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 THE MENACE OF 
 THE MILLIONAIRE 
 
 OR 
 
 IF I HAD A 
 MILLION 
 
 RICHARD D. KATHRENS 
 
 BURTON PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS 
 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 
 
I still maintain that the man with 
 vast sums of money — not earned by 
 himself, perhaps — is a menace to the 
 rights and opportunities of thousands, 
 and the law should provide some sane 
 and practical means whereby the man 
 of small capital, or no capital, might 
 find protection against the avarice and 
 the unjust aggression of a rich and 
 powerful competitor. 
 
The Menace Of The Nillionaire 
 
 OS 
 
 If I Had A Million 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD D. KATHRENS 
 
 AUTHOE or 
 
 'L«t'i Civilize The Marriage Laws," "What God Hath 
 Joined," "Hath Sin a Sex?" etc., etc. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 BuBTON Publishing Company 
 
 KANSAS CITY, MO. 
 
 1914 
 
\\ i^ '6^ 
 
 Copyrighted 1914 
 
 BY 
 
 Richard D. Kathrens 
 
 ©CLA871403 
 
 APR !5 1914 
 
THE MENACE OF THE 
 
 MILLIONAIRE 
 — GR- 
 IP I HAD A MILLION. 
 
 What would you do if you had a mil- 
 lion dollars? 
 
 Every person who has reached the 
 age of maturity, and who has taken note 
 of the conditions that exist about him 
 in society, has asked or has been asked 
 this same question ; and everyone has at 
 some time, either seriously or flippantly, 
 indicated the special benefactions he 
 would indulge and the good he would 
 dispense, if he were the possessor of 
 a fortune. The views, theories and 
 schemes thus advanced are for the most 
 part without value, owing to the circum- 
 scribed horizon that hedges about the 
 mental activity of the average man, and 
 the limited amount of real knowledge 
 
possessed by him. But the world pro- 
 gresses, economically., in the degree that 
 men question the sufficiency of prevail- 
 ing systems to meet the common needs 
 of the individual, and to indicate where- 
 in improvement or advance may be had 
 ■ — and how. All human problems are 
 finally solved in just that way, and man 
 grows in mental and moral excellence 
 by asking and answering questions. 
 There is a grain of gold in every man's 
 opinion, if we will find it; and in the 
 aggregate of opinions the world's wis- 
 dom finds expression. It remains for 
 the analytical mind to assay the great 
 mass of more or less crude notions, as- 
 sumptions, conjectures, plans, etc., that 
 may be put forth from time to time in 
 solution of any problem — to measure 
 them by the accepted yard sticks of 
 science — to submit them to the acid and 
 fire tests of known facts — to boil them 
 down, so to speak — to separate the ore 
 from the dross — the truth from the false 
 — and to furnish us, free from awkward 
 and involved verbiage, the completed, 
 composite thought of multitudes of 
 minds upon any subject. This is the 
 
refining process by which dreams some- 
 times come true. 
 
 Among the many privileges which 
 the present era accords to every man is 
 the right to think, and to freely express 
 just what he thinks, although his opin- 
 ions and conjectures controvert the the- 
 ories and overturn the accepted hypoth- 
 eses of centuries. Of course the respon- 
 sibility runs same as heretofore. He 
 who attempts to attack fixed custom, 
 intrenched privilege, or long settled re- 
 ligious convictions, need not hope to 
 escape payment in full for his moral 
 hardihood; and he who essays to pub- 
 lich^ discuss questions of general con- 
 cern, must be willing to receive upon his 
 own head the full measure of public 
 favor or condemnation. 
 
 But, men were never, as now, so will- 
 ing to listen; never, as now, so amenable 
 to reason; never, as now, so tolerant of 
 the views of others; and the man with 
 a message worth delivering need not hes- 
 itate to speak out. He will have no dif- 
 ficulty securing a forum ; and if he 
 speaks the truth — a following. It mat- 
 ters little about his past; his personal 
 
life, his ancestry, his nationality, his 
 present standing in the business world, 
 or the particular brand of his religious 
 predilection — the important thing is the 
 practical and rational value of the re- 
 form he urges. 
 
 The world is ready to part company 
 with superstition in every form; to for- 
 sake error and falsity, under whatever 
 guise; and to accept the truth — by 
 whomsoever uttered — provided only 
 that it can be demonstrated. 
 
 With this preface, I return to my 
 opening query: What would you do if 
 you had a million dollars? 
 
 A simple question; anyone might pro- 
 pound it, and seemingly anybody should 
 be able to readily answer — but the cor- 
 rect answer to that question probably 
 carries with it an easy solution for most 
 of the problems of the hour, and an ef- 
 fective remedy for most of the ills that 
 afflict the existing social order. 
 
 What would you do? 
 
 What use would you make of such 
 a fortune to better the world, or to 
 ameliorate the hard conditions of so- 
 ciety? For my part, I must confess, I 
 
 8 
 
am hardly willing to trust myself to 
 make answer. 
 
 It would be quite impossible, in my 
 opinion, for any man unacquainted with 
 the sensations and responsibilities that 
 go along with the ownership of a million 
 of money, to forecast just what would 
 be the attitude of his mind towards the 
 facts of life, if such a fortune should 
 come to him. Indeed, it would be a 
 mere guess — the veriest speculation. 
 
