"Order is Heaven's first law; and this confessed, POPE. "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." Ps. xxxix. 6. "High stations, tumults, but not bliss, create; "Man wants but little here below, YOUNG. GOLDSMITH. "A man he was to all the country dear, IBID. XV. WEALTH AND ITS UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION. THE colossal fortunes that were accumulated during and since the great civil war attract wide attention, and the conclusion is reached that natural economic laws must be faulty, otherwise such marked inequality would not exist. Our decided preference is for a more idealistic condition of society in which, if there were not uniformity, there might, at least, be much less sharply defined extremes. While, however, with much truth, the present is regarded as an era of great and selfish Mammon worship, a more careful and comparative investigation shows that the tide of human altruism among the possessors of great wealth is rapidly increasing in volume. Especially during the last decade, the amount of private wealth which has been freely. devoted to public uses, in the shape of school, college, and university endowments, libraries, hospitals, art museums, scientific equipment, manual training institutes, and college settlements, to say nothing of ordinary charities, has been vast and constantly increasing. The time seems not far distant when the possessor of great wealth who does not recognize his moral obligation to society, and the privilege of some kind of ministry, will feel isolated and uncomfortable, if not really ashamed of himself. As the spirit of voluntary benevolence receives the grateful recognition of society, a laudable emulation will doubtless increase it yet more rapidly in future. But to grow it must be voluntary and spontaneous. Warmth, moisture, and a hospitable soil, will turn an acorn into an oak; but the growth is from within, and any forcing from without would be fatal. Any general movement towards a coercive socialism or governmental confiscation would chill and paralyze the spirit of benevolence, and at the same time stir into action the baser and more selfish elements of human nature. If the rights of legitimate private ownership, which have existed through the entire historic period, indorsed by the highest ethical teaching, are invaded, whether by revolution or through the forms of law, it would indicate a great moral collapse. All beneficence must be voluntary, and would cease to exist with the disappearance of individual ownership. If the complicated problem of how to bestow large charities without real danger to character, through the growth of dependence and pauperization, could be thoroughly solved, there is little doubt but that benefactions would be speedily multiplied. Every student of social science, as well as every would-be benefactor, appreciates the difficulties which surround this question. Can fortunes be limited? This is a subject which has elicited much discussion. If it were possible for the government to fix some limit, or a graduated scale of taxation which would amount to a limit, without any violation of personal rights or moral law, could it be made practically operative as human nature is constituted? Let us imagine an attempt to establish a legislative maximum under a possible socialistic economy. Suppose it be placed at fifty millions. There are perhaps a score, more or less, of private fortunes in the United States that would be affected. But others would suggest twenty, ten, five millions, or perhaps one million, as the outside boundary for private ownership. Again, a large number would vote for a hundred thousand, or twenty thousand, and still more for five, and so on down to one thousand, or less, as a final limit. As the improvi dent and unthrifty are usually in the majority, the proposed standard would vibrate downward, and endless controversy would prevent any final settlement. Let it once be established that a majority, through representative legislation, could vote money from an individual without rendering an equivalent, and where would be the end? There could be none. Any legislative majority, however great, can never really change a natural or moral law by a hair's breadth. It is not great fortunes, per se, that need excite appre'hension, but rather the means through which they are accumulated. The great necessity of the times is a revival of thorough honesty, and the sure punishment of its violation. Public sentiment must not applaud "sharp financiering" as "brilliant," but denounce it as socially disgraceful, and punish it as a criminal offence. By sentimental comparison there is a general feeling of relative poverty on account of existing great private fortunes. Men measure themselves among themselves. But no one is absolutely poorer, but rather richer, on account of existing wealth, even though it be controlled by private ownership. Every social unit in the body-politic is, at least indirectly, better off for general accumulation. It is the human stock in trade, and its lines of relationship extend indefinitely in all directions. It is a very common but inaccurate saying, that "the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer." A superficial view may give such an impression, but any thorough research shows that the latter part of the assumption is untrue by actual statistics. There have been changes in general economic conditions within the last thirty-five years, which have incidentally rendered colossal accumulations increasingly easy of attainment. The opportunities afforded by the era of inflation which accompanied the civil war were unprecedented. If the Union had been disrupted, and the currency and obliga |