The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-06-21
Il VIEWED BY MR.. ROCKEFELLER'S PASTOR
ME Duty of the Rich to Society. Danger Shown in
Heart1ess Selfshness of Many Monied Fami-
lies Too Much Is Made of Pleasure

Rev. DR.. CnaFles "A GaUOh' P"S'Oh VI
ruclid Avenue Baptist church il
n,saoIend. O.. at which John d. Rookie.
Ssuor worships, recently accepted the
s,+e+,on of the New York World tC
|. III III about the rich Of America" He
said: 80 % oo. Co..
100 created for the most part by
s"sn Of brains and character who have
Io.ad the unparalleled industrial op-
o-t,nities of the past half century
pnd who have, while making money for
thomselves, largely increased the total
'Iooltb and well being of the nation.
"cide by side with the growth OF
u,oaItb poverty has lifted its grim
tront into dark and SOLDERING contrast.
Tohor has instinctively and necessa-
.nr organized itself to counterbalance
anrnorate capital. These two great
sorcas are still at war, but eventually
4bov will have to cooperate. Our cities
have grown so fast and their racial
diversity is so great that, although we
hove q true city civilization, we have
M nublic morality or public opinion
powerful enough to save us from the
c,vi corruption which is at once our
shame and menace. In the mad race
4or money, which has spread like
deadly disease among all classes, our
noItical machinery has so often de-
Generated into the means Of advancing
nrivate and class interests that faith
IN our Institutions and the men who
work them is on the wane. We have
nassed the constitutional or political
stage Of our history and are now so
completely in the age Of economics that
literature. art government and even
religion have for the moment dropped
to a secondary place. There is serious
ouestion If American civilization today
has moral and spiritual basis sufi
clent for its future.
Amid such conditions as these what
has the country the right to ask OF its
rich men and their children? 1t has
right to ask of them all that 1t de
mands Of any morally responsible citi-
gen-namely, that they shall fully dis
charge their obligations to society.
Glass preaching, like class legisla-
ton, is always vicious. Wholesale de-
nunciation Of the rich is as futile as
any other form of SANDER. Moral obi
CATION is binding upon men as men
without regard to their social or eco
nOmic condition. There are no class
distinctions in moral law. Whatever is
right is right for the same reason. At
the bar of God wealth and poverty are
terms. The gospel of Jesus
s addressed to mankind He is the
man in life, message and ex-
ample. He makes it hard for the rich
4an to enter into the kingdom Of God,
not because there is any special wick
edneSs in being rich, but because riches
bring enlarged responsibilities, while at
the same time they tend to weaken the
of spiritual sanctions. Mes
Sages addressed in the name of Christ
to the rich are equally applicable to the
poor.
Rich people are like all other people
human They have their own sor-
'Ows, temptations, struggles, failures,
leeds. There are among them men and
women whose simplicity of life and I'M
elfSh public service cannot be ques-
Toned or improved upon. There are
many rich families whose home life is
IS beautiful, simple and transformations
IS any to be found There are many
'Oung men and women, children of
Teat wealth, who daily and hourly
i've to the world an example of self
acrifce for others which is most reas
uring. In the nature of the case it is
10 crime to be rich, any more than it Is
crime to be poor.
IF the possession of wealth is a
ZINE, then we are a nation of Grim
nails, for practically every American