The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-03-02

L
gard the doing out Of 80 million dol
,ars in aims as calamity. 1 do not
| approve Of extensive charity 1t ac-
complishes no permanent results in re-
lieveing poverty, without removing it's
cause. Education alone will do that,
and this gift to higher education will
affect the poor in that it will work to
create a keener appreciation of JUS
| tice
1T is unfortunate, however, that the
suspicion should attach to this gift for
the purpose of leading men to the truth
that men who dare teach the truth as
they see it may find their claims in COL
leges vacated.
| Should that money be given to hos
pitfalls supported by the state. Disease
is the result of conditions created by
man. And to have the individual turn
around and give back to society part
of the money he has wrung from it to
alleviate the conditions he himself has
created is incongruous. That is the
! function of the State.
Education is the only hope for the
relief of the conditions of the poor
Until man is taught the rights of his
! fellow-man and learns to respect them,
conditions will continue as they are.
Under present social conditions, gifts
to education are the best way of dis
posing of these vast accumulations of
wealth.
Tom Johnson's Opinion.
On the other hand, the motives
prompting such gift are questioned
by many people of advanced ideas.
| Mayor Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland,
himself a man of wealth, speaking Of
Mr.. Rockefeller's gift, said: 1T is an
anchor to the windward against the
time when an aroused people will
curtail the privileges of public-service
corporations. The gift was not in cash.
Most likely it was railway securities.
Everyone of these is mortgage
against the future. Some day it will
develop, perhaps that the special priv
ileges which these railroads enjoy will
be threatened.
1T will result in sudden squeezing
of the water out of these stocks. Then
there will go up cry that these great
educational interests, dependent upon
the returns from these securities, are
being threatened. There will be talk,
also, of what the widows and orphans
are in danger of losing. A condition
will be presented that may have a
protective effect for the corporations
involved"
Gift Is Discussed in Europe.
Discussion over the gift has spread
to Europe. The Worlds Paris cores
pondent in a special cable dispatch yes
terday said:
The Rockefeller gift has excited as
constituent in the French press. Several
studies of his temperament have been
published in which the writer's seek for
reasons which prompted the giving
away of such an enormous sum. One
editor suggests piety as the cause and
another suggests that all American
millionaires tremble in dread of laws
that may rob them of their wealth.
1.-The American temperament, so the
article continues, is FESTIVE against
great Accommodations, and this enormous
gift is intended to stave off public &C
ton or the individual act of murderOus
jealousy and envy.
Still another writer says that Mr..
Rockefeller wants to be talked about
for other than financial distinction. He
cannot do anything great for lack of
cultivation. He has no art collections
Or intellectual pursuits about which the
public hear, therefore he makes his
money talk.
'The Petit Parisien, however, takes
more generous view, believing that Mr..
Rockefeller, unlike French millionaires,
feels deeply that great wealth imposes
duties upon its possessor and in pure
Justice is doing his best to acquit him.
SELF
DR.. j. F. Boyle, rooms 213-214 Ran