MORALS OF MILLIONAIRES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 139, 9 December 1911, Page 12

MORALS OF MILLIONAIRES.

. THE IDLE AND- THE BUSY RICH. 'America is becoming very sensitive about its millionaires (says a writer in . the London Daily Chronicle).- In a way ' it is proud of them, as Americans are • ' proud of anything very big ■ and very * powerful. But 'its conscience \s Having a . few twinges about the morality of mill 'Honaiffifi 1 . in ''general 'and of certain epeci- ■ -meus ; is*-par*icular. * Preachers are. say- < fing T»tne,r7'haid" things abolit them. : idealists ar£ aenOTincing'theni. It can- ' not be denied ihat their* habits are not » -always very nice. Even the average man hustling on his way to wealth and • eager for more dollars of his' own is in- -•' clined to thinls: that it is not altogether 1 ' fight for one man to be co mightily rich ] when there are so many poor devils in , 1 ■ absolute misery. ■ ■ ■ Two new books diaro. been published ."dealing with this^ subject in different -aspects. Both 4 of, them — written by • ' 'Americans-Endeavour .to prove that the' \\ iniUionair^.M' 'ndt necessarily an evil \\ creature, gjegtlrf vulgarity -as Well as • p great itt-stWu^^ 'immeiise in; selfishness "as in pow^iirtkr the Jives .o'f'thfc poor toilers who create hie. fortune. But both books, written in defence of the '< ideal millionaire, admit with almost pain i;ful candour the utteT baseness of many I • members of this class. ;■ ORGIES OF EXTRAVAGANCE. k '. In *3?h*< Passing 'of the Idle Rich," by *;^edeTs^',ToWflsend Martin (HoHder 1 * *nd Sjgjjggft&tft), -the - author has taken » *jj;rc"rf ■TjfljHflf ,i^ .'accumulating scandalous " "jßtorie^^ffth^ "\fSOf 1 in which millionaires S3end*^Swir';ni6B!&^., Haying read his inictm(^^jbne.'K^ £ '»but little patience in '. Jeadh^^rjl^enpe;' for if all these tales ' -be tn*^>-oile'iS"3>emptetl io declare a holy t i.war ag^Mtttt^^whole class and cry, ; v '''Away -with them!" 'i He teib one story, of a millionaire who wfcought'a house in New York City for ;', 2,000,000 dollars :•*- - - - ■ ' "On his garden, to make space for \ 'jwhicfi he tore down, otjbiiilding that cost :;100.000, the new^^ywnef 'Spent 500,000 • 'dollars. His bedstead is-^of carved ' ivory and ebony/'inMi'ii 'with gold. It „oost 200,000 dollar's^ ,Th 6 walls are ' lichly carved and decoraled with enamel '.and gold; they cost 65,000" dollars. . * . .' ,TKe wardrobe in .this i»mo»s bedToom * • represents an', outlay of 150,000 dollars, -'and the d*«te«ing-tabl© 65,000.- The i;washstand*.?,cost 38,000/ "and'the bed;:hangings JO, dollars i a yard. * - The tyilhpr describes a number of --"freaki* /dinners, in which there was a. ; ' mad c£^io' of extravagance. At one of *• them jßttohi^ guest found, in one of hia '••jjysteiVjji' magnificent black pearl. When j

the North Pole was "discovered," an enthusiastic American gavea "ten thousand dollar dinnei?,'.' with icebergs round th-e dinner-table, waiters dressed as Eskimos, and stuffed ' Polar bears round the walls. ... , The wife of a Western man owns a pet monkey. The littl* beast lives in a private room, and is constantly attended by a valet. It rides abroad behind its private trotter,, has its own, outfit of clothes,' its "dining-table, and a bed made of ' solid ivory tipped with gold ornaments. All told, perhaps a dozen, human beings mipistev tq u the comlorts of the Jiljtl© sinnaji, ( and the mistress pays 'eheerfiilly, ffom i ten to fifteen thousand dollars "yearly oil this one extravagance. ' ■ Indignation at this debauchery of wealth pales before our pity for the misery of these idle rich, who in search of happiness spend fortunes on a freak and vast wealth on a passing whim, and remain in the miserable state. of having to devise^ new' vajditieV'by^ Whiclr/thejjf may 'get'^fid J of "somV'df their "burden* <}f money,. which; crushes, them dowiji and dejjtroygrtheir -human nature. > ■ ' T^l^lDilAli MILLIONAIRE., In 'tlse book of Mr. Gerald Stanley' Lee, entitled, "Inspired Millionaires"' (Grant Richardsj,'-we are given a Vision of the , millionaire "in excelsis.", '. ( Mr. Lee agrees that the millionaire is not all that he should be, and he goes on to plead passionately, brilliantly, and unconvincingly that the ideal millionaire may be the noblest, purest, and most exalted eon! alive :—: — , I believe (he is pleased to say) -that the next Messiah that comes to the world is going to be a Messiah for Millionaires, I pelieye that the time is almost .at hand 'wneh He ~ will cpnie'tb us*, He ' tv Ul ,^ come rather , modestly, perhap's^'aiicl' lie will 'hie "a- silent, .busy , man, ,fou£ When 'he' dies, • and everybody turns his way, and looks a minute, there will be a great village somewhere smoking up to the sky, blessing him. That idea of the smoking village, destroying • nature with its, poisonous fumes, and deadening the iwjee't.'. sounds . of life by the crash "and of great machinery, is very .American t jts' spirit of prophecy,! Mr /Gerald - Stanley Lee takes, Jumself,, -andi million* aires, very seriously r" He 'believes' thai a man may make the profession-.of-j'be-ing a millionaire more religious than ttie toonastic life, more beautiful than ! the life of St. Francis of AssisL He is scornful of the Now Testament, which does not believe .in men, at aH^ unless they are' Very poor, lt& writes down s» new Creed,: ' '*',»" "I believe, in the inspired millionaire I believe in the inspired tabouret. ■ ; I believe in'the\poeti or ! ■Wdrld-singflT.." • These three people between .thetn-hav^

he is certain, the destiny of the world in their hands. Together they are going to make a new heaven and a ne\> earth.

"Tlie millionaire ia going to break away from Philistinism' . . . and associate with artists and with men of genius, men of ideas, inventions, visions. Inspired millionaires, the most envied men in the world, and inspired artists and inventorß . . . are going to be inevitably thrown together. They have the making of the planet between them." ' Mr. Leo has some hard things to say about the^rich men who make their wealth by crushing out the souls* of men who mind the world's machines, but he thinks that this evil may be remedied by making' men equal to the machines with which they work. " We believe that the way out lor ub modern men, struggling with these,huge • machines, is not to creep back from our souls into the machines, but to come out and face the machines, and lift ourselves to the machines, loom up with, our souls beside them, and be men with thenx.^ So we face the issue. It is^ the final challenge of Matter, live, terrible, 6teel-nngered, boiler-souled, to the man-hood-of-the earth" .Cp9SE..bE THE MODERN WORLD. « .These, -two books might makeithe man oFhiimour shout with laughter. For in 'their serious discourse on what to do with our millionaires they reveal in every word and line the reverence for great wealth, the respect for material prosperity, the homag« to the power of money over the lives of men, which is the curse of the modern world and the •cause of the millionaire's vulgarity and ostentatious luxury. Neither of these two writers realises the eternal, deadly conflict between matter and spirit, between 'the things of this world and- the ■ kingdom of the soul. They -profess to* believe that the man who grows ,imcmensely rich on the toil of others may ha.ye done bo by a life of pure and ' s'mple philanthropy. The facts of life are against their theories, for all evidence shows that great wealth does not come to men with the qualities of Ht. Francis of Assisi, not to men of humble heart and ■ divine •unselfishness and love of their fellow--creaturee, but to men of cunning and 'greed, and cruelty, and selfish ambition. .The man who makes millions has waged •ail incessant warfare with his fellowmen, the deadly warfare of competition, and he has mounted to the victory of Mammon upon the bodies of bis victims. Here and there may be an amiable exception — he is hard to find—bat* faw people will be deceived by this r m ,oat' ingenious defence of the millionaire. tThey^wlll.iagree rather^ with the general ■verdict »f: the American people that -mitlioi\aii'€s as a class are to be avoided «$ 'men -of doubtful character, whose «elf-fadWtising generosity is in most ■caseA a. sop to their uneasy conscience.