The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-31
RIGHTS OF RICH AND POOR.

Recently BlShOp Potter made 1eW
addresses at Yale College upon "The
Responsibilities of Citizenship" The
good bishop has by his optimism aud
liberal common sense spoken many a
word to cheer the weary and make
the wrong headed look at the worlds
doings from proper standpoint. IT
his philosophy is not profound, it is
wholesome and of simple, practical,
everyday application hence, it is
seldom in his many addresses he does
not throw off something opportune
and valuable. In his initial lecture
at Yale, he took occasion to show that
Christ did not set Himself against the
rich because of their wealth and be-
come the eulogist of poverty because
it was that of love and brotherhood to
rich and poor alike and His denunci-
ations were against the love of money
for the qualification of avarice and
selfshness. That distinction is so
often lost sight of that it will bear
frequent announcement, especially in
times like the present, when it is so
easy for demagogues to array the
poor against the rich. The natural
disposition of men is to side with the
under dog in the fight and to cham
pion the weak and poor in any issue
between them and the strong and
wealthy. An avaricious age is pro-
life of wrongs and expressions until
an atmosphere is created in which
vision is blurred and the right rela-
tions of men and things appear dis
torted. We often hear it said that
"the poor have rights which the rich
are bound to respect" but how scarce
ly do we ever hear that "the rich
have rights which the poor are bound
to respect?' % And yet the latter
statement is every whit as true as
the other. But the tendency of pop
ular dogmatism in social and political
ethics is to denounce the rick because
they are rich and to argue as from an
axiom that every possessor of wealth
is necessary enemy and oppressor of
the poor. Yet every man whose san
ity is apparent knows that such as
sumption is false. There are bad,
selfish, hard-fsted rich men, but there
are also bad, selfish and hard-hearted
poor men. For every rich man grasp
ing for more riches and ruthless in
exploiting the poor there is score or
a hundred poor men who are socialists
in sentiment and communists in de-
sires. The proportion will hold as
we'll in the one class as the other, for
both have their fair shares of the
good and the evil sorts of men.
1t is but truism to say that wealth
rightly dealt with is the greatest ben
efactor of community Poverty
cannot employ poverty. One rich
man can give employment to thou-
sand, and yet not do any injustice to
any right or equity of the poor who
are dependent. upon them: The ma-
Jor1ty OF wealthy men desire rather
the respect and the prosperity of their
fellow men than their curses and re-
vengefu1 assaults. 1t is natural to
love applause, praise and cheers, and
the rich employer is, therefore, sell
dom a churl by practice. He must
be such by nature. Of course, in
speaking of riches, we allude only to
that kind which is obtained honestly
and 1egitimately. The wealth that
provokes is the kind which has been
obtained by injustice toward the pub
lie, either by obtaining franchises for
which no equivalent has been given
or by wrecking a railroad at the ex-
pense of poor stockholders. The
great majority of men i'll this country
have not made their money in this
way. It is no sin to discover a gold
or copper mine and most proftably
develop it. 1t is no crime to invent
like Edison or Bell and make a for
tune. An honest rich man is just as
much entitled to good feeling as an
honest poor one.
The Biblical attitude of equal and
impartial respect for the rich and the
poor, the insistence that such must
do justice and have justice done him,
is the right and invincible one and its
adoption in Our industrial and politi-
cal life everywhere will be the COM
mencement of a new era of amity,
harmony and prosperity for all classes
of citizens. Lancaster pa. } Exam-
izey