The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-09
PRESENT DAY THOUeHTs.



The New Man-Rich.-D what
some OF US may feel prompted to say.
IN our haste, regarding the sin of be-
ing rlch, our sober thought convincea
us that 1t Is possible for some men to
grow rich and yet remain honest-at
least we think that it could be SO with
ourselves We're any such good fortuns
10 come our way. 1t would indeed be a
great sanity if, before Judging others.
we would get into the habit of placing
ourselves in their positions 1t would,
save the world from much that is harsh
and heart-breaking and unworthy in
criticism.
1t often happens that man with a
sort of second sight. either cultivated
or natural, can see in his minds eye
the value of an idea or of neglected
land, and can develop it so that on the
hillside and on the fiat, where men
never lived before. there shall arise the
walls and the marts of city. And we
will declare therefore that even if we
have hitherto denounced as robbery
that which was enterprise and fore
sight, we will not any more blind our.
selves to the fact that the more COM
pick our civilization becomes the more
frequently will one man see the broad
opening for effort where the blind eye
of another feels only an adamant1ne
wall of difficulty and of fruitlessness.
The new NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the
Righteousness Of the old statement that
to whom much is given of him much
shall be required"-a truth that mas
been understood, more or less, since
men first began to ally themselves with
other men, but whose greatest power
and whose greatest beauty is blossom
ing forth in these ending days of a
great century. The influence of the new
man-rich-is felt in the social life of
the day For he it is who can found
libraries, can endow hospitals, can Of
fer the nucleus of museums and can
support the modern idea of shining the
light of university training and uni
versity thought into the dark places OF
crowded cities.
He understands that wealth brings
with ID burden, unrecognized by those
who have no wealth. The heaviest load
is to know how to administer it with,
out doing harm to others. If he should
say to himself. Il have no right to any
more than l can spend for my needs"
which after all is all-and then should
go out on the street to scatter his coin
hither and thither he could not pos,
sibly find a way of doing more harm:
for the british and the brutal would
always get more than the needy; so
that the products of his genius would
only tend tol create deeper discomfort in
w hi n6
er degradation in those who fought.
and grabbed, and gained. Again, if he
should be confronted with the problem,
that was placed before a certain rich
young man, go. sell all that thou hast
and give to the poor" the new man
rich-would also be "sorrowful." Fo,
whatever may have been the grade OF
the. poor in semi-pastoral country like
Palestine. We know full well that not
all the submerged tenth can lay the
blame upon misfortune. except the mis-
fortune of yielding to their own pas
sions and whims and poor judgment.
The new man understands very well
that if he were to so divide his prop
erty, the result to any one individual
would be so small as to provide no one
with permanency and yet at the same
time sufficient to stop the wheels of in
duStry because of the scattering OF
capital. The new man-rich-sees clear
ly the insincerity or at least the heed
lessness of those who would persuade
the poor that capital is the natural
enemy of the laborer: for it is asking
us all to believe that the progress of
this country, and of the world in fact.
could have been made just as well by
clinging to the old OK carts; that the
machinery Of the day would all have
been possible simply by the use of the
old anvil and the hammer, and that
the hungry mouths Of the millions
could have been fed by still swinging
the old-fashioned scythe with it's home
made snath or by still trampling out
the harvests by the none too clean feet
of the unmuzzled OK. Capital has made
such changes possible.
What then shall the new man-rich-
do? Without taking away his capital
from any of the enterprises that utilize