Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-12-24
University Of one million Of dollars.

university Of one million of dollars.
The donation on its face seems to be
munificent, although the recipient was
by no means on the poor rates before.
Probably no one is envious Of it's good
fortune; certainly we are not. But we
have n right to object and so we do OBJ
ject, to the underlying motive Of It.
Mr.. Rockefeller may not he conscious
Of it,-probably he is not; but all the
same that which prompted this enor.
nous gift to an already overfed seat Of
learning must have been an uneasiness
lest the real source OF increment 10 the
great monopoly should be too obtrusive
TO the eye of humanity and it's aggre-
gate conscience. True the donation
ia a bagatelle compared with the whole
sum thus wrung from want; but 1t
serves to defect public attention, and
10 arrest public censure from what
might otherwise be considered a blum
der, which in such cases is said to be
worse than a crime.
Mr.. Rockefeller is no worse than his
kind in this II his gift, with its un.
avowed and doubtless unthought mo.
tive OF quieting what without it might
be a quickened and aroused public
conscience, is a vice, it is so because
monopoly itself is vicious, necessarily
and always.
1t is time some one spoke out against
this and a great many like perform.
ances, instead of praising them as acts
CT disinterested generosity.
At best they give back to small
fraction of the people. a still smaller
fraction Of what they have, by virtue
OF their monopoly, or Of some privilege
conferred upon them but in which their
fellow-men do not share, taken from
the whole people, or, what is worse,
from those of the people who could III
afford TO pay the tribute exacted from
them as the price of mere existence
And when their gains are measured by
the wants and the poverty of those
who yield them, the crime against
humanity Is enhanced in it's gravity.
So far is it from being true that the
modicum Of profits which is thus re.
turned by their possessors ever reaches
those whose needs or distresses occas,
Toned them, that generally they are
beloved upon those to whom they are
not necessities, TO say the least; they
ore not even luxures; they are only
superhuities.
But, quite apart from the question.
nbleness Of the the original acquisition,
and tho inequitable distribution OF
what little is given back, the real vice
of the practice Of trust. giving is that
its effect is q sedatlve TO the public CON
sicence and n debauching OF popular
opinion, Nothing has ever yet more
surely served TO undermine free gov
ernment than this, although sometimes
II has been long while in doing it.
Such governments can exist only when
the conscience of the people is alert to
detect and condemn every suggestion
Of the inequitable distribution or OK
action of that which belongs to them
all alike. When they accept something
in place OF this, the self-rcspect Of hu-
manity, and with 1t tho sense of ma
tIonal manhood, Is gone.
When the Roman people condcscend-
ed 10 receive gifts of corn from the pub
lie granaries, 1t was only a question OF
time when their government should bo
sold at public auction to the highest
bidder by the Praetorlan Guard.