Arizona republican., 1910-10-19
A PICTURESQUE CHARACTER.
Joseph Fels Tells How DissracefulIy Easy 1t Is to Get Rich: As
 Easy as Stealing.'

Five minutes after meeting Joseph Fels you know him; in an hour you have the illusion that you have al ways known him; and then, next you feel the certainty that you all ways will know him, says Lincoln Steffens in the October American magazine. And the reason for this is that he is all there all the time There isn't much of him physically. He is just about five feet tall.
 This city will be bigger some day." said a St. Louis judge who was answering a speech by Fels You yourself are bigger than you were when you were born, aren't you?"
 Not much" said Fels.
 But this tiny body hasn't anything to do with his being. Quick. nervous, eager, glad, his horsepower, so to speak, is that of Theodore Roose- welt. He flies at his work, like an insect; he is gay about it. It's so easy" he says.
 And he has humor and wit. His wit has been sharpened by the heck ling he gets while campaigning in England, but it is founded on humOr, and his humor is founded on his success in making money; soap, too, but principally money; very much money.
 Tt is so easy" he laughs. You get a monopoly. Then you get a lot of people to work for you, and you give them as little as you please of ,U h-v stealing"
 In his speech at the Chicago City club (March II, 191O) he said it was robbery. Addressing the Armours" and other rich men he said:
 We can't get rich under present conditions without robbing some body. I've done it; you are doing it now and I still am doing it. But I am proposing to spend the damn able money to wipe out the system by which I made it" And he invited all men to match him dollar for dol lar in the fund he has established q the extent of his swag," as he put it to abolish poverty"
 And he laughs; not maliciously, but with amusement; and some wonder.
 Isn't it strange?" he says. They don't see that. They don't think it is robbery; they don't believe l mean what I say. And yet, the fact that l have money gives me a certain au- thority, and so my statement has the sensation of news. The truth I utter is old, but it's news because a rich man says it"
 And pOking you in the ribs, he puts you in the crowd and laughs at you. For he knows that you also think a little more of what he says because he is a rich man. He can see it.
 And that's the point about Fels He sees. He has imagination; he sees the machinery of life as vividly as a mathematician sees a geometric figure, or an astronomer a constella- tion. Most men see stars. Or bread" said Fels, helping out the ex- pression, "or soap. F'els sees the of soap-making, bread making and human exploitation.
 Most Jews do," he says. That's why we succeed so well in business. We see it as a system, as a dia-
 
 to work for wages. We can see that that's no way to make money. That is the way to make soap all right and bread. But the way to make money is to get hold of land or franchise; water, gas, transportation; or a food monopoly; any privilege that men must have the use of, and | then-then hold 'em up to get the 1 use of it. And most men don't see it; they won't see it; they won't see it when you tell them. Well, we see 1 it, we Jews, and-some others It's because Fels' friends see what l Fels sees that they know him so we'll l And they know him so quickly, be- l cause with his quick, sharp, explosive | sentences he has learned to present | his point of view, his philosophy, l his vivid picture of the world com pletely and instantly. Also his feel ngs about it all.
 For Fels cares. He is deeply con cerned about the facts he laughs at |
 T didn't use to be-" he said once | I've been a single taxer ever since [ read Georges books. I've seen the | cat for years. But didn't do much | till I was converted. And, strange to | say. was converted by socialist; single taxers and socialists don't | agree; too often they fight. But it l was Kier Hardie who converted me to the single tax, or as I prefer to call it, Christianity. I came home on |