Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-19
THE 80 VS.. THE 10 PER CENT

TN REPLY to the complaint of n reader
lthat 10 per cent of the people own 90
per cent of the wealth of the country, an.
other correspondent rushes into the col
umns of contemporary to declare that
10 per cent of the people also have 80
per cent of the brains, which he adduces
as a good and sufficient reason why the
aforesaid inequality in possessions is per-
fectly fair and proper.
It is not important how nearly accurate
these figures are, for the problem would
be just as interesting If the percentages
were 40 and 60 instead of 10 and 9O or
whether we say money" or power" on
the one hand, and brains" or Ingenuity"
on the other. The essential truth is that
those who attain most completely their
obvious desires are far in the minority.
The day is past when people will be
satisfied with that conception of the prob
lem which puts the rich in the position
of tightly banded force bearing down on
the poor just short of the point of causing
revolution, and the poor in the position Of
coming as near as possible to revolution
without running the risk of being unable
to buy shoes for the baby. Democracy
and highly specialized and ramifying
Industrial system have scattered rich and
poor throughout the population until they
are hardly distinguishable. The waiter
who bows to and is tipped by us is, after
hours, himself bowed to by a lesser waiter
whom he tips with part of our tip. The
slave" in a factory may be the "tyrant"
in q union. The 'tyrant" in the factory
may be the slave" in the stock market.
Again, your millionaire dixie Tom John.
son or a Joseph Fels) may be the reddest
radical in the country, and your $1,000 a
year clerk the demon of plutocracy, be-
cause, forsooth, he sees his way to max
ing a million. The rich always ye have
with you.
Is there, then, no dividing line in this
subtle war between superior and inferior
brains, no touchstone in the quest for the
right path TO progress? There is-it is
in the law. That is the only social force
which links the generations in an intelligi-
BILE history. 1t is the defense of the weak
against the strong. It has not produced
Justice; neither have riches produced hap
pIness nor poverty hopelessness. But
still men strive for riches, still they keep
hope though poor, still they put their
faith in the law, Through it they have
cleared away some dark and dismal for
ests, even though, while their axes fell,
the jungle of privilege (Which is Latin for
private law'-that is, no law at alD was
creeping in elsewhere. 1t is an unequal
struggle because the brains involved are
unequal. But 1t is eventually only
through the law that presumes all equal
that any approximation of justice is
made. Two great social movements,
which, while within the law are not Of
the law, exemplify the weakness of ex-
tralegal reform. A mighty labor union
and a mighty capital union have found
themselves in an impotent deadlock as
long as they tried to settle a public ques-
ton by an application TO IL of private
methods They gravitated to the Office Of
a man who has never run a locomotive
or managed railway system, but who
represents the law.
The aee-old problem OF the 10 and the
80 per cent is not unsolyable; the line be-
tween brains and Drawn and between
millions ana men Is not clean cut out all
zigzaggy with social salients Social leg
islation is force that can move with
out the backing OF either Capital or La
Dor. But It viii not move toward more
stable equilibrium of Industrial justice
unless It is made and administered by
men and women who have faith in it..
The Church could not live with agnostie
priests in her pulpits. The law cannot
wax stronger IN the hands of those who
have no faith In its possibilities Be
cause It has often failed Is no argument
against its principle. Because men could
not measure Pixies Peak with a foot
rule they did not lose faith In the foot
rule; it was through keeping faith in the
footrule that they evolved trigonomstry
a-aa measured ths mountain.