The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-23
deemed by wealth consecrated to high

deemed by wealth consecrated to high
 and noble purposes.
 l But suddenly to this man there came by a strange combination of circum- stances an enormous fortune, giving
 him an income running up into millions l and opening to him the very door of op- [ portunity which he had so long desired. He did not for a moment hesitate as to his course; he would carry out his
 ideas for the uplifting of humanity. but he would first go over his plans again in order to be sure that he would make
 no mistake in the matter. In this way some time passed, and his friends who
 knew of his intentions began to wonder why the millennium was not launched. Finally some of them went to him and inquired why he delayed. My friend"
 he replied, when I had no money to
 give away the problem of giving seem-
 ed exceedingly simple. All that it in-
 volved was to find out where it was
 needed. I could not or at least did not,
 realize that many indirect consequences
 follow benefaction, and that even
 when money relieves an immediate
 need, and to that extent does good, the
 relief of that particular need may be
 the cause of incalculable evils. But
 see that now, and seeing it. find my
 self unable to do many of the things
 that I once thought praiseworthy. For
 instance, as a Christian man I would
 like to help the Church. But how am
 to know that some specific gift to the
 Church might not in years to come
 prove an evil through the change of be-
 lief and opinion in the Church that
 would make that gift harmful in it's op- eration? In the Church of England to-
 day there Is multitude of such harm full benefacttons, diverting large sums of money to wrong uses by the dead hand. The same is true of every other possible avenue of benefaction. Should I endow some institution with millions for the uplifting of humanity, the rap idly changing conditions of life and population might easily make it not merely useless but positively harmful, not to speak of the fact that my bene- faction might discourage other rich men from doing their duty, and would almost certainly discourage it's recip- tents from helping themselves More over, it is aw ell known fact that cer- tain percentage of those who are help- ed by institutional philanthropy are just those who are harmed by the help, and a certain proportion of those who would really be helped are not reached and cannot be reached. For these req sons I am thus far unable to carry out any of my large plans for public ser- vice, as I do not want to have my turn to be curse instead of 
 It will be said by many, of course that this man was hypercritica, as the ultimate results of his philanthropy were no concern of his; but, waiving that point. it might be urged that at any rate he could employ large part of his wealth in relieving individual cases of destitution and suffering as to which there could be no doubt. But i there are difficulties in that programme. ! The girl Sadie Gold, who was arrested | ast week for begging, seemed to one | young man worthy of | lelp. But she turned out to be a par | impudent professional beggar, | with money in the bank. Yet this class If beggars excites the sympathy of | nOuSdllus ol ttIlueI iedI lGo peoPe, anu many of them become rich by their ne- | 'arious trade, while the really deserv- ng poor are neglected. Begging Is not | he easiest thing in the world," says the l Sold girl, but it's better than work ng" Just so; and 1t is such people vho absorb large part of the well in- entioned benefactions of the thought l ess multitude.-From New York Trib- me.