The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-03
A FALSE TEST

that between the rich and the poor.
The country has been called on to
choose, in the hackneyed and insin-
cere old phrase, between 'the masses
and the classes" The idea has been
! encouraged that wealth is a badge of
degeneracy; and that, to paraphrase
the old line, '''tis only noble to be
poor" This slogan is still doing duty
in various parts of the country, and
| doing also an incalculable amount of
harm by aceustoming the people to
false standards.
| We find the ethical question involved
being considered also widely and by
men of influence on their times. Two
| college presidents have taken up the
familiar theme and discoursed to their
graduating classes upon the effect of
| wealth on character. President Harris,
| of Amherst, denounced severely the
wealthy society of our large cities. He
| introduced, however, a saving clause
| in praise of the rich who use their
money to advance culture, science, art
and philanthropy. President Hadley,
| Of Yale, notes that where wealth and
dominion are made the primal object
OF nations struggle they establish a
standard of human seIfishness and lead
to national ruin. His announcement
lie ff,n ic ~,
tween the devotees of two religions;
those who are struggling for mammon
and those who are struggling for the
cause of God-which is service and.
loyalty to something greater, purer and
| more unselfish than ourselves.
f. We think few will quarrel with Pres
ident Hadley's differentiation of stand
ards. For everyday use something
still more practical seems to us to be
required. We cannot be sure of the
| average man whom we meet. He may
be much better or much worse than
he seems. We cannot at all times be
sure even of ourselves. Some of our
impulses are higher and some lower
than we credit them to be, and we
| ourselves as often as our associates are
the victims of illusions. We find
| wealth blessing or a curse to its pos
| SCISSOR and blessing or a curse to the
community just as circumstances de-
'termlne. We know absolutely that
neither vice nor virtue belongs UNI
alterably on either side of the dividing
| line between wealth and poverty. Is
there an infallible test?
| Probably not. The best test there is.
however, the most nearly universal and
I the most generally correct, seems to us
to be the labor test. That is the con-
dition which, in the manner of it's full
| filiment, makes or mars the man. It is
the idle rich who are the promoters of
| immortality, the source of social cor
ruption and moral decay. 1t is the
| idleness and not the richness that
makes them such. The idle poor man
IS exactly as immoral, exactly as
worthless to the community, exactly
as evil an example to others and as
great bane to himself, only that his
opportunities for evil are as limited as
his means.
1t is the man who works and he
alone who is entitled to either honor or
life. There is no standing room on
this globe, there is no place or pur-
pose or enduring memory for the man
who does not earn it by honest labor.
Whether it be the lowliest work of the
hands in stirring the soil, or the high
est work of the brain in solving the
| problems of, the ages, matters little
| from the ethical standpoint. The es-
sential thing is that a man should nav
! his transportation through this world
by honest labor. Unless he does that,
he is deadhead and a deadbeat. IF
wealth be won by labor. and if the
winner continue as laboriously to
| struggle because effort is life's due,
then such wealth is very rarely mis-
| used.
To our minds this seems the most
practical and effective standard the
test by which merit can be separated
from material conditions more clearly
and completely than by another. It's
application would tend, We believe, to
| clarity popular notions about wealth
and poverty; to dispel a glamor that
exists on both Sides and to drive home
the only fixed conclusion that any care
full student of life must reach-na1nely.
that, regardless of natural gifts and of
external circumstances, the one indis-
pensable condition not only of worth
but of happiness in this life. is unre-
hitting daily labor to the extent of
each mans faculty according to his
| natural bent.
CONTEMPT OF COURT
The opinion given by Judge Pritch-
ard, of the United States circuit oorrt