The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-05-18
CHEAP PEOPLE.

The other day heard a young woman with
a pompadour and everything indicating that fas-
clnatlng refinement which comes from plenty OF
everything except ideals and ideas, remark to her
! companion that some persons of their mutual ac-
quaintance were cheap people, In the casual re-
mark there is a world of meaning fraught as it is
with the dominating characteristic of large class
of respectable American people who do not recog-
nize their sad lack of ideals except that fixed stead
lily and exclusively on getting money and parading
their prosperity to the qualification of themselves
and the envy of their neighbors Carlyle aptly says
such these are guided by ,swine-trough phios-
ophy,' yet the widespread ideal, if such it may be-
must leave small, very small, percentage of peo-
pie who are not grovelling in the mre
When were young we learned in more I'M
selfish school to cherish art and music and liter
ature and to honor their devotees Today the land
scape gardener is mere laborer on days wages
the violinist fddng ne'er-do-well the poet lazy
prohigate. School teachers land college and uni
versity professors great and Soed men and wolaen
though they may be, feel the sting of thought
less emulators of the rich who would class them
as "cheap people" because the rewards attached to
their calling meager as to necesstate count
ing their pennies. The rag picker fortunately
grasping the opportunities of our commercial ac-
tivity and becoming a merchant prince, the mining
operator who strikes it rich, the brewer and dis
tiller whose wealth is garnered at God only knows
what suffering by those dependent on the victims
of drink-these are the men who furnish America
with ideals, whose extravaganza and luxurious sur
roundings are emulated in the mad struggle to get
our noses into the trough.
Formerly the priest and minister, the school
teacher and editor in any community represented
the strongest influences for religion and learning
and morality, but today they are reduced by an ar
rogant and thoughtless money-lovng world to
position insignificant, relatively, as compared with
the successful stock gambler who owns an auto
mobile and country home and couple of, thou
sand square yards of fine paintings yet never lifts
his eyes to see the natural beauties God has placed
IN this world just beyond the swine-trough
Every normal man recognizes the need of mon
ey IN this commercial age every normal man de-
slres wealth-not for wealth's sake alone but that
he may cultivate his mind and heart, that he may
read and converse with friends and secure for him
self and his children the blessings of our civliza
ton. Abnormal set their ideals in wealth
alone and struggle fight, KILL to crafty their low
ly ambition, For them the snow-capped mountain
heights and sparkling canyon stream nothing
more than an opportunity for giant industrial
corporation to utilize in adding dollars to al
ready overrunning trough. incidentally the world
might benefit, but care amounting sometimes to
tmevery Is taken that little escapes the individuals
Whe back the enterprise Stock iobbing which dis
credits the legitimate mining industry, hampers
development and scandalizes the world is practiced
to enrich the already rich by robbng those who
seek the thorny route to quick requirement of
wealth, Not only do those that have seek more, but
the millions who live from one day to the next
upon the profits of their labor seek to impress upon
their friends that they are what they not They
do not want to be "cheap people," they are
ashamed of their position in the world, made so
by some ignoble companions aplsh Haunting of I'M
paid-for pumes by the degraded ideal which
makes the possession of wealth the sole desidera
tum of their livesl
The love of money is the root of all evil"
There never was time when people bowed
down to Baa and remained an outstanding popula-
tron." Never have the people of any nation de-
voted their energies solely 10 the supplying of lux
ures and boarding of wealth without experiencing
a sad decadence of religious and moral rectitude
among them Wealth as an ideal precludes love of
our fellow meni it robs life of the ennobing in |
huences OF religion of learning, art, music, patriot