The age-herald., 1901-12-15
Our New Aristocracy,~
BY ALFRE D SETON.

their condition and becoming rich; but the rich are constantly becoming poor, or they give up business when they have realized a fortune" Before this eminent writer stood one great fact. Accumula- ted fortune must be invested in the otherwise' it would be exposed to the hazard of commercial enterprises. The retired merchant could invest in lands and houses and over them hand the sword of division by reason of the laws of entail and primogeniture He did not forsee the growth of the stock cor poration-the creation of an artificial parsonage endowed with longevity not vouchsafed individuals. And he did not see the methods by which great wealth could be held and passed from generation to generation.
 Pursuing the idea that the employers form a class separate and apart from the employees and thereby establishing a species of aristocracy he says: An aris- tocracy thus constituted can have no great hold upon those whom it employs and even if 1t succeed upon retaining them at one moment, they escape the next, 1t knows not how to will, and it 1 cannot act The territorial aristocraey of former ages was either bound by law or thought itself bound by usage, to come to the relief of it's serving-men, and to succor their distresses. But the manufacturing aristocracy of our own age first impoverishes and debases the men who serve. it and then abandons them to be supported by the charity of the public. Between the working men and the master there are frequent rela- tions but no partnership v
 ''The manufacturing aristocracy which is growing up under our eyes" he says, lis one of the harshest which ever exist ed in the world. The friends of democ- racy should keep their eyes anxiously |, fixed in this direction; for if ever a per- manent inequality of conditions and afis- 1 tocacy again penetrate into the world, it may be predicted that this is the channel by which they will come.
 De Tocquevile wrote at a time when the American manufacturer engaged in the development of his business and the accumulation of fortune lived on a mod est scale of expenditure. He assumed no grand manners or airs of superiority. | He may have aimed at a. certain exclu- siveness for his family, but not for him self. He was easy to approach at his counting house and social in his habits. The world of fashion such as it existed was the world of women. Men of fash | ion were not in favor and were not held in high esteem. There was little indi- cation of these glittering days, these days of social spangles.
 l What would DeTocqueyille have said | if he could have walked through the drawing rooms of the houses built with in the last ten years? What would he have said of the luxury of these times Little did he dream of the palaces In | the great cities, of great country seats, l of yachts, servants etc., which proudly set off the social condition of our multi millionaires. He said: "A class of rich men does not exist, for these rich in- dividuals have no feelings or purposes in common, no mutual traditions or mu- tual hopes; there are therefore members but no body"
 De Tocqueylles words if applied Ito the rich individuals of today would not fit. In this respect he would be wrong. l There Is a community of goods and a common purpose among all rich men, nay more there is rapidly growing among those of a later generation an idea thai they possess merits peculiar to theii class, and that there should be a recog milton of them. They receive an adula ton that is more than flattery. It is g tonic. Feeling their power they do not hesitate to exhibit 1t and. at times, they domineer. SD
 But way down in the American heari there is the feeling of equality. Manhood may have yielded some of its independ. ence or men may for motives of policy vent their pride and dissemhle, still, tht