The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-02-02
A luCuInS Feast

n LuCulIlS T6dSl
dinner remarkable in its settings and cost
served at the ST. Regis hotel in New York city the
other day. The gold service of this sumpiuous new
hotel used exclusively. Even the trays and candel
abra of gold The feast spread in the ''whte
marble The favors gold clocks four inches
high for guests and gold boutonnere for the
The dinner cost $4,000 for the thrysx guests, or
almost 81 400 per PLATED
Talk about the gorgeous and princey feass of ucul
lus. They not circumstance to this modern spread
The Roman general did toerably we'll in extravaganza.
We read of supper given of his rural villas that
cost $4,000 denari about $500 And that supper has
gone down in history the of extravaganza. Lu-
cuus served his guests at 81 400 plate gave
away gold clocks four inches high He drew the line at
$4,000 denarii
As it happens, in the paper that tells about this
dinner is report by Robert Hunter who has spent ten
years IN the study of the condition of this countrys poor
Mr. Hunter says 100000 persons in the United States
are in want and Of this number 100000 paupers.
More than 100000 women toll for daily bread for them
selves and their families and more than 100000 children
labor in factories and sweat shops when they ought to be
in school. Appalling figures these
In the city of New York alone while the guests at the
St Regis dinner dined the service of gold 666OO0 per
wer IN distress More than 10000 school children of
that city hungry to school, And out Of every ten who
die there is buried in the Potters' field So says Mr.
Hunter.
One instinctively wonders whether the voluptuous
Sybartes who sat down to this cost banquet have ever
read the directions of the Master to giving easts He
told his disciples not to bid the rich and prosperous but
to out into the highways and byways and gather in the
poor and hungry And wonders if these diners
the spectre of the 10000 hungry school children thought
of the crowded Poers' fed Doubtless not How should
they know such shadows must have place at such ban
quet.
The contrast of the two pcures-the costly repas and
the hungry multitude-s sharp And every human
itaran will ask if there is way by which the
dtions may be changed By charity! The doing out of
the dollars of charity is not drop in the bucket AS Mr.
Hunter says 'Charty will not settle the problem. few
crumbs from the banquet board of wealth will satate
the growing cry for JUSTICE
''The growing cry for Justice" These significant
words There is something wrong with civilization
And the for remedy grows sharper and louder He is
dear who does not hear it. Allowing for vice and mprov
idence true that thousands do not get their legitimate
share of production and suffer thereby We have solved
the problem of wealth getting the problem of equitable
distribution is yet to be solved Cold statistics show that
the wealth of the country constantly is being concentrated
into fewer hands The rich growing richer 1t may
be the poor not growing poorer But the army of the
poor is growing!
Is it any wonder the president of the United States is
alarmed at the concentration of wealth in the Golfers Of
trust and corporation That concentration be stop
ped! 1t will be be stopped But it is great question
How remedy the disease without producing greater
dseasethat is the problem We must go deep-deeper-
into these things. While pirate Of philanthropy and
fraternasn-a sit at Luculus feasS-men, and
children suffer from want.
Every Day Heroism