The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-15
PASSING PERIL IS.
SUBJECT Of
winner
Grafton Delivered By J. F. T.
O'Connor in State Contest
at Metropolitan.

Ilon is dSheu, WHY tue Idllure. care
full and continued study at last dis
closes the secret. and violation of
one of the basic laws. of nature Is gen.
orally a prime cause. Rome, the per-
ished nation OF a thousand shattered
ideals, in her wild ascent lifted from
the brow of labor its due dignity, and
in the lack of appreciation of this dig
nifty caused the keystone OF ancient
civilization and OF a great nation to be
weakened.
In this crime all the sins OF re-
public have their birth. The transit
ton from the simple life, where each
member produces to life. where the
premium is taken from the active indi-
vidual and given to the non-active one,
Is generally one of the steps in the
evolution OF republic. And although
recognized as a disease in the body po-
lite. it is not considered fatal until an
overburdening number have passed
from the producing class to the con-
suming class which does not produce;
from that great mass OF people COM
monty labeled as poor to the antithical
class labeled as rich. No nation is
strong enough to continually support
a parasitical majority.
Ill fares the land to fastening ills a
q prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men
decay.
The evils which accompany the
amassing of great fortunes are appar-
ent to everyone. Enervating luxuries
are the demands of the wealthy; the
idle classes are responsible for intimi-
dating acts. and those intoxicating
pleasures which have made the rich
man drunk have made the poor man
rapacious and rebellious.
The sympathy between the wealthy
privileged and the poor become mini
mixed as the gulf between them Wild
ems. Such condition exists in Rus
STA. and revolution and complete re-
construction is the only solution for
the existing social conditions. The
Russian soil has at last become unable
to support both the peasant and the
parasite-the poor and the princely-
and the pangs of hunger have COM
PEELED the peasant to demand from his
oppressors, through the awful right of
revolution that lawful heritage of ev-
cry human being, freedom. The desti-
ny of every nation is shaped through
its soil. Ratzel. that eminent mind of
geographic conditions, said: "Soil ap-
pears to US as the ultimate source of
human dependence. 1t remains mex
orably at the bottom of the changeful
tendencies of men rising to vindicate
its powers when they lose sight of the
fundamental principle. truth, admon-
ishing them that the life of the state
has here its roots" Yet nations have
forgotten this cruel but trite truth,
and we recall them only when We visit
the great museums where rest trophies
and relics-nations, which, in the BRIT
liancy of their ascendancy, scoffed at
the hand of time and laughed at the
simple life when all worked together.
Where are those ancient cities now,
the temples of which resound with the
voice of Demosthenes and for love of
which Leonides offered life? Where
are those cities now, the pride of every
Greek and the envy of every traveller?
The moldering columns, the decaying
temples and the dust-turning tombs in
which royalty reposes tell the sad sto-
ry of nations crimes, OF aberrant
and ambitious men, of opulant and OPP
pressive rulers, and of a populace
which moved towards enervating. in
numbering and ephemeral ideals--a
dictate Its power once again.
Our nation has basked in the sun of
prosperity for years, and an aristoc-
racy of wealth has been evolved. Men
of might have rolled up mighty mill
ions; fortunes have been amassed with
rapidity which dazzles and to an ex-
tent which strikes one dumb. The
world has never seen the amassing of
so many fortunes and such huge for
tunes as have been builded in the past
half century and are still in the max
ing. One man in one generation has
gotten together enough wealth to pur-
chase this entire state, and we hest
tate when we contemplate what the re-
action will bring. The national thought
has found expression in a recent mes
sage of our president to congress. 81
feel" writes the chief executive" that
in the near future our national legis-
lators should enact law providing
for graduated inheritance tax, by
which steady increasing rate of duty
should be put upon all money or other
valuables coming by gift or device to
any individual or corporation. The
prime object should he to put a con-
stantly increasing burden on the in
heritance of swollen fortunes which 1t
is certainly of no benefit to this coun-
try to perpetuate." Could we but un-
veil the scene of half a century hence,
with the present conditions unaltered
and unchecked, what sight would
greet the eye! With the transition
from the maker of the fortune to the
inheritor, the peril which lowered
above would lift the garland OF dignity
from the hrov NJ IahOr and fwo oroot
classes would result-the princes of
wealth and the wretchedly poor. Then
the struggle would commence, not a
War of Roses but War of Thorns,
not for throne but for habitation,
not for wine but for water-a war
which no marriage could terminate and
for which no treaty could make
amends. A great class would be fight
ing to break the chains of their thral-
dom against a plutocracy fighting to
save their thrones of Incidence, OPP
preston, selfishness and wastefulness.
The menace to society of great for
tunes is not so much with the men
who have accumulated great wealth as
with the inheritors- children
The men who were once poor and who
rose to position Of power and promi-
nence by the sheer force of their own
ingenuity can never fail to appreciate
the dignity of labor, but those who
were nourished dn the lap of luxury
who never came in contact with people
who toiled, how can they appreciate
how can they sympathize? They have
different world. From the time they