Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-12-06
EVILS OF WEALTH.
what President Roosevelt Say. Of
Some of Them.

What President Roosevelt Says of
Some of Them.
In recent address President Roose-
welt said:
THE chief harm done by the men OF
swollen fortune to the community is
not the harm that the demagogue is
apt to depict as springing from their
actions, but the fact that their success
sets up false standard, and so serves
as bad example for the rest of us. II
we did not ourselves attach an exag-
gerated Importance to the rich man
who is distinguished only by his riches
this rich man would have most in
significant influence over us. 1t is gen.
orally our own fault IL he does damage
to US, for he damages US chiefly by
arousing our envy or by rendering us
sour and discontented. In his actual
business relations he is much more apt
to benefit than harm the rest Of us;
and though 1t is eminently right to
take whatever steps are necessary In
order to prevent the exceptional mem
bers of his class from doing harm, it Ia
wicked folly to let ourselves be drawn
into any attack upon the man OF
wealth merely as such. Moreover, such
an attack is in itself an exceptionally
ugly and crooked state of mind in the
crooked and ugly tribute to wealth, and
therefore the proof Of an exceptionally
ugly and crooked state Of mind in the
man making the attack.
"Nenomous envy of wealth Is simply
another form of the spirit which in one
of Its manifestations takes the shape
Of cringing sevility toward wealth and
In another the shape of brutal AFRO
gance on the part of certain men Of
wealth. Each one of these states Of
mind, whether 1t be hatred, seryility
or arrogance, is in reality closely akin
to the other two, for each of them
springs from n Enthusiastically twisted
and exaggerated idea Of the Import
ance of wealth as compared to other
things. The clamor of the demagogue
against wealth, the snobbery of the
social columns OF the newspapers
which deal with the doings of the
wealthy and the misconduct of those
men of wealth who act with brutal dis.
regard of the rights of others seem
specifically to have no fundamental
relation, yet in reality they spring
from shortcomings which are funda-
mentally the same, and one of these
shortcomings is the failure to have
proper ideals.
ut is absolutely necessary to earn
certain amount of money: 1t is a
mans first duty to those dependent
upon him to earn enough for their sup.
port; but after certain point has been
reached money making can never
stand on the same plane with other
and nobler forms OF effort. The roll
of American worthless numbers men
like Washington and Lincoln, Grant
and Farragut, Hawthorne and Poe
Fulton and Morse, Saint audens and
Macmonnies; 1t numbers statesmen and
soldiers, men of letters, artists, sculp-
tors, explorers road makers, bridge
builders, philanthropists, moral lead.
ers in great reforms; 1t numbers men
who have deserved well in any one Of
countless fields of activity; but of
rich men 1t numbers only those who
have used their riches Alright, who
have treated wealth not as an end but
as a means. who have shown good
conduct in acquiring 1t and not mere.
" lavish generosity in disposing Of
IN