Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-11-03
Our MIlllOnalrss Are
Our Greatest Failures.
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DECENTRALIZATION - q = $4,000 A4444A
William Allen White, In
the American Magazine.

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The greatest failures In our mod
ern life are our mllllonaires. As a
rule they have accumulated money
without giving society n Just and
equitable return for that money;
they have acquired what seems to
them vast amount of power, with
out intelligence to use 1t, and they
are going through life looking for
JOY and happiness, but finding only
pleasure that burns out their souls
and does not satisfy their hearts. To
get their money they have developed
their cunning and stunted their can
dor; they have deceived and bull
lied and sometimes killed the man in
their own hearts, and have let q
demon lustful for gain reign in their
souls. often the man who was
killed fingers in an empty heart-a
pious ghost, full of wise saws and
good intentions, and the cracking
laughter Of the fool, but the good
man Is only ghost; he has no real
part in the rich mans life. Suppos-
ing the pious ghost that haunts the
richest man In the world desired to
set aside half, of his millions to pro-
mote the cause of the Christian re-
ligion. His money would accom-
plish but little. The worst blow the
organized Christian religion might
have would be that money. For the
mans life is so we'll known, his char
acter Is so thoroughly despised, that
all the preaching of the paid preach
ers would be futile ARairss,.L.--'''S III
nuonCo rndC one life. How can
hear what you say" says Emerson,
when what you are keeps thunder
ing in my ears?" The example Of
one poor man laying down his life in
fire or in a flood for humanity is
worth more to the cause of righteous
ness than all the millions for which
the rich man has strangled his man
hood or bartered away his soul.
Money does not pass current in the
real world of service. 1t is false coin
there. Churchmen need not worry
about tainted money. If it is tainted,
God will not accept it. For what
God needs in this world is not money
but service-service that comes
from the God-implanted instinct to
help ones fellows. The failures of
this life may heap the golden evil
dences of their failures mountain
high, and donate them to the cause
of righteousness, and they will avail
less than the testimony and the hon
est service Of one poor man who has
succeeded by living manfully. Men
cannot cheat and steal and kill and
Cypress their fellows, and then buy
their way into the happiness that
comes from real usefulness to man
kind; the peace that passeth under
standing is not to be purchased with |
stolen money, even though the rob-
Der shall present 1t as sacrifice, and |
even though he shall lay 1t upon the |
altar in seven figures. The million
aire of to-day may not buy indulg- !
ences any more than the rich man of |
Martin Luther's time. Christ said |
to the Magdalen, GO sin no more" |
and to the rich young man, Sell that |
thou hast, give to the poor" and then
come and follow Me-" Christ had |
no more thought of spreading His |
cause by the money Of one sinner
than by the money Of another. And |
the chiefest proof of Christ's divinity |
is not in the miracles, nor in the
signs and wonders, but in the fact
that He knew that the gearing Of the
world Is not turned toward the mil
lenium by money or by the power
that comes through worldly success,
but by service of man to man, with
out money, and without the power
that money can buy, Money has its
place in our social organization. 1t
can feed the bodies OF men; but a
dollar nor million dollars never fed
a soul. For souls grow, only as life
has grown on this planet, by service
to ones fellow creatures.
But answer will be made that this
is practical world, and not a world
of dreams and theories. Men will
say, take away the love of money,
even though 1t be the root of all evil,
and you take away the fire that gen
crates the steam in the engines Of
our civilization. And to those sit
ting in the seats of the scornful we
may answer that this is indeed
practical world, but that the scrap
heap of antiquity Is Uttered with the
ruins of practical worlds. Also If
the love Of money produces the steam
of our civilization, then sooner or
later the fires must go out, and il
we would hold the steam we must
change the fuel. And we must ask
those who question us, and we must
ask ourselves, If indeed, and In truth,
the love Of money does hold the fire
that runs the engines of our Civii-
cation. Let us take look at the
thing we call civilization, and see
how 1t is going.
We know America fairly we'll; it
is probably as highly civilized as any
other part of the globe. In New
York City there are said to be five
thousand millionaires. Probably
there are ten thousand or even let us
say twenty thousand men who are
nearly millionaires, and fifty thou
sand more who are living in the
blessed hope of becoming millionaires
reasonably soon. Their hopes of
course are based largely on being
able to tear down the real million
aires and to share in the fallen for
tunes. Let us say that there are one
hundred thousand people who GER
IN nj In Inv hn nf |
money These hundred thousand
people have killed the social instincts
in their own hearts. They serve their
fellows only for the money there Is
in it, They live parasitic existences.
But what of the three million other
men and women in New York? Is
the civilization of New York depend
ent upon the hundred thousand para
sites, or is it dependent upon the
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