The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1899-07-07
The Distributor Of Wealth.

bv means of an interview cannot iai
to attract attention and create a pro.
found impression. 1t is the first time
that what is manifestly a great politi
cal truth has been put into epigram
by an Eastern authority. Every word
of the speech is worth remembering
but probably that sentence which will
be most deeply impressed is that in
which he declared:
ssThe West is going to teach the
rest of the country how to solve the
problem of squaring political economy
with the rights of humanity"
He goes on rtoexplsin that this Il
due to the fact that the East sees little
but hard and fast doctrines, while the
West mixes sentiment with them.
The result is an efferyescence in both
parties, but moneyhood and manhood
will soon find they must agree-and
that manhood must come to the top.
The task laid out for :he West is a
very ambitious one, but it can almost
be felt that it is to be the province of
the West to devise a means by which
the prosperity inevitable to this coun-
try shall be general and not be a lot
terry in which the gain of few is ac-
complished at the expense and loss of
the many. How the experience of all
the ages is to be reversed, and all made
practically equal in the enjoyment Of
the profits of enterprise, does not sug-
gest itself at present. It is almost inn
possible to conceive condition in
which all shall be rich. Much as we
envy those who are very wealthy, the
number is exceedingly small, and the
amount taken or withheld from the
mass of the people to their wealth is
greatly exaggerated.
It is hardly possible that there is
one man in the world whose wealth
amounts to 100000, 600 in dollars. It
may be represented in stock or securi-
ties whose face value IL far in excess
of it's cash value, but the man who
could distribute $40, ,OO0, 900 Is exceed
ingly rare. But suppose that the
wealth of those who have million
and upwards is represented by 81 ,OOO,-
OOO, 600, which is an average of $7Q,-
000O0 to each of 100 persons. If
they were to agree TO give mp every
dollar of their wealth and distribute 1t
among their fellows in this country, it
would only add 500 per capita, and
the receiver OF that unexpected sum
would probably spend it within week
after he got it.
There are many persons, OF course,
to whom a gift Of 800, or 5000, would
mean something; but to the great
mass of the people that additional sum
in the course OF lifetime would not
make an appreciable difference in their
condition.
At the outside, the figures we have
given, suppose each person had $500
out of the accumulated wealth of mil
lionaires, it would make difference
of to him Of $5 year in his average
active life of forty years.
This shows that we are rather apt
to worry too much about what some
body else has than to concentrate our
energies upon getting something for
ourselves and keeping it.
Every man knows that it is much
harder to keep than to get. Most men
earn far more than they need for the
actual necessaries of life. Most men,
too, prefer something more than the
necessaries, to being miserly. We all
laugh at Russell Sage, who pays a
nickel for his lunch and will stand on
the sidewalk waiting till the 5-cent
fare time is reached, rather than pay
ten cents for ride, but if he were rot
that kind of man he never would be-
come millionsire.
Almost every man has it in his
power to place himself beyond the
reach of want, and even to attain some
degree of financial comfort, but he
must have the capacity to save just as
any man must have the capacity to
earn. You could not make come men
rich If you passed before them q con-
slant succession of panoramic oppor-
tunities; there are other men whom
you could strip of the last dollar and
start naked in the world, who would
be independent within very short
time.
The West will solve the problem of
squaring political economy with the
rights Of humanity, because its people
trained BY Independent experience,
take direct and practical route to
results instead Of trying to reach thcm
By way Of sophistical theories.