The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-14
WEALTH bND TRUSTS
Socialism and Communism
No Remedies, Says ingalls,.
LAMP-POST AND TORCH
More LikeIy,He 1hinks-Roasts
the William WaIdorfs.

New York, June 13.-The Journal has the
following from ]. ]. ingalls,: The gentle
man who said the love OF money was the
root Of all evil, either had the epigram
habit, and was the unconscious dupe Of his
own exaggerations, or else he spoke with
out reflection and from insufficient data.
1t was hasty generalization which
omitted from the catalogue OF the generic
causes of evil the love of power ond glory,
the hunger for fame the passion for wo-
man and the grape. the appetite for knowl-
| edge that is forbidden
There was no money in Eden. Adam
drew no checks. Eve ran no bills. Evil in
plenty exists among those who are not dis
| turbed by the volume or the ratio of their
circulating medium. But even We're the
| aphorlsm Of the morarst true which it is
not, 1T would be 40 discredit 10 money. In
successful universe evil is quite as indis-
| pensabje as god. 1t keeps the procession
going. Without evil progress would cease.
1t is the contest between the forces
which would destroy and those that would
! uphold which keeps the planets in their
orbits and hangs the considerations in the
| armament
without temptation virtue would expire
from lack of exercise Were evil extinct
there would no longer be any pretext for
relslon. Nor any throne for the sovereign
OF the moral kingdom. Singing psalms
waving palm branches and talking consti-
tutlonals along the golden streets of the
new Jerusalem would become monotonous
If hell were abolished. To paraphrase Vol
taire, were there no devil it would be
necessary for man to invent one But this
Is another story.
Perhaps by the love of money the po,e-
mic meant the sordid desire of wealth for
its own sake, or for the purchase of guilty
pleasures or the accomplishment of wicked
designs.
But the utmost ingenuity Of the gl0ssar-
ian cannot change the fact that among all
sources of earthly power the most potent.
paIpabIe and benefcent is that which ac-
companies the possession of money hon
estly acquired and honorabIy employed.
Som care nothing for ambition or ren1wn.
but every one must have money-manhood
may forget the joys of youth and age sink
into an apathy which is Indifferent alike
H.
toxication of success, but no one is 50
young or so old as not to want money. The
necessity for cash begins with the germ
and ends with the period at the end of the
epitaDh.
The praises of poverty have been pro-
nounced by the rich. Seneca wrote theeul-
ogy of poverty on a table of gold, but no.
body wants to be poor. Some philosopher
has said that the way to have what YOU
want is to want what you have; and an
other, that it is better not to wish for a
thing than to have it, but money still re-
mains the universal object of chief desire.
The reason is obvious. For the individual.
money means education, travel books.
leisure, superiority to the accidents OF life,
comely apparel, in health the best cook, in
sickness the most skilful physician. the
happiness Of those beloved, the luxury of
doing good.
For society it means libraries, museums. |
parks, galleries of art, hospitals UNIVERSE |
ties, comfort for the unfortunate, spIen- |
dor for the rich, everything that distin- |
guishes civilization from barbarisrn
The aggregated wealth of the United |
States is estimated to be about seventh |
equally per capita, each person would have
IN the neighborhood of twelve hundred |
dollars, and the idea seems to be gaining |
ground that every man who has more than
this is to that degree culpab.e in that he is
teloniously in possession of what morally
belongs to some one else
All questions in our system, except those
OF theology, are political, and come at last
to the ballot box for decision It is a gov.
eminent of numbers and the majority
have less than twelve hundred dollars
apiece. As things are going now. the time
Is not far off when the man with hun
bred millions may be required to show his
title, and if there is any flaw, to make res
titution.
Some with much less apparently antici-
pate the crisis and are already making
contributions to the conscience fund of the
nation, announcing that it is discreditable
for any man to die rich. The millionaires
are on the defensive. They are beginning
TO apologize. Some are expatriating which
IS an involuntary tribute to public opin-
ion. Indifferent TO statutes, human OF df-
vine, they dread the daily newspaper and
the verdict of the people. They belong II
wealth. among whom education has 6egen-
Grated into flippant pedantry; religion into
shallow mysticism; politics into a vague
passion for aristocTacy; society into a Ian
guild mob of sycophants. the parasites of
English pederasts and French grisettes.
With the spirit of Criah Heep and the NOR
ais Of Robert Macaire.
For whatever hatred and evaporation
here are against wealth IN the United
states its poSsess5rs are directly respo1-
Iole. They have brought It upon them
selves BY their seRseless greed and folly
nd rapacity. Great rewards for great
eryioes IS the Law Of our race. No GEM
ne American grudges the fortune acquired
'y industry. courage. enterprise, fore
bought and genius in fair competition ard :
-onest rivalry. whether IT be a million or
hundred million. BE does not believe
hat any limit can be fixed for Individual Z
cquisjtions nor that the wealth Il the rich
S the cause u the poverty ~ the poor. nor
. taking from those who have and giving 2
O those who have not Least o AL does Z
70 accept those vaEaries O. the tmpotent.
which would deprive ambition q is incen- Z
i've ard labor 4 its reward. and instead o.
fling al 70 The level Z Tie highest. wound 3
rag az down 10 TIE standard u the low a
81. G
The Usage tri5e O indians. whose fs-rile =
ese-vatson lies between Kansas and the g
reelz 9 untry. x the Richest c1nmUnity f. q
be world Their per capita 81 wealth IS z
lcre than taa times greater than th4t os
be most oDuieat civilized natiaz. q
49,