Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-03-25
THE PATHOLOGY OF GREAT RICHES

Everybody IS famlllar enough with the ecOnO- mic arguments against inordinate individual wealth, because it is so plain that few cannot get too much without leaving the many too lit tie.
 The moral objections to concentrated wealth, too, are obvious because it is bad for the morals of the rich to be rich, and 1t is bad for the nor als of the poor to be poor; both poverty and riches tend to undermine moral fiber, and both bring their peculiar temptations.
 The physical objections are less familiar, but not the less powerful for that. The disintegra- tion of physical fiber from rich living fortunate ly attacks only few; but the sapping of human energy by malnutrition caused by too small a supply of food or too restricted a diet unfor- tunately attacks very many.
 The Medical Record puts the pathological case against the unfair distribution of wealth. as follows:
 ''In respect to the sociological and health pro- blems created by excessive fortunes, the phys- elan, in an individual way, has opportunity to work for society through his intimate profes- sional relations with the very rich. He can hon. estly assert that the creation of unduIy great fortunes is benefit neither to their possessors nor to the race. Ability habitually to overn- dulge in costly indigestible food and drink and to avoid physical labor, combined with the ex- cessive nervous strain of business competition and the complexities of social life have their results in the steadily rising rates for disabil- ity and death from neurasthenia gout, rheuma- tism, and the diseases of the heart, kidneys and circulatory apparatus. The poor man, with all his ills dependent upon malnutrition, fortunate ly escapes that of corpulency, condition that was recently shown had never, in the exper- ence of the two largest insurance companies, ex- isted in risks who survived to good old age. Both extremes in the social scale have their spe- cial perils.
 ''As doctors we appreciate that beyond the ability to provide for all ones physical and mental needs, the acquisition of wealth serves no useful purpose; while the corresponding de- privatiOn under which the general public is thus made to labor has too profound an infu- ence on the race to permit us to countenance wealth. getting as a pastime or an Obession The collection of dollars has quite different effect upon the community from that of the collection of postage stamps, for example. And when the man with superabundance apparently regards money getting as a sport like hunting, it is we'll to recall that nearly all our states now have laws fixing legal limit to the bag of quail or trout. Nor does the ultimate good disposition of great wealth repair the damage wrought by it's ac- emulation With all appreciation toward those who build hospitals, endow institutions and do- nate libraries, nothing they thus do can com pensate the race as whole for the results of the less wholesome conditions and environments which continual denial of their adequate share in the rewards of industry have brought about '
 That's pretty good reasoning from every so- cial, economic, moral or pathological viewpoint. The idea of putting legal limit on the game bag of the dollar-chaser, as the states put Ie- gal limit on the gamebag of the trout-angler is particularly good. It is worth thinking over when the program for the new birth of liberty that is coming is being framed.