The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-11-26

- o FAR as my own impression
counts for anything, it has led
me to the opinion that for
tendency to greater luxury
more indulgence, and to less
simplicity of life among all classes.
I think the reason is neither simple
nor single: but there are certainly two
main causes which have been tending
to produce the results complained of.
The one is material; the other is moral
or as it might more accurately be call
ed. psychological. The material cause
must be evident, I think, to most per-
sons who have taken even passing
thought of what is going on around
them. There has never before been
anything to compare with the creation
of wealth which has taken place dur
ing the past thirty years, and even
more particularly during the past ff-
teen years. When you stop to con-
slider that within this brief period the
wealth of the United Kingdom has in
creased by the almost inconceivable
total of 1900, 900, 000-that is to say,
by a sum greater than all our accumu-
lated wealth during all previous his
tory-the kind of social revolution in
the midst of which we are living must
be in some measure brought home
even to the dulIest minds.
This new wealth, too, it must be re-
membered, has gone largely into new
hands. 1t has resulted not simply
from the development of new countries
like the United States, and the mining
enterprises in countries like South
Africa. It has rather been the result
of the industrial expansion which has
taken place in all countries by the de-
veIopnent of scientific invention, by
the application of new processes to in
dustry, and by the organization OF joint
stock enterprises. This has meant that
quite new classes of the population
have come into the possession of
wealth, and of wealth on an enormous
scale. Never have private fortunes,
rapidly acquired, been so vast in
amount or so numerous in the world
as at the present time. Now I do not
exactly wish to imply that such wealth
is being misapplied.
It is rather that the sudden acquisi-
ton on such a large scale of wealth by
persons and classes not previously
trained in the use of it must greatly
affect society. Nothing requires so
much training, and, paradOXical as it
may seem, nothing requires the eXer-
else of so much Self-reStraint and self
denial, as the proper use of wealth
Such training and self-restaint are
usually a slow growth. They are the
product, indeed, of a kind of natural
selection in society, for those not cap
able of acquiring them generally go
down in the struggle in the course of
generations. With the sudden influx of
wealth on such an Unprecedented scale
it is only to be expected that certain
evils SlOQlQ DC COAlpia1lCu OL-O0JGA4-
tation, vulgar display, social dissipa-
ton, personal extravaganza, barbaric
displays of jewelry, unframed indul-
gence of all dnds4fn a word, the eff
made wealth quickly to have a good
time with it, as the saying is in
America.
A further unusual feature, and also
one special to our time, has been that
large numbers of private fortunes in
the recent past have been built up by
the imitation of Stock Exchange values
consequent upon the growth of Joint
stock enterprise. Much of this wealth
has, no doubt been as hardly acquired
also. has probably not represented that
prudence, training, self-restraint, and
laborious devotion to work which the
getting of money usually entails. In
the rapid changes that have been tax
| ing place it is inevitable that much of
this wealth should be felt to be held
somewhat Ike a gamblers stake
easily made, to be rapidly enjoyed, and
possibly to be lost as readily as it has
been won.
The effects of the example have
tended to spread downwards. Posi-
bly, all classes have been for the time
being more or less influenced by the
/ tendencies around them.
It would be hard to over estimate
the significance socially of the great
/ changes which have been taking place
/ side by side with that just mentioned.
You can hardly take up a serious peri
odical at the present. time without no
ticing the effects of it. The old fixed
doctrines in nearly all the churches
have been undergoing profound modi-
hcation. The foundations of many doc
trines and opinions of the past have
| been moved almost beyond mems
| knowledge. This change has, by force
| of circumstances, been accompanied
by an attitude of tolerance to ideas,
! opinions, and even conduct of different
shades, which would have been utterly
/ impossible scarcely more than a gem
| Grafton ago. In the result the dis
! eipline of the middle-class Puritan
! househOld-the Puritan household
which Pearson descrfbed-the mem
bers habituaI1y abstemious in food, re-
served in speech, methodical in act
| possessed of an awful sense Of obliga-