Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1911-02-02
CHIC Health
c0N1aNUED FROM nm PAGE.

Our little store mas not been gained
BIZ loss.
All, the heart cries loudly to us
every day. and from a million trum-
pets, that civic health is surely civic
wealth.
Men More Than Money.
And now (finally) let us question
that faculty of reason which was
given to us to be the torch to cast a
light ahead into every darkness where
in we may be obliged to grope- in our
mortal pilgrimage. Let us ask if the
elemental inquiry: Does man exist for
the state, or does the state exist for
man? With one. glad accord both
history and philosophy leap up with
the prompt answer that man, indivi-
dual man and the family, with all
their inherent and antecedent rights,
existed before the commune or the
state; and that the commune or the
state exist only to safeguard the rights
Of man and of the family. Organized
civil society is ordained for the sole
purpose of protecting and preserving
the rights of the elemental and sacred
human things, Individual men and in
dividual families. All other things in
the community are of less Importance
than these. Railroads are less i'm
portant; skyscrapers are less import
ant; banks, warehouses ana great in
dustrial establishments are less i'm
portant. Men are more than money.
Man is the sacred and ancient thing.
If other things are against man, other
things must go down. If the material
growth of city or the material ad-
vance of state are against man, they
shall be stopped and made to face
about, or to move off into new and
right direction.
To put the matter in another way,
our civil organization was ordained
for the common good and not for the
public good. The common good is
that sum total. of advantages which,
by reason of being found in society,
concerns all those who belong to So
ciety.
"Civil society, having been institute
ed to protect and improve all the
rights of its members, acts against
its antural Office, against the Office for
which alone it exists, if it Injuries, in
stead of helping, sing one of its
associates, even though or the benefit
of all the others; if it proposes to
obtain the good of some, be they no
matter how powerful or wealthy and
not that of all; if, in word, it is con
tent to promote the so-called public
good. instead of the common good
(Rosmini.)
Accordingly, that ordinance which;
however, succeeds in impoverishing
one class for the benefit Of another is
antisocial, much as it may appear to
do good or to accomplish some excel
lent work. Society in such case is
sick, because it does not attain the
common good. Only that society is
really and healthfully alive in which
the consciousness of social duties is
awake and active, leading men to
work for the common good.
To discuss the matter in q less
abstract fashion, let us suppose COM
muniy of 10000 men whose aggregate
material wealth is $1,0O0,OOO. Suppose,
further. for the sake of the illustra-
ton, that it is equally divided so that
each man has 800. Here the COM
mon good is safeguarded, so far as
money is concerned. And now let us
suppose that the ordinances of the
community are SO changed or twisted
or thwarted as to permit ten mensto
possess the million, leaving the other
$3.50 with nothing. If the ten men
have possessed themselves of the
governing functions as well as of the
money, the public good may be still
as well preserved as before, but no
one would dare say that the common
good has not suffered. Suppose
further that one astute and strong
man succeeded in overcoming his nine
colleagues, and like many tyrant in
the worlds history. lords it ruthless
Iy over-the whole 10000. Tyrant
ruler though he may be, he may yet
conserve the public good better than
it would have been conserved in the