The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-19
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE. FOLLY OF
THE RICH AND "THE RIGHTS
OF PROPERTY.

will read it through. 1t is only about
half-the most interesting half, we
think-of all that Mr.. Phillips wrote
on this subject. It reads very much
like a fairy story, but what we have
seen and heard convinces us that the
picture is but little overdrawn. We
have Just been reading Carlyle's
"French Revolution" and Tom Wat
sons "Story of France" and somehow
the instances of wanton extravaganza
given by Mr.. Phillips are to us pain
fully, almost ominously, suggestive OF
the extravaganza, vanity and revelry
of the French court and French cha
teaus in the years before the time of
reckoning came and the French Revo-
luton again illustrated the fearful
truth: "Those who SOW the wind must
reap the whirlwind." Is it not posi-
bic that these modern Croesuses who
give their lives to one long and some
| times unsuccessful effort to waste in
| riotous living the income afforded
them by their vast fortunes-is it not
thinkable that they are blindly but
powerfully cooperating with the baser
and more reckless element of the
poor, the anarchists and Nihilists of
Europe and America, in the efforts
that this class is making to shake the
world with terror and with"whirlwinds
of rebellion"3 This thought was well
set forth by Leslie's Weekly, of New
York City, in a recent issue of that
paper:
"The rich fool who gave a costly
banquet to a monkey at Newport the
| other day and found a number of 9th
er rich fools like himself, to join with
him in the Sport made as large con-
tribution as he was probably able to
make to the feeling of bitterness and
hostility pervading the. ranks of GER
tain elements of our population, who
see in such exhibitions of e~xtravagant
and wasteful folly another irritating
illustration of the h~eartlessness and
Indifference of the rich for the hard
ships and suferings of the poor; an
other example of the injustice of a
social and industrial system which
loads wealth upon incapable and I'M
worthy men, to throw away upon mon
keys while multitudes of hard and
faithful workers find it difficult to
earn enough to keep the wolf away
from their DOORS Reasoning in this
line has it's weaknesses, but banquets
to monkeys are without excuse in a
land where a thousand real needs for
the help that money gives are appeal
ing to every man who has the ears to
hear them"
This paragraph suggests some other
consider atoms. In natural endow-
ments, in thrift, in industry, mon are
not equal, and, unless the laws of JUS
tice and nature are to be interfered
with, these inequalities must show
themselves in proportionate diferen-
ces in incomes and estates. The law
must never make thriftlessness a vir-
tue: it must hold out the possession
and use of a larger share of this
worlds goods as a part of the reward
for those who serve their fellowmen,
with brain or Drawn, In a larger meas
ure than does the average man. Up
on these facts are based what are
known as "the rights of property"
That they must be respected is true,
but they must not be stretched and so
made to encroach on the infinitely
more sacred rights of man." The
true friends of capital are not those
dollar-worshippers who speak of all
efforts to repeal special privilege leg
islation as demagoguery and who
fight all movements intended to cur
tail the power of great combinations
of capital. On the other hand, the
true friends of labor are not those agi-
tators who would put all men on a
level of mediocrity-who would not
recognize the superior earning capac-
ity of training, education and talent,
but give to laggard and leader, ilIit-
crate and learned, Ounce and genius,
the same income and the same
amount of property. The middle
ground is the safe one, and the true
friends of both capital and labor are
those who, while recognizing the val
idity of "the rights of property" are
nevertheless DESTROYS of repeating
every law that niuas wnalth nnon+on