The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-17
THE DISINHERITED
BY Rev. g. F. Dole.

1t seems to ne that the well-to. do
people can never rest con cent so long
as they do nothing radically to correct
two immense pieces of legalized injus-
tIce. The first is our system of unIim-
tied license in the Inheritance of prop
| erty. We used to be eheerfully told
in the days of small fortunes that the
inequalities of Inheritance were soon
| corrected by the subdivision of estates.
This is no longer true. What we aetu-
| ally see today is a considerable class of
those who are living upon large inherit
ed properties. Most of these have
never done any social service to justify
their enormous consumption of the in
come of the country. Grant, if you
please, that society did well to permit
the first accumulation of great estates
the reward of their energy or inyen-
| tiyeness or administrative skill We
| do not grudge reasonable prizes to the
men who have bestowed large benefits
upon society. If they desire to secure
their children from the fear of poverty,
we make no objection. The manifest
/ injustice begins as soon as an idle class
| appears who become vast permanent
charge upon the labor of the world.
Such class is growing before our eyes.
As whole it is selfish, wasteful, ex-
travagant and luxurious. 1t does not
know how to educate its own children.
A very large part of it does not even
rest upon the honest prizes of distin-
guished service on the part of those
who first amassed it. Special privileges,
speculation, exploitation, graft, have
VIGOROUSLY been at the root Of many
of the great fortunes.
d You can not permit one class Of peo-
pie to spend the income of hundreds of
millionaire estates without injury to
all the rest, and worst of all to the
poor. Even the most honest of the
great properties came about from the
cooperation of millions of working
people. They were built out of social,
political and economic conditions, and
institutions which the whole nation had
been creating for generations. They
had thus grown out of the birthright
of the whole people, or again by virtue
of laws and customs which all had a
share in making. Of no great estate
could any man truly say, II created
this myself; it is mine to do what I
please with This is not even true
of the most valued invention; and we
therefore strictly limit the term of
every patent and royalty. We are
bound therefore utterly to deny the
right of any man to bestow by will, as
he may like, whatever great property
he has temporarily got together under
his name. The laws may still permit
this. The injustice and arrogance of
his claim to say, "To my heirs and as
signs forever are obvious. We shall
some day look on this abuse as we al
ready have come to look upon the
feudal system and the inheritance of
. political power
Over against the great properties
whose incomes 60 to support per-
manent idle class, just like the medi
. aeval French lords, is host of :. the
submerged tenth y / have heard DIR.
! Rainsford say that he saw no imme-
date hope of greatly benefting the
conditions of the dwellers in New York
I tenement houses From generation to
generation they threaten TO constitute
\ | a disinherited class People like them
\ Saw what you like of their faults, such
as intemperanee and Incidence; does
\ anyone doubt that the disabilities. OF
these poor people are closely involved
in the incomes of the great properties
of the idle rich? One class is too poor
in order that another class may be toe
richl When will kindly men and
women. protesting the Christian re
\ ligion, learn that nothing can make il
honest or right to spend and consume
and yet do nothing to make good what
one has used up.
This brings us to the second master
injustice The standing curse of al
the poor people is in the item of rent
There can hardly be a question about
the inequity of our present system OF
the ownership of the land. Values
. which all create all ought certainly
to share The legality of the Aston
estate only blinds us to it's absurdltS
| and unrighteousness. What distin-
| guished services have the landlords
conferred upon society that they
9 should hold the perpetual monopois
j of the most highly priced land in the
world!
we see here a direct connection be,
Il
| ingly-rich country like ours every
child ought to be the natural inner
, itor Of a share in the land and in al
n the resources such as coal, timber anc
iron, that go with the land. It might
be quite possible that we could give
8 the equivalent of modest home, rent.
u free, to every household in the ma
ton. We could anyway give home:
free OF. any rent except to the state
and the rent to the state would pur
chase every kind of material ant
moral advantage in civilized living
4 On the contrary, our system OF lant
| laws gives us Carnegies and Roekefel
lers on one side and a vast. hopeless
disinherited multitude set over agains
them The rent paid by the poor tina
should surely go to the bettermen
| Of life, goes everywhere into the peck
cts of private persons, tending Z
| widen the breach that separates tn
| .thaves'' from the 'have-nots.
Thus. the problem of poverty q
! | bottom is the problem of how to cor
rect two huge abuses-the present pre-
! pocferoaIs talera ton of inordinate In