Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-13
An Open Letter to a Young
Millionaire.
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

Ny Dear Young Friend: You have ask
ed me what to do. You are twenty-one
years old. You are of an old family. You
have come into an inheritance of $780,
100000.
You do not even have to look after
your property; trust companies and
trained bonded agents attend to it for
you. Every month you receive your usu
fruct. and it IS large you are unable
to spend it.
will tell you what to do. What l give
you Is advice. which is one of the few
things you will find handed you in large
quantities which you do not have to pay
for. My advice will have the merit of
being plain. simple and understandable.
My idea, however. is second hand In
the Book of Luke you may read the ac-
count of a certain rich Young man who
asked the Carpenter of Nazareth what he
should do in order to live the right life.
Jesus told him to keep the command
ments. He replied that he had kept
them from his youth up. Then the Mas
ter said to him:
Yet lackest thou one thing; sell all
that thou hast and distribute unto the
poor and come. follow me- And when
the young man heard this he was very
sorrowful. for he was very rich
CThis Isl one of those passages which
Thoreau doubtless had in mind when he
said: Get but the plain words of Jesus
once uttered in a church and not one
stone of ii would be left upon another.')
Read this in the light of those modern
ideas you have learned from your study
of the great sociological thinkers of the
past fifty years.
Then substitute 1.-The people for 1.-The
poor" and go and do what Jesus told
the young man to do.
Draw up an account of all your posses
sions and write to the authorities of the
city of New York stating that you wish
TO give the entire amount to the munich
patty.
To keep them from squandering it, it
might be Well to stipulate that the
money be used only for the purpose of
more and better teachers for the chill
dren. In this way you could In a meas
ure correct the evil of your privileged
condition in enabling future children to
enter upon life fairly equipped
do not suggest that you give to
churches, universities and the like, not
hecaiae these institutions have not their
place, but that the public schools out
weigh them in Importance a hundred to
one and that these schools are now alb
surdly skimped and inefficient.
Then go to work. Find any job that
arr one is ready to offer. Make up your
miEd to start fair with every other child
born on your birthday, to take no I'M
earned money.
Get that money load off your soul. You
have no business with II. 1t came to you
through medieval laws most of II from
the sheer force of the privilege OF cap
ital. II Is unjust 10 yourself to remain
on throne OF power to which you were
never elected and which you never gain
ed by any worth of yours.
The money came from the people. Give
IL back to them. They may fool II away,
but that is their business. and the pr
sponsibility is theirs.
he
long. and far. better is 1t to take your
place In the ranks of life and work shoul-
der to shoulder with the rest of us gain
ing what need of success you can, or be-
ing more nobly failure. than to go
through your days with that milestone
around your neck.
And, besides. your example in unload
ing yourself of this undeserved burden
and putting Ii where II belongs would do
more moral, spiritual and economic good
than IL you were TO build 10000 cathe-
drals and sow libraries over the land as
thick as the sands OF the sea.
This advice. of course. you will not To-
low. That would be to listen to still,
small voice against the roar Of the Zeit-
geist tempest But put II away where
you can find ii. Some day when your
LIES candle burns low 1t may interest
you to read these WORKS by its fading
light.