Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-22
HARRISON'S WARMING
Ex-President Says Evasion of Taxes
Menaces the Republic.
DUTY OF RICH TO PAY JUST SHARE
Too Much Disposition to Shirk
This Responsibility.
SPEECH AT A CHICAGO CLUB

| CHICAGO, February 22.-Ex-President
| Benz. Harrison spoke today at the Audi
| rum. at the central meeting of the annual
| celebration of the Union League Club. in
| honor of Washington. All the historical
| and civic societies of the city We're fully
represented
Among the distinguished guests of the
Union League Club present at the meeting
| were DIR. John H. Finley. president of Knox
| College: Gen. John NJ. Palmer Major Cen
eral John R. Brooke. former Gov. Richard
\ ]. Oglesby and Chas. Emory Smith of Phil
adelphia- The Apollo Club of 400 voices
| furnished the music for the program.
Mr.. HnrrisOn's Speech.
The subject of ex-President Harrison was
| 1.-THE Obligations of Wealth" He said in
part:
Monuments and birthday anniversaries
| should be commemorative. of the virtues
| that are still imitable. Scientists have re-
produced some of the gigantic animals and
| reptiles of the worlds early history. We
look at them with fear and wonder, and
| congratulate ourselves that they are ex
tinct types. We have no needs that they
could supply. They could not live in our
| environments nor we in theirs. So there
| have been among men monsters of power
| and violence. We cannot forget them. but
| We are glad they lived in another epoch.
The almanac maker notes their birthdays.
| but there are no assemblages of the peo-
pie. If monuments have been buided to
! them, they are liable to be overturned
| when the dynasty changes or the commune
sUpplantS the state.
| But there are men who have so won our
hearts that we would recall them IL We
could. We feel the need of them. No
| change Of dynasties, no outbreak of the
mob threatens their monuments One can
| hardly conceive of any civil revolution or
| airy riotous outbreak in our country that
| would not respect the monuments of Wash
! ington and of Lincoln. While they lived
| they were at times hated by men and by
| their lives were u1folded. when motives
| and purposes were explored, when the
| universal beneficence of their public serv-
| ices was seen in the establishment by one
| and the rescue by the other Of free consti-
| tutor al government, all their countrymen
| rendered them homage.
| I'VE assemble on this anniversary of
| the birth of Washington not 50 much. If
| at ALL to bring tribute to him. as to learn
! at his feet the lessons of a conscientious
citizenship. The imitable qualities of
| Washington's character and life; those
| that did not exhaust themselves a To-
| cality a period; that are instructive not
only to military commanders and chief
magistrates. but to the unofficial citizen;
| the lessons chat he taught. not for the
march and battle but for quiet days when
| TO drum beat calls to duty-these are the
! qualities and lessons that should engage
our thought today.
The Lessen of His Life.
"In choosing for my theme The obi
| cations of Wealth am not wrestling this
| anniversary from it's legitimate use. We
| do not need to forget-indeed, we cannot
| forget-W ashington, when We reflect upon
| our obligations to the state. His life
teaches no lesson more strongly than that
the citizen is under obligation to serve
| the state; never to shirk his full share
Of burden and labor and sacrifice, but
rather to do more.
The word wealth in its modern use
has suffered q limitation il not a peryer-
-sion. Originally and strictly 1t means
We al or welfare, external happiness. When
Paul admonished the Cornthian Christians.
| Let no man seek his own, but every man
another's wealth., he was not anticipating
the modern law Of the wheat pit and the
stock exchange
Wealth is a comparative term, and my
| address is not for that very limited body
Of mult-millionaires, called by the popu-
list orators 'plutocrats A smaller au-
| dience chamber would have sufficed for
| them, and perhaps the orator should have
been Of the guild. 1 want to speak of the
| obligations of the 'well-to-do' people. the
| for ehanded, prosperous men and women of
our communities, whether their estates
! are reckCncO by thousands or by millions.
I'VE live in time OF great agitation. of
a of clashing thoughts and interests
Men, no longer satisfied with what appears
above ground. are uncoVering roots. There
| Is a feeling that some men handicap
| ped that the race is sold; that the old and
nrch-vaunted equality of opportunity and
| of right has been submerged. More bitter
and threatening things are being said and
| written against accumulated property and
| corporate power than ever before. 1t seems
| to many that more and more, small M I'll,
| small stores and small factories are being
thrown upon the shore as financial drift or
wreckase; that the pursuit of cheapness
has reached stage where only enormous
CT mbinations of capital. doing an enormous
business, are sure of returns.
Social Seams Widening.
'The seams which mar the face of the
social landscape seem to be widening
chasms. and If these CULTS are to be filled
| we must establish dumps both sides of
! them. 1t will aid the work if those on
either side use the bridges to get a view of
| 1t from. the other side. Wealth should
neither be the object of cur enmity nor the
Oasis of our consideration The indiscrimi-
nate denunciation of the rich is mischiey-
Gus. 1t perverts the mind poisons the
heart and furnishes excuse for crime
No poor man was aver made richer or ham
pier by 1t. 1t is quite illogical to des-
p1se man because he Is rich as because he
| Is poor. Not what a man has, but what he
Is, settles mis- class. In the discussion of
all these social questions good temper is
essential Men must get together and use
facts, not rhetoric.
The special purpose Of my address to-
DAY Is to press home this thought upon the
prosperous, well-to-do people of our COM
| munity, and especially of our great cities:
that one of the conditions of the accruity
or wealth Is proportionate and full con-
tribution to the expenses of the state and
iccal governments. 1t Is not only wrong.
but 1t is unsafe, to make a show in oIIr
hcmes and on the street that is not made
In the tax returns.
Equality is the golden thread that runs
all through the fabric of our civil institu-
tions-the dominating note In the swelling
symphony of liberty. Equality, not Of con-
dit1ons, not of natural endowment but of
rights, Is the foundation stone of our gov
eminent structure. And as a coroliary
necessary and imperative, to this doctrine
OF an equality of right, is the doctrine Of
proportionate and ratable contribution to
the cost of administering the government
The duty OF the state to protect life, liberty
and property Is conditioned upon a fair
contribution to the cost of government. A
full and conscientious discharge of that
duty by the citizen Is one of the tests of
good citizenship. To evade that duty is a
moral delinquency, an unpatriotic act