THE POOR RICH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE POOR RICH.

LORD HUGH CECIL'S PLAINT. Lord Hugh Cecil, M.P., pleads for the continued existence of the "very rich" m his interesting volume on "Conservatism," published m Williams and Norgate's Home Library. "Making poor people richer is doubtless expedient ; but the opinion strangely prevails that it is also expedient to make very rich people poorer. Now I am persuaded that this way of thinking is mistaken," says Lord Hugh Cecil. "It is assuredly very desirable that poor people should be .rendered impossible, and that m every household there should riot only be enough to live upon, but enough to secure comforts m time of ill-health, reasonable holidays, and interests m life other than those of mere toil. But while everyone must desire with King Henry IV. of France that every peasant should have his fowl m the pot, and that with the passage of time poverty should steadily grow less intense and more rare, it does not appear to me to be equally true that the very rich ought at the same time to be gradually eliminated from society. NEED FOR THE RICH. "On the contrary, it appears to be more iri the interest of the community that there should be very rich people than that there should be moderately rich people. ' Tlie conception that a. man with £5000 a year is a much better citizen than a man with £10,000 a year is quite unjustified by experience.- In. point of luxury of life there is little to choose between the two. Both live luxuriously according to the standard of life that prevails for the great majority of the population. But the very rich man is much more often conscious that he ought to use his wealth not only for himself but for others than is the less rich man. His richness impresses his own imagination. The opportunity it gives him of doing service to others stirs a natural ambition and a pardonable vanity. Public opinion stimulates him to munificence by praise and by rebuke. He cannot live wholly selfishly without being pointed at on all .sides. If he pours out his wealth on some religious and charitable object, he has the gratification of seeing the magnitude of his own power and the abundance of its speedy achievement. Even apart from the highest motives he has everything to urge him to unselfish expenditure ; everything to make him follow munificence as a career m, life. £5000 A YEAR A MAN. "But the man with £5000 a year has little but virtue to make him charitable or .public spirited m his expenditure. If he chooses •to spend his income altogether on his own pleasures, except m a very narrow circle, his' epicureanism is unknown and unnoticed., If, on the other hand, he aims at munificence it must be on a comparatively small and uninteresting scale. His gifts produce little result and excite little interest. Whatever he does m that sort may bring him ease of conscience and per-, haps he mild approbation of a few friends, but no paragraphs m the news-, papers, no niche m the temple of fame. From the point of view of the community, it cannot be doubted that much more is obtained from the millionaire than from the more modestly wealthy classes. And m fact the sentiment m favor of the munificent spending of private wealth, which is stronger m our country, I believe, than m any other European State, may probably be traced to tlie example of 'largo landowners of high rank. It Originated with them, and it has spread from them to the moneyed class,, now often much richer, and doAvnwards through all those whose wealth makes them "iri any sense the centre of a social circle. SPENDING ON THEMSELVES. .... "But if the , aim of some social reformers were gratified, and no one had ■ more than £5000 a year, it is probable that '' this tradition would die away. There would still be a luxurious class; probably a much more luxurious class than now. That luxurious class would no longer be munificent, and, except upon the highest motives and among) that minority of the human race who are sincerely religious, it would not' be a charitable class. Tlie conception that riches are a stewardship to be used for others would become a counsel of perfection known only to devout Christians. The great mass of well-to-do people would spend their money frankly on themselves."