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Show RICHES. The richest man in the world today probably hasn't very much money, and the man with the most money may be poor indeed. But that is an ethical view, and receives but small notice in a sordid world. We are prone to call a man who has money rich. We have done it so long that our ideas of riches have taken a purely avaricious meaning, and we have seen so many mediocre fellows fel-lows rise from an obscure menial position to one of power through a lucky chance that the idea of riches, cannot be dissociated from that of money possession. But what is money, and what is the possessor of money? A brigand may roll in wealth and a thief may have a few dollars or a big bank account. Then, too, an honest man, high minded and benevolent, benevo-lent, may have as much as or more than either the brigand or the thief. So it is evident the mere possession pos-session of money is a very poor criterion by which to iudce the worth of anv individual, family, cor poration or nation. j Shakespeare makes Hamlet give utterance to a very despairing exclamation: "The times are out of joint; oh, wretched plight that I was ever born to set them right." The times are still out of joint, but there is more optimism and less despair in the world today than Hamlet possessed, and the evils which infest society are being exposed, and the light of public opinion has already brought forth a remedy for some of them. lhere probably never was a time when money was more sought after than today, and the methods meth-ods of securing it probably never were so devious. Money making today is a mania, and any method that brings results is considered good. A number num-ber of years ago an unknown packer for a wholesale whole-sale drug house hit1 the Louisiana lottery for the capital prize. Now there were thousands and thousands thou-sands of persons just as intelligent and shrewd who tried for that prize and lost, but the winner established estab-lished a bicycle factory which is today a part of the automobile trust. By the lucky chance in the lottery lot-tery game this man became a financier a genius, admired by many, his foresight and acumen greatly overestimated, but an apparent success. And tliere are many others who have by gambling with fate suddenly found themselves possessed of wealth. Some have made fortunes out of prospects as thin as air by purely fictitious representations. No matter mat-ter that others have suffered losses in the game, the" success of the winner is forever held before the world and hundreds and thousands are drawn in to leap into riches, though, they land in oblivion with heartaches and keen regrets as companions in their inconsolable poverty. This insatiable hankering for wealth is, of course, regrettable. When the hankering leads men into illegitimate methods it cost3 the legitimate commerce and industry of the world a vast sum, all of which consumers are required to pay. Profits Pro-fits are the tribute the consumer of goods must deliver de-liver for the glorious privilege of consuming. But legitimate profits are but a small part of the total cost of living. If the retail business of America were done without profit, or should even show a net loss, the consumer would still be paying high prices to aggregations of shrewd rascals who are classed as financiers for want of a word more definitely defi-nitely expressive of their depredations upon society. Remove the phantom of speculative profit and convert con-vert into legitimate industries the stakes in the vast gambling games and there would not be so much hardship and poverty, albeit less riches, and money available for reasonable business would be sufficient to meet all requirements. The country needs more money not so much as more reasonable use of what it has. |