The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-08-31

stract and romantic. 1t is greed for
symbol forgetfuI of what the SYM
Dol implies And this greed for a
symbol spreads among people that
OF erwise greedy, who do manage by
means of money to engage ruthlessly
in the struggle for life without ever
being aware that they are red of tooth
and claw. The decorum of money
wraps itself around them and hides
from them the character and tie re-
suits of their own greed. They see
only lists of securities; they do not
even see Leaps of gold; and, even if
ihey do engage in quarrel about
money with some one else no less
greedy for it, there is only lawsuit
decently conducted, -ich may cause
decent ruin to the losers that the win
ner never sees. All he knows is that
he has got judgment in his favor,
which means of course, that he takes
certain number of material things
from his opponent. But it does not
mean that to him. To him it means
kind of religious justification, giving
him a moral as we'll as a legal right
to own the money he gets through it.
That we do unconsciously reverence
money more than tie things we get
with it is proved by two curious facts.
You can give a man anything except
money without affecting your relations
with him; and mans dependents may
steal many things from him without
calling it theft, but they know always
that taking money is stealing. EVl-
IDENTIFY, ten, money is more sacred
than any other kind of material pos
sessions, but why? 1t only differs
from other material possessions in
that it is a means of getting them, that
while you have money you keep your
power of choice because you have not
yet chosen. So if you give money you
only give tie power of choice, and if
you steal money you steal the power
of choice; and this power seems to
US more sacred than any of the things
that can be chosen. We do reverence
the man VITO has great deal OF
power, just because he has not yet
chosen, and because he perhaps might
choose nobly or generously: But we
may be sure that, if he is greedy OF
| the power, he will not Goose nobly
or generously-in fact, that the man
who can ennoble money is he who
cares very little for it. The war makes
all these things palmer to US than they
were in time Of peace. We now see
greed for money as it is, and we no
longer reverence tie rich man because
| of what he might do with his money,
since we have other tests forced upon
US than these possibilities. We value
man for what he does, not for what
re might do; for his actual personal
qualities rather than for his posses
sions. In that we are like people on
sinking ship, for whom all the GUS
| tomary social values are. destroyed
and a man is a man only if he proves
himself one. To us now the private
who wins the Victoria cross is bet
ter man than the millionaire who can
not sleep at night for fear Of bombs.
The money test is, for the time, al
most abolished. We know by our own
| experiences at last that a man may be
poor. not because he is fool or a
weakling but because he cares for other
things than money But shall we re-
member this when peace comes again
Men commonly apply the money test,
not SO much because they are base in
their own desires as because it IS
easy to apply. We know by hearsay
wi. en- man is rich; we have to find out
for ourselves whether he is simple and
kindly and brave. But our judgments
are worth nothing to ourselves or any
one else unless we make them for our
selves, unless they are based upon
what man does rather than on what
he mas; and there is nothing which
hinders US so much from exercising
our own judgment as the reverence for
money. 1t hides from US our own
greed and the greed Of others. 1t
spreads fog of decorum where there
ought to be no decorum at all; it
makes US think there is peace where
there is a sharp material war. And
this war, not purely material, opens
our eyes to the nature Of the other.
-