 It would be much easier for me to 
 enumerate some of the things that I 
 would not do, if I had a million, and felt 
 disposed as I now feel to help my fel- 
 low; but, by this process of elimination 
 a wise and proper course may suggest 
 itself. 
 
 Let's pursue the plan. 
 
 My judgment does not approve the 
 wisdom of following any of the usual 
 avenues through which modern philan- 
 thropy finds expression. My opposition 
 to all these schemes and systems of in- 
 tended usefulness is aroused because of 
 their insufficiency and their palpable 
 impracticability, and because they fail 
 utterly to overcome or ,to remove any 
 
of the conditions they are designed to 
 remed3^ 
 
 I would not be pursuaded, if I had a 
 million dollars, to give any part of it to 
 build a church, or for the extension of 
 any form of church work. 
 
 It is a question, in my mind, if the 
 church has rendered to mankind a serv- 
 ice at all commensurate with the cost 
 and burden it has imposed. The building 
 and support of vast ecclesiastical estab- 
 lishments, the financing of expensive 
 ])roselyting expeditions, the prosecution 
 of wars in the name of religion, the 
 spreading over the earth of unsettling, 
 confusing and conflicting notions con- 
 cerning man's mission and destiny, and 
 the maintenance, in comparative idle- 
 ness, of hundreds of thousands of non- 
 producers — all these things which sum 
 up the church, have exacted an enor- 
 mous tribute from the earnings of men; 
 and I say it is a question of grave doubt 
 and one certainly open to honest in- 
 (juiry, if any adequate return has been 
 made, directly or indirectly, to those 
 who have borne this burden. 
 
 I do not address myself to the reader's 
 
 10 
 
prejudice, and I do not wish to attack, or 
 even seem to attack any of the precon- 
 ceived opinions he may entertain about 
 the church or religion, but rather I would 
 ask his dispassionate consideration of 
 the church, as one of the agencies of our 
 civilization. 
 
 The spiritual uplift, so-called, afforded 
 by the church, is to no purpose, and of 
 no value to society, unless it extends to 
 and affects beneficially the relations and 
 conditions of men — unless it promotes 
 harmony, good will, mutual helpfulness, 
 the material prosperity and the physical 
 •^^rfection of the members of society. 
 If the church cannot show a record of 
 achievement in these essentials of moral 
 and social advancement, then in all fair- 
 ness — judged by its fruits the church 
 has failed of its purpose. 
 
 For nearly 2,000 years the church has 
 posed as the special and divinely ap- 
 pointed conservator of public morals, 
 and yet among its members, and w»t-hiu 
 its councils, have appeared thp mn^t Hpr.. 
 potic, brutal and despicable monsters 
 whose atrocious activities have black- 
 ened the pages of history; and, in those 
 
 11 
 
sections of the world where today the 
 church enjoys the largest measure of 
 temporal power, human progress is less 
 marked, illiteracy is more universal, pov- 
 erty more abject and hpoeless, and crime 
 shows no diminution. If the church 
 could say, in defense of the adequacy 
 of its system to remedy the ills of 
 societ}': "Witness the transformation 
 wrought by the church! When we came 
 into the world and into the hearts of 
 men, disease and poverty and crime 
 cursed the fair earth, but now, behold! 
 Twenty centuries of the salutary min- 
 istrations of the church have forever 
 cleansed the world of this trinity of hor- 
 rors, and made of the earth a paradise, 
 indeed, where dwell in love and fellow- 
 ship the sons of men!" If the church 
 could lay claim to such an accomplish- 
 ment, I should favor any and every plan 
 for the extension and perpetuation of 
 its institutions. 
 
 But there is another reason why I 
 would not contribute money for church 
 purposes. 
 
 It has been my observation that the 
 men who do these things are not always 
 
 X2 
 
normal, fully-rounded men, but as a rule 
 are vain, hypocritical, narrow or blindly 
 bigoted men. If there appears to be, 
 in your acquaintance, an exception to 
 this rule, then it is safe to wag-er that 
 you are being deceived by appearances. 
 The man who gives money for "the glory 
 of God" is rarely unmindful of his own 
 glorification. Then, I think a man is 
 without justification who takes that 
 which does not belong to him and 
 •gives it to the "service of God." In 
 other words, so long as there exists in 
 the world sorrow and want; so long as 
 devoted mothers and helpless children 
 •suffer for the bare necessities; so long 
 as good men are required to wear away 
 useful lives in an unequal struggle for 
 bread — God should be willing to wait. 
 I would not give money for the build- 
 ing of free libraries, on the mistaken 
 and misapplied theory that "knowledge 
 will make you free." If the people are 
 too poor to buy Plato or Balzac or 
 Shakespeare or Darwin, for ten cents, 
 then it is certain the people need some- 
 thing else more imperatively than they 
 need free books. 
 
 13 
 
The free library fails of its beneficent 
 purpose. Its advantages are reserved for 
 the few, and these benefits are largely 
 monopolized by those who can well af- 
 ford to pay. The free library does not 
 serve the book needs of the dependent, 
 and it does not satisfy the yearning for 
 wisdom that may inflame the heart of 
 him who is too poor to buy. It rather 
 caters to the fancy, the emotionalism, or 
 the romanticism of the well-to-do. It 
 provides pastime