New-York tribune., 1906-12-29
"ODIOUS WEALTH."

HE wants to be a popular millionaire" is
a billboard quotation from some theatrical ex-
hibition now In the city. And why not? There
is Crnsus, who enjoys e very pleasant fame
to this day as the richest man of antiquity.
You would never have heard OF him except
for his Lydian mining monopoly. He was a
popular millionaire whose popularity remains
undfmmed through the ages. There is Lucul-
lus a Roman gentleman of ample means, who
blew his friends TO sumptuous prandial en-
tertainments He is example of the popu-
lar millionaire, all around bOn-viuGnt and man
about town. Mfecenas, too, art collector and
patron of poets! There was popular mill
ionaire. We need mention only these three to
show how classic mOneybags share the undis-
eliminating pages of history with poets, histo-
rians and cOnQuerors. Croesus and Lucullus
are as we'll known as Cesar Alexander, Homer
and Herodotus. They are the favored sons of
Fame. To come to more recent times, America
used to point with pride to its milliOnaires as
the most typically American thing. If the
country had not ruins, 1t had millionaires. Now
one of them whose vocation makes 1t neces-
sary for him. in the words OF the play, TO be
q popular millionaire" tells us that 1t is hard
to have fortune and popularity.
The time is coming" says Senator McCar-
ren, when it will be odious to be wealthy"
The Brooklyn Senator is for temporzing. He
will wait till that time comes. 1t is situa-
ton in which he does not believe in taking
tine by the fOrelock. When the time does come,
and Mr. McCarren has to choose between his
great popularity and his great wealth. he will
choose, he tells u.s. his popularity. That is a
very selfish position to take. Somebody, even
in those days, will have to perform the odious
task of being rich, and why should Mr. McCar
rem shirk the burden which fate, the opportuni
ties of politics and his own shrewdness and
enterprise have placed upon him? We doubt
If even in that good time which Is coming
when, according to the preachments OF Messrs
Stokes, McCarren. Patterson and Hearst wealth
will be OdiOus, every one will be able to enjoy
the blessings of poverty. Mankind is never
equally blessed; some part OF humanity has to
bear its cross, and the cross, when we have
turned things upside down, will be wealth-in
the language of a great preacher Of the new
beatitude the "cross of gold" Some must save
that the others may toll and spin. There is a
division OF labor back OF the division OF des-
tiny.
Mr.. Call, the Washington scientist, who read
a paper on Tuesday before the American Asso-
citation for the Advancement of Science on
Scientific Socialism" did much to expose wealth
in all it's OdiOusness. One per cent OF the people
have 90 per cent Of the wealth, says the "scien-
tific socialist" and as If that were not odious
enough. he goes to show that wealth IS
only a fgment of the Imagination anyway,
as the country owes billions more than it owns.
Now. we should really like to know how the
90 Per cent of the people and the per cent
share these billions Of debt. If our wealth is
all debt why the more Of it the / per cent
gets into it's hands the better for the rest of
us. We favor the l per cents having not
merely 90 per cent of this wealth-debt, but 100
per cent Of it, Such wealth is quite too odious.
At least that is the way It looks to us, but
we always have misgivings in these higher
realms Of statistics. If. however, the aff1uent
per cent have 80 per cent of real wealth, and
the poor 90 per cent of humanity have only 1
per cent of real wealth and all of the countless
billions of debts why it is a case for "Holst"
Who has those billions of debts exceeding
the real wealth of the richest nation in the
world? Do they belong TO the rich the poor?
1t seems to us a vastly more interesting ques-
ton than such tireSOme irreevancieS as the dis
tributiOn Of mere Odious dollars for in the good
time of the general overturn clearly the man
who corners the most of that debt to his own
personal debit will he the master f1nancier of
his age. Think of the man in the days of the
odiousness OF riches who Is worth minus S500O0O-
600. He will be the Croesus of the world of
debts. We regret that Mr.. Call did not elucI-
date the distribution of those billions of debt.
While we are this enhancing If dangerous
subject Of statistics let us say that the "Scien-
tifc socialists" figures show more milionaires
to-day than ever before. Is this growth of
the class without significance? Will not this
process go on until instead Of plain millen- |
mum we shall have a millionennium in which |
everybody will be the possessOr Of a "coOr'
million?
Until that blessed time comes when fortunes
are reckuned in minus quantities and Lambs
great race" the borrowers, come into their |
own. it will be we'll to follow Senator McCar- |
ren's prudent advice and wait Mr.. McCarren
has sure knowledge of one trait of human
nature, the love of the sporting chance"
So long the average American believes he |
has one chance in a million of becoming IA
millionaire he will not legislate that possibil-
ity away. He wants his sporting chance at
odious wealth