The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-02-15
The Excuses of Democracy.

nG hAGCS6C0 VI OOAAAONA CeSJ
Mr.. Franklin McVeagh was happy
in his definition of the rapid accumula-
ton of enormous wealth as Zone of the
excuses of democracy" Wealth &C
cumu1ates rapidly in the hands of men
of great financial ability in the United
States and Great Britain, because in
this country the condition of the peo-
pie is that of an absolute democracy,
and in Great Britain it approximates
closely to it. In this country the right
of every man to do the best he can for
himself, according to the measure of
his ability, is recognized fully; IN
the other it is recognized largely.
One man finds an outlet for his energy
in the accumulation of wealth, another
in the pursuit of political power, an
other in the collection OF works of art,
another in the writing of books or in
the painting of pictures, another In
a round of pleasure, and each is able to
obtain his object more fully here than
elsewhere. The only limits TO his sue
cess are the measure of his natural
ability and the paramount condition
that he shall refrain from injury to
Others. If there are fewer mi11ionaires
Of Yesterdays creation, as it were, in
Russia, Austria, Germany, or Britain
than in the United States it simply is
because the opportunities for attaining
the rank of millionaire are fewer than
here. The pursuit of wealth is as fire.
uuent and as arduous in one country
as in another, though the chances OF
successful pursuit are less in some than
in others. There are more nil1ionaires
who have risen from nothing at all in
America than in Europe, just as there
are more men who have become Sena-
tors and Presidents from nothing at
all; the democratic condition. of Our
country is to be praised for both.
Wealth, political power, literary
skill, social position may be i'll used;
indeed, ali of them often are i'll used.
But it is one of the fortunate attributes
of truly democratic state of society
that none of these things can be Ill
used by the same person for long
time: nor can a class or caste OF Ill
users be founded. "Neither wealth
nor poverty, neither labor nor idleness"
said Mr.. MacVeagh in his address to
the Woman's club, "can create classes
in any real or important sense in this
republic. A democratic condition is
a condition of constant ebb and flow of
the financial, political and social tides.
Least threatening of all monetary
conditions are the so-called trusts.
These, Mr.. MacVeagh contends, are
potent distributors of wealth; they are
shares and stocks, the most shifting
of ali forms of property. The presi-
dent may be large stockholder, but
he is the paid servant of all the stock
holders, and the clerk may, as smaller
stockho1der, have something to say as
to the continuance of his chief in office.
Tie great capitals of trusts are, for the
most part, but temporary aggregations
of small capitals.
A more serious danger presents it.
self in what Mr.. MacVeagh speaks of
as ''the efforts to perpetuate wealth in
certain families by a species of be1ated
primogeniture. But for these ills
remedy will be found in due time
should they continue to multiply. At
present they are exceptions to the gen
era1 rule, by operation of which the
large fortunes accumulated by men of
financial genius return in the second
or third generation to the mass of
small capitals from which they were
gathered.-Inter Ocean.