The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-15

evil Timothy. $40.
Few people miss more of the joy of
! living than the miser. His mean, mar
row spirit confines his view to one
thing-the accumulation of gold. He
has only one ambition-to hoard
money. Everything else is secondary
to that.
MiserIiness is not confined to the
simple accumulation of money, hiding
it away and rejoicing only in handling
it. People are misery along other
lines. Did you never know a farmer,
for instance, who has been misery in
his accumulation of land-a man who
makes a slave of his wife, denying
her many common comforts; who will
not give his children the educational
advantages to which they are entitled,
although he may have many rich
acres? His only passion is to buy
more land.
And little better is the man who,
while not misery. works only to
accumulate a fortune, no matter at
what cost or how it is done. There
are multitudes of this class in the
world, and they are really more harm
full than the actual miser. The John
D. Rockefellers belong in this class
men who will accumulate by taking
advantage of their fellow men, Great
ing conditions that will force their fell
lows down that they may rise.
1t is this class that commits the
financial crimes as a rule. The clerk
who embezzles his employers money,
the Bigelows that wreck banks. the
Mitchells and Burtons who betray
their official trusts for money. the get
rich-quick schemers, the boodlers and
grafters, the trust magnates who vio-
late the laws, the rebate givers; as
well as the grosser crininals-the
burglars. the jointists. the highway
men-alI commit their crimes for the
love of money.
This is a commercial age. Wealth
is probably valued for itself alone
more in this age than it has ever been
before, and perhaps more than it
ever will be again. The commercial
spirit is rampant. But a man can be
a good business man and still not
place wealth above everything else.
In fact Paul says to ''be not slothful
in business" 1t is one duty to be dill
gent, but to give ones self over to the
accumulation of wealth is where the
wrong comes in.
The man who forms a trust or
combine for purposes of economy in
production or distribution, or for any
other legitimate object is "diligent in
business" but if his object is to stif1e
competition on the part of his fellows
and to raise prices, he is a criminal.
Paul was one of the greatest philos-
ophers the world has ever known, and
his advice to Timothy, who was
young man, in connection with the
passage quoted is something that is
apt today. Here it is:
Goodness with contentment is
great gain. For we brought nothing
into this world, and it is certain we
can carry nothing out.
but they that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare, and into
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdi-
ton. For the love of money is the
root of all evil
You will notice that Paul does not
say that money itself Is the root of
evil, but the love of it. It is not the
fact that one accumulates wealth that
is wrong, but the spirit in which it is
done. There are doubtless million
| aires to whom wealth is not the
height of ambition. There are many
rich men who would not stoop to a
! mean or unlawful act to gain a dol
lar, but who use their wealth for the
good of mankind.
Money itself is a very useful and
handy article to possess, but it
should be a means and not an end.
The point is that men are not war
ranted in defrauding their fellows or
| expressing them in any manner what
ever to gain money. 1t is no excuse
that one must break certain laws in
order to compete with those who do
The man who submerges his good
will for others, his citizenship. or his
patriotism to his greed is not filling
the end for which he was created.
and he is missing the better things
of life.