The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-27
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-The Rev. Edward Bowling,
S. j., one of the editors of pious little month
ly magazine called the Queens Work, mas
been my friend for 20 years, personal TACT
which 1 mention only by way OF disalarmlng
any who may be inclined to regard the en-
suing discussion as attack on him. the
Catholic Church and or, Christianity.
In a recent issue Father Downing discussed
taxes and came to the point OF recommending.
as an aid to the salvation of the rich, the
limitation of individual possessions to $4,000
or 500, 0C0.
Inasmuch as he did propose the $4,000 linn
itation 1 will take the lower figure as the
basis of NY objection. 1t dramatizes the story.
What Father Bowling h e e recommends
would destroy our system Of government and
substitute socialism, against which my old pre-
ceptor and, 1 believe Father Dowling's, the
Rev. Father Fritz Siedenburg. whose special
ties were sociology and economics, inveighed
in church and classroom and in print for
many years He also inveighed memorably to
me in our frequent long walks by the shore
of Lake Michigan on the north side of Chi
cago, where Father Siedenburg, who had a
worldly genius for promotion, was building
Loyola Academy and accommodating very
tidy fortune for his order, or perhaps the do
cese through real estate operations
Limit individual fortunes to S1OO 900 and you
put an automatic stop to ambition very early
in the lives of the exceptional men and women
and confront everyone whose wealth mas
reached the plimsoll with a great temptation
to scuander further earnings on luxurious and
worldly and even loose living, which is just
what Father Bowling is against. Parenthet-
| ically, | would say that can see no objection
to luxury as such and that nobody who has
visited the Vatican or passed by the quarters
provided for Archbishop Francis j. Spellman
in New York has received an impression OF
bleaknesS.
When I was public enemy in Excelsior,
Minn oranges were a luxury at all tunes,
green vegetables were available only to the
rich in winter and hesitant motorized buggy,
with cruising radius of about 20 miles, winch
steered with tiller and had only dirt roads
to run on was the plaything of the million
aire Millionaires, then, now, had other
playthings to be sure, but as one VINO mas
covered thousands of default divorce hearings,
am on sure ground in adding that this is nc
private vice of the dirty rich, but pretty even
ly distributed.
If luxurious living is bad for the character
and the SOUL then the majority OF our people
are more than half likely to end up IN hell
for This was on the average, up to the war
a very luxurious nation by comparison Will
any other. :. ,5;
To proceed. if my friend means, in addi-
ton. to make it impossible for the person o.
unusual ability, for example, one VINO mas
made some great contribution to ms 1enoW'
men. to enjoy large income byond MS oasle
accumulation of $1,000 then he destroys IN
centive and. on the spiritual side, lmperlls
+ha- one bv condemning his hands to ldleness
in which case the devil may flnd work lo1
them to do. Beyond $4,000 he has nothing
10 work fol but his day-to-day living. some
h0r
a few weeks.
peon1a who argue that riches make tor slr
and also that poverty breeds crime contra
dict themselves and assume an arbitrary ane
certainly disputed authority to say exactly
how much is enough to keep others as HAPPY
as they should be, but out OF mlscnleI. lhe0
have no right to rule that because one tamil.
goes to smash for having a great fortune
then no family, however decent, is to be trust
ed with m or e than $4,000 or any othe
amount And if it is argued that wealth. Il
power and that rich man shou1o not "
allowed to possess such power, then let m
ask whether the Catholic church also woult
give up its wealth, and down TO What maxi
Mum figure. and who would get It,
At ceiling of $4,000 man could owl
very little property His home Woulo De SINAI
and not well built his furniture not very at
tractive his farm mere patch with prlml
five tools and machinery, his store MON
and.ron establishment with small inventor.
and his automobile jallopy, and I wait t.
hear from Father Bowling how he would di
vide up the millions OF American dwelling
which alone, cost more than $4,000 eacl
and the many other indlvlslpie holdings o
rnen an women who got theirs honestl
through hard work and unusual ability.
Can the boarder who offers to help wit
the spring housekeeping be said to exercis
shirt-sleeve diplomacy?
e Grandpappy Jenkins the other day, pre-
:, viewed some of the new spring millinery TO
1.dies and still can't get over the fact tina
If some Of the items were easily identifiable a
n hats.