The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-10
SAYS UNCLE CAV

I sometimes wonder If We'll ever
get down to real business in social
reform. At present all such EFFORTS
are more or less superficial and alto
gether Iopsided. Society is healthy
only in the middle. 1t has tendency
to die at both ends. When a man mas
too much or too little, he is getting
ready to slip into the discard. The
idle rich are quite as bad off as the
idle poor and a good deal more dan
gerous. Nobody wants to Initiate the
latter, but a good many otherwise
sensible folk would like to fill the
c--oes of the former. The inord1nately
rich men who escape the damnatlon
of opulence are those VINO keep on
working for the love of it. The pen
atty of existence without effort and In
an atmosphere of ennui is visited upon
their children unto the second genera
ton, after which nature usually steps
in, grabs the victim by the nape or
the neck and shunts him back to the
soil for the healing of his soul and the
regeneration of the family line.
This is not q socialistic sermon and
has nothing to do with the division OF
ealth, which might be the worst
II ing that could happen 10 race that
has thrived upon individual effort and
doesn't know how to keep healthy by
any other means than toll.
The middle class man is ordinarily,
live he must exercise normally the
functions developed in him by the
struggles of untold generations of an
stors. He is not altogether habby
in flesh or brain. He gets enough eX-
ercise of mind and muscle to keep his
circulation in fair condition and hope
stimulates his spiritual side. He is
forced to be useful and therefore pos
sesses the priceless boon of conscious
ness of worth. Ennui is unknown to
him; he's too busy doing big things or
little things that count. He doeSn
stagnate, he doesn't die of disuSe. He
lives naturally and, tn erefore, happily
The rich man who still purSues his
J Iors for the love of them is in this
sense essentially middle class. His
IDEAS may be warped, his habits may
be in some respects bad, but he knows
the saving grace of tell. And the mid
die class man is the only man who
isn't in need of Wholesale reformation.
There can be no social reform worth
while until we begin work at both
ends. 1t is quite as essential that we
awake the gilded idler to the necessity
of working out his own salvation as 1t
is that we educate the pauper to take
care of himself. We do not begrudge
the rich man his wealth-we only ask
him to quit setting bad example, get
to work and redeem himself through
usefulness. Neither do we complain
of the burden of supporting the i'm
poverished incompetents. We merely
wish to enable them to do for them
selves what we cannot do Tor them.
We wish to encourage them to work
out their own redemption in exactly
the same way that the wealthy in
competent works out his.
The remedy. in word, is to do
useful work. Nature loves averages
in physical conditions. The cure for
the idle rich and the idle poor is to
get close to the pursuits and the ideals
the middle masses. Figuratively or
literally, they should get back to the
soil. The old adage of three genera
lions from shirt sleeves to shirt
sleeves" as applied to democratic
society has a world of truth in it. 1t
is natures effort to preserve the race,
to maintain that healthy equilibrium
work, rest, physical comforts and
normal mental conditions
It's apparently a huge problem now,
for we have assumed that the law
cannot undertake the industrial regen-
Grafton of a man able to pay his way.
But society itself will presently bring
to bear the force of the fulcrum of
moral suasion upon the top as well as
upon the bottom of the social pie and
it will be quite as disgraceful to be
usel s in purple as it is to be useless
in rags.