The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-16
Wealth Fairly Won Seized by
Greedy Monsters.
The Trust is the Great Public
Enemy,
WRITES j. j. INGALLS,
Laws Ample For Its Destruc.
tiOn Not Invoked.
BY and BY the Lamp Post and
the Torch.

! [John J. ingalls, in New York Journa11
The gentleman who said that the love
of money was the root of all evil either
had the epigram habit, and was the
| unconscious dupe of his own exaggera-
tons, or else he spoke without refec-
ton and from insufficient data.
1t was a hasty generalization which
omitted from the catalogue of the gen
eric causes of evil the love of power
and glory; the hunger for fame, the
passion for woman and the grape the
appetite for knowledge that is forbid
den.
There was no money in Eden. Adam
drew no checks. Eve ran no bills. EVIL
IN plenty exists among those who are
not disturbed by the volume the
ratio OF their circulating medium. But
even were the aphorism of the moral
ist true, which it is not, it would be no
dtscredit to money. In a successful
universe evil is quite as indispensa Bile
as good. Tt 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 the considerations in
the armament.
Without temptation virtue would ex-
pire for lack of exercise. Were evil
extinct there would no longer be any
preteXt for religion. Nor any throne for
the sovereign of the moral kingdom.
Singing psalms, waving palm branches
and taking constitutionals along the
golden streets Of the new Jerusalem
would become monotonous if hell were
abolished. To paraphraSe Voltaire
were there no devil, it would be neces-
sary for man to invent one. But this
is another story.
Perhaps by the love of money the
polemic meant the sordid desire of
wealth for it's own sake, or for the pur-
complishment of wicked designs.
But the utmost ingenuity of the CLOS
sarian cannot change the fact that
among all sources of earthly power the
most potent, palpable and beneficent is
that which accompanies the possession
of money honestly acquired and honor
ably employed.
Some care nothing for ambition or re-
nown, but everyone must have money
manhood may forget the joys of youth
and age sink into apathy which is
Indifferent alike to the allurementS of
pleasure and the intoxication of sue
cess, but one is so 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 cpl
taph.
The praises Of poverty have been pro-
nOunced by the rich. Seneca wrote
the eulogy of poverty on a table of gold,
but nobody wants to be poor. Some
philosopher has said that the way to
have what you want is to want what
you have; and another, that it is better
not to wish for a thing than to have it,
but money still remains 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 skillful physician,
the happiness of those beloved, the lux
ury of doing good.
For society it means libraries muse
unls, parks, galleries of art, hospitals
universities, comfort for the unfortun-
ate, Splendor for the rich, everything
that distinguishes civilization from bar
bariSm.
The aggregated wealth Of the United
States is estimated to be about 81. $780,
900, 900. Divided equally per capita, each
person would have in the neighborhOod
of 81 900, and the idea seems to be gain
ing ground that every man who has
more than this is to that degree culpa-
BILE in that he is feloniously in possess
sion 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 de-
cision. It is a government of mum bers,
and the majority have less than 81 200
apiece. As things are going now, the
time is not far off when the man with
a hundred millions may be required to
show his title, and if there is any flaw,
to make restitution.
Some with much less apparently an
ticipate the crisis and are already max
ing contributions to the conscience fund
of the nation, announcing that it is dis
creditable for any man to die rich. The
milionaireS are on the defensive They
are beginning to apologize. Some are
eXpatriating, which is an involuntary
tribute to public opinion. Indifferent
to statutes, human or divine, they dread
the daily newspaper and the verdict of
the people. They belong to that class,
engendered by the sUperf1uous wealth,
among whom education has degenerated