Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-12-01
EVILS or WEALTH.
what President Roosevelt says OF
Some of Them.

uhat President ROOseveu says %
some of Them.
IN q recent address President Roose-
Welt said:
.arhe chief harm done by the men OF
swollen fortune to the community Is
not the harm that the demagogue is
ant to depict as springing from tneir
actions. but the fact that their success
sets M a false standard, and SO serves
as bad example for the rest OF US. Ii
we did not ourselves attach an exag
perated Importance to the rlch man
who is distinguished only by his rlches
this rich man would have a most IN
significant influence over us. 1t is gen
orally our own fault if he does damage
to us. for he damages us chiefly Dy
arousing our envy or by rendering US
sour and discontinued. In his actual
business relations he is much more apt
70 benefit than harm the rest OF us;
and though it is eminently right TO
take whatever steps are necessary III
order to prevent the exceptional mem
hers of his class from doing harm, 1t is
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.
"Venomous envy of wealth is simply
another form of the spirit which in one
Of it's 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 it be hatred, servility
or arrogance, is in reality closely akin
to the other two, for each OF them
springs from a Enthusiastically twisted
and exaggerated idea of the import
ance of wealth as compared to other
things. The cIamor 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.
1T is absolutely necessary to earn
certain amount Of money; it is a
mans first duty to those dependent
upon him to earn enough for their sup
port; but after a 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-Gaudens and
Macmonnies; it numbers statesmen and
soldiers, men of letters, artists, sculp-
tors, explorers road makers, bridge
builders, phi}anthropists, moral lead
ers in great reforms; it numbers men
who have deserved we'll 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 it and not mere
ly lavish generosity in disposing Of
it."