Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-04-12
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THE { ASE OF TI1AW.

Geological bearings. 1t is a cheap jibe.
but a severe truth, to say that, had
he been poor man, he would quickly
have suffered the extreme penalty of
the law for as vicious a murder as
there is in the annals Of crime.
The millions amassed by his father
and handed to him because he was his
fathers son were used first for life of
dissipation and last in efforts to evade
the just penalty of his crime, the fit
elimination Of his career, to debauch
the Imagination of the whole genera
ton of young people in the United
States, and to entail enormous expense
to the people of New York. Can So
ciety find nothing better to do with
it's coagulated wealth than to hand
it over to the empty headed children of
those who are the agents Of coagula
ton?
We call this a free country, where
all men have an equal chance. Two
children are born, one in mansion,
the other in the slums. Into the mouth
of number one we put a golden spoon
and make him ruler over his fellows,
which is money. The other we dam
into an environment Of criminal edu-
cation. The ultimate injustice is in
heritance
Some day society will give every
newborn infant square deal. The
babies are not consulted about coming
among us. We have no right to ap
point one to wealth and another to
penury.
Harry Thaw was made king of mil
used in making Louis XVI. King of
France He was chosen to administer
that great trust simply by accident
of birth. A millionaire is as much an
emperor as if he were called car
Or kaiser and surrounded by court.
Harry Thaw had, in his way, as much
control over the destinies Of his fell
lows as Edward VII, because he pos
sessed the means by which human ex-
ertion is directed and rewarded.
Money is concrete life. 1t stands
for all economic wants. 1t is the COM
mon denomination of the entire labor
of mankind. No man should be al
lowed to come into the control of a
great money unit who has not been
elected by the people; that is to say,
who has not earned it, for earning
money is really a mode of popular cleo
ton. No man should be allowed to
continue in control of millions when
he has ceased to administer his trust
as a responsible official, and has be-
gun to waste the substance the people
have committed to him.
The divine right of property is as
big a humbug as the divine right of
kings. Just exactly as big, for a rich
man is king In one sense the worst
king is a good king; that is, good
king tends to perpetuate an evil in
stitution. Even SO, in the same sense,
it is the benevolent millionaire who
strengthens the unjust system which
permits irresponsible millionaires.
l am not opposed to rich people. 1
think some people ought to be rich
and others poor. l believe it is just
for one man to live in a palace and
another to starve in a howell. But /
insist each of these persons should de-
serve his place. When it comes to
housing a man in ivory chambers and
feeding him on caviar just because he
was somebody's son-where's the JUS
tice in that?
[ believe in aristocracy. I believe
some ought to rule and others serve.
I believe in social, intellectual and
moral grades. But l say give every
baby a fair chance. Let aristocracy
be of those who are the best, not of
those whose fathers were the best.
Among the supremest ninnies have
ever seen are some Of those who live
in fine houses, which their fathers
built, run with fine friends their moth
ers made, and dress in fine clothes and
eat fine food they never earned
Whenever you see permanent prac-
tice Of injustice in society you find that
the devil must be paid for it. And the
most vicious element Of modern So
ciety is the class who have inherited
money. The fathers went to church,
worked hard and feared God. The
sons tear past the church on Sunday
on their way to the club. The mothers
were the serious-minded women who
made New England proudly retort to
the taunt of the contrasting West,
But New England raises menu
The daughters give up their pew in
church in order that their children can
have more money to spend in college,
And the beauty of the son of his fam
err is that he is absolutely .irres non-
sible. AS he never sweated "a earn
his money, SO he will not sweat to
administer it.
No moral nor intellectual movement
ever originated in this class. Here and
there in history it has produced
great man. BIT the great army of
earth's geniu'ses, her leaders, makers,