The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-08-24
THE RICH AND THEIR WRONGS

THE RICH AND THEIR WRONGS
Not the least difficult task confront
ing a perverted and selfish human ma
ture that yet conscientiously seeks
salvation. II TO be a rich man meriting
justification fornbis wealth. The odds
against his success are enormous, for
the very 4 hits of riches tend OF their
nature TO blunt the sharp edges OF
human understanding of humanity
without which true phiianthroph is
impossible. II is possible that Jones.
the multimillionaire, enjoying possibly
imported wine and certainly imported
cigars in a luxurious and w~ell-heated
home, can sympathiZe with Smith, the
exceedingly non-millionaire, freezing
In an icicied tenement; but IL Is prob
able that IL Smith desires practical
sympathy he will not find II blocks
away in the velvet-carpeted apartment
of Jones, but in the tenement next
door to his own where Brown has also
learned the meaning of a rigorous
winter. It is sociological truism that
the poor always help the poor.
But this is no reason why the poor
should always envy and hate the rich.
AS a matter of fact, the poor, learning
the bitter lesson OF poverty or near
poverty, do not envy or hate the rich.
They yearn for the comfort that be-
longs to riches, anr at the same time
enjoy consultations that riches cannot
buy; they are witnesses to the useless
squandering OF riches and also wit
nesses to the uselessnes of riches in
many OF those tragic climaxes of liv-
ing which the rich shrink from with
so much despair and the poor face
with so much equanimity.
The Great Unwashed
The man who slouches through the
streets cadging dimes for spurious
cups oil coffee is usually held up to
suspicion and punishment because ne
Is without visible means OF support,
and this when his e of support
are eternally visible and ~eease!essiy
supporting him. He Is depicted as
"the great unwashed," ripe for the
revolution which the most serene OF
the rich and the most crack-brained OF
the submerged commonly p:ophesy,
whereas about the only thing he is
ripe and ready for Is the next drink
and the next piece of bread that can
be obtained without the announcement
barter of a sweating brow. Naturally
in those rare cases where ii dime
cadger Is genuine In his beggary,
where the blind cruelty OF economic
selection has robbed him of the right
to a livelihood. or where the natural
burden OF family responsibilities har-
asses him in the struggle for existence
his intelligence revolts at the gross
! uneyenness Of fortune. But even II
our diordered civilization there Is 9
| final haven for all but the pitiably
| sickened and weakened-the land, tina
| nourishes all men.
In all the recorded uprisings of thu
poor against the rich, the result-as II
Russia today-has simply been defea
| for the poor, because the only perman
ent victory that poor can hope to gall
IS Christian pride in their poverty. ]
is morally false to assert that tn
state of being poor is anything but rel
alive, excepting where proverty !
rendered absolute by squalid inabilit
TO mend matters-and is 1t in sue
cases that society merits severest cor
demnation. Such cases constitute tn
stock in trade Of professional philar