Show I T I THE POWER OF WEALTH I i t Perhaps the most noteworthy address I delivered on Washingtons birthday was that of ExPresident Harrison His subject was the Obligations of Wealth And he treated the subject in a broad liberal and patriotic manner After paying a proper tribute to the great man whose birthday was Celebrated lie launched forth into his subject We live In a time of great agitation said j j I I he of a war of clashing thoughts and j I interests Men no longer satisfied with i I what appears above ground are unco I I I ering roots There Is a feeling that j j j some men are handicapped that the i race is sold that the old and much j I I vaunted equality of opportunity and of 1 j right has been submerged More bitter j I bit-ter and more threatening things are j being said and written against accum I i ulated property and corporate power than ever before It seems to many i that more and more small men small i I stores and small factories are being I thrown upon the shore as financial drift I or wreckage that the pursuit of cheapness I cheap-ness has reached a stage where only enormous combinations of capital doIng I do-Ing an enormous business are sure of returns s j A true observation this one that has been made by nIl who have given the i question of the great unrest of the day j any consideration When the expres1 I ident said wealth should neither be the I object of our enmity nor the basis of our consideration he uttered a whole I some truth as he did when he said l that the indiscriminate denunciation of I wealth is mischievous The denunciation I denuncia-tion of wealth is mischievous but not so the denunciation of the misuse of wealth And it Is this which has caused I so much agitation and heartburning I has tended to divide the people into j masses and classes The expresident devoted the greater I part of his address to the discussion of taxation and It was there he discovered dis-covered a great wrong He dWelt Jit t length on the delinquency of not taxing tax-ing personal property especially what i are usually termed seourlftes stated that the etil seems to have boin progressing until in some of oth great centers of popujationand wealth these forms of personal property seem t to have been almost eliminated from i 1t k J the tax list After dwelling on the seriousness ser-iousness of this condition of affairs he paraphrased Lincolns declaration that this country could not live half slave and half free saying It cannot continue con-tinue to exist half tccd and half free I No truer declaration was ever mode In the mattor of taxation wealth does I not bear Its proper prportion and it bears less and less every year The I I poor man and the man of small means 1 pay full If not over full taxes Everything Every-thing they have is assessed at Its full I value and taxes levied accordingly but that is not the case with the wealthy It 1s such things as these that cause people to denounce wealth Wealth is I power and the abuse of power always has and always will bring forth denunciation denun-ciation until denunciation is followed by something worse Some day there will be a readjustment of matters By this it is not meant that there will be a saturnalia of the people but that j the power of wealth will have to bow j down before the power of the people I 1 |