The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

resist saying to those concerned; rake care: do not confound what you possess with what you are. Go learn to know the underside of worldly splendor, that you nav feel It's moral misery and its puerility." The traps pr1de sets for us are too ridiculous. We should distrust association with tnns that makes us hateful to our nelgnoors ana robs ue of clearness of vision.
 He who yields to the pride Of riches forqets this other point, the most im- portant of all, that possession IS a pub lie trust Without doubt individual wealth is as legitimate as individual existence and liberty. These things are inseparabIe md It IS dream pregnant with dangers that offers bat tie to such Fundamentals of life. But the individual touches society at every point. and all he does should be done with the whole in view. Possession, then, Is less a privilege of which to be proud than a charge whose gravity should be felt As there Is an appren- ticeship, often very difficult to serve, for the exercise of every social office, so 1 this profession we call wealth demands an apprenticeship. To know how to be rich is an art, and one of the least easy of arts to master. Most people, rich and poor alike, imagine that in opulence one has nothing to do but to take life easy. That Is why so few men know how to be rich. In the hands of too many wealth, according to the genial and redoubtabe comparison of Luther, Is like harp in the hoofs of an ass. They have no idea of the man. ner of It's use.
 So when we encounter man at once rich and simple-that Is to say, who considers his wealth ns a means of full filling his mission in the world-we should offer him our homage, for he is surely mark worthy. He has sur mounted obstacles, borne trials and tri- umphed in temptations both gross and subtle. He does not fail to discrimi- nate between the contents of his pock- etbook and the contents of his head or heart, and he does not estimate his fellow men in figures. His exceptional position, instead of exaltlng him, makes him humble, for he is very sen sible of how far he falls short of reach ing the level of his duty. He has re- mained man. That says 1t all. He is accessible, helpful and far from making of his wealth barrier to sep arate him from other men; he makes it means for coming nearer and nearer to them. Although the profession Of riches has been so dishonored by the selfish and the proud, such a man as this always makes his worth felt by every one not devoid of a sense of jus tice. Each of us who comes in contact with him and sees him live Is forced to look within and ask himself the ques- tion, What would become of me in such situation-should I keep this modesty, this naturalness, this upright ness which uses its own as though 1t belonged to others7" So long as there is human society Ia the world, so long as there are bitterly conflicting inter- ests. so long as envy and egoism exist on the earth, nothing will be worthier of honor than wealth permeated by the spirit of simplicity. And it will do more than make Itself forgiven; 1t will make itself beloved.
 More dangerous than pride inspired by wealth is that inspired by power and mean by the word every preroga- tive that one man has over another be it unlimited or restricted. 1 see no means of preventing the existence in the world of men of unequal authority. Every organism supposes a hierarchy of powers; we shall never escape from that law. But I fear that if the love of power Is so widespread the spirit of power is almost impossible to find. From wrong understanding and mis- use of it those who keep even a frac- tion of authority almost everywhere succeed in compromising it.
 Power exercises great influence over him who holds 1t. A head must be very well balanced not to be dis turbed by it. The sort of dementia which took possession of the Roman emperors in the time of their world wide rule is universal malady whose bJ iAPlOi1S DClOlS lV dtt HI w cry man there sleeps a tyrant, await ing only favorable occasion for walk ing. Now the tyrant Is the worst en- emy of authority, because he furnishes us its jntolerable caricature, whence come a multitude of social complica- tions, collisions and hatreds. Every man who says to those dependent on him, Do this because it is my will and pleasure" does ill., There is within each one of us something that invites us to resist personal power, and this something is very respectable, for at bottom we are equal, and there Is no one who has the right to exact obedi- ence from me because he is he and I am l. If he does so his command de- grades me, and l have no right to suf- fer myself to be degraded.
 One must have lived in schools. in workshops. in the army. in government offices, he must have closely followed the relations between masters and servants, have observed a little every where where the supremacy of man exercises itself over man. to form any idea of the injury done by those who use power arrogantly. Of every free soul they make a slave soul, which is to say the soul of rebel. And it ap- pears that this result, with It's social disaster. is most certain when he who commands is lenst removed from the station of him who obeys. The most ipopIo oa hlo tvro nj ia thQ tvra nt hifs,qalf