Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-11-07
WEALTH AND ITS SERVICES
Accumulation the Basis Of Civilized
Christian Society.
MASSES SHARE IN IT'S EXISTENCE
Creation OF More Importance Than
Its DistrIbutiOn, Declares e. Ben
jamin Andrews Before
Baptist club.

'sThe existence Of great wealth in the
world is Of vastly more Importance than
the distribution of it. and after all wealth
Is the great thing of any civilized COM
munity," was one of the statements made
by Chancellor u. Benjamin Andrews before
the Mems Fellowship league at the First
BAPTIST church last evening. The meeting,
which was the first of series Of five to
be held on live topics, was largely attend
ed and thoroughly appreciated. c. G. Lyon
president of the league, presided. Refresh
ments were served after the chancellor's
address
In part Chancellor Andrews said:
The existence of great wealth is the
thing human beings should strive for,
ton. Were l certain that enough and
plenty Of wealth could be produced TOT all
Of humanity for all time to come then !
reason over the distribution. If there Is
wealth in community, the, majority OF
the people will be fairly well OF. Go to
any civilized community today, destroy all
the wealth and you will have no ciViliza-
ton until new wealth can be crSateds; -oI,I
time to time that wealth Is the greatest
good we have. Our good things in the
not exist without wealth God planted in
the heart of man the accumulation OF
wealth.
Motive the Important Thing.
Now for anOlneT GOnSlueIallOns W tdiAAt
can be put to bad uses, but we should not
destroy the structure because of lew
flaws in the foundation. The pursuit OF
wealth is consistent with the Christian mo-
tive-to love God and man and to beneht
the race. ] maintain we can devote our
lives TO the accumulation of wealth and
Vet be Christians 1t is the motive which
counts Some go forward with only a selnsn
motive and should be condemned IL ls not
hard TO get rich; just pay the appIoprlale
Drice and YOU can accumulate wealth, but
II the wealth is accumulated with seIh ,sa
motives the possessor will gain the praise
OF neither God nor man: ..
can easily conceive that many accunu-
late wealth with the idea of being q pene-
factor TO humanity, but the men who pie
up wealth as a shylock should not De up
held as an example, nor their methoas De
patterned after While wealth STANDS az
The bottom of all things of civilization, it
is not the top and will not of itself save
ones soul. -.
the concentration of wealth into the hands
of a few necessarily means the concentra-
ton of the benefits of wealth. While today
there are more millionaires ana multi
mflliohaires than ever before In this coun-
try yet 1t is also true that never before
in the history of the country have the in
dustries had such opportunities for the
accumulation of wealth. 1t is entirely err
roneous TO say that one man getting rich
has the effect Of taking away the wealth
from the masses. The only way such a
thing could be done would be for man
TO accumulate, say two millions in gold, and
then dump IL into the sea.
division of wealth.
OF the immensely wealthy classes / would
make three divisions: Those who earn
nothing and thereby contribute nothing to
the storehouse of society; those who place
their money in the hands of men who make
wise investments of their wealth. and
those who, by their great minds, have ac-
cumulated much wealth. The rich man is
powerless to use his wealth without as
sisting in some manner you and me. The
rich man is guilty before God II he uses
his wealth in a foolish way. While there
Is excuse for the expenditure OF Idle
wealth, we must be charitable in what we
term idle wealth"
The chancellor said he favors a progress
sive income tax and death tax, and stated
that wealth should be new creation to
be honestly held.