The Jewish outlook., 1908-01-17

full on gorgeous banquets that pass in
a moment, to challenge envy and re.
sentiment by vulgar display of osten-
tation. to override public rights with
cynic brutality, can only fire in the
breasts of the common people hatred
of the rich such as springs up readily
among the poor and ignorant. The
mere charity and philanthropy OF the
rich does not, especially in demo-
cratic commonwealth, fill the measure
of their duty; they must give an ex-
ample of simplicity and of modera-
ton. of thOughtfulness and of refine
ment. of kindliness and of social tact
such as shall prove them fit to have the
highest fruits of art and culture at
their beck and call. There is no
greater danger to the social order than
the arrogance of the rich; the daily
paper. as it publishes the stories OF
mad extravaganza in senseless eXpen-
diture. sOws the seeds of n discomfort
which may rise up in its bitterness
some day to overwhelm the needless.
1t is only recently that so cOnserva-
tive a leader as the chief rabbi of
Great Britain and Ireland. in launch
ing an impassioned appear FOR greater
generosity to the poor on the part OF
the rich. pronounced this sinister pre-
diction:
.'If wealth be earned by grinding
the faces of the poor. by the cruel ex-
action of excessive toll by a heartless
disregard of the life and health of
their workers and by underpayment;
if it fosters in the employer avarice.
heartlessness. shameless luxury, waste
and extravaganza if he feels comfort
able and at ease while thousands and
tens of thousands of his fellow-crea-
lures are struggling for the bare neces-
stiles Of life. then his wealth is not a
strong city. not a tower of strength.
but broken reed :. 1t must lead
to a cataclysm-a violent upheaval, a
revolution with all its terrors.'
USES OF ADVERSELY.
"Sweet are the uses of adversity:"
our painful awakening from the head
mess of prosperity will not be unac-
companied by the learning of some
greatly needed lessons. Having gone
beyond all bounds in frenzied plung-
ing of every sort we shall learn to
temper the heat of our ambition with
cool conservatism. Acquiring the
habit of retrenchment will teach us to
hold our passions in check, to look
from present desires to future needs,
Thrust back, as some of us will be,
into more modest standards of living,
we shall learn to do with little, to es-
TEEN the benefits of systematic econo-
my, to get more pleasure from the ap-
probation of what we may call our
very own, than from the guilty en-
ployment of what we cannot afford
and must suffer for. We shall un-
learn all sorts of foolish vanities and
silly shams which come with hollow
pretense; we may bring to honor
again the older social standards in
which it was not wealth and lavish en-
tertainment. but education, refine
ment, manhood and womanliness
which secured social standing. We
shall increase the national wealth by
ceasing to be guilty of frittering it
away in childish destructiveness, by
strengthening our financial stability,
by cultivating the practice of saving.
After they have shared, more or less
the alarms and the hardships of this
ordeal better feeling may result be-
tween rich and poor, so that there be
less and less of the cold, unimagina-
tive selfishness which can set it's pleas
ure Of the moment above the wretch