied that practically no million- | aires avail themselves of their oppor- tunites. Millionaires are, in truth, en- vied and wondered at for possessing 1 powers which they never dream of us- I ing. MT. Rhodes, as far as we know, is | the only millionaire who has ever tried I to realize in action the fact that money | is power. He has, no doubt, tried to | use the power of the purse for political 1 and imperial ends. It is true his hand l ling of that power has been exteremely 1 clumsy and unsuccessful; but, never- l theless, he has used 1t, 1t is not, we ionaire of modern times who has said: 'l will use directly the power over men
 which my money brings me-" We sup pose the explanation is that to wield l power one requires imagination, and that the acquisition and retention of money destroy the imagination. A mill-
 ionaire with imagination is, as all will never original, never apparently has the slightest desire to have a run for
 his money" His object, when the de- sire for soft living and show is satis- fled is to make his heap bigger, or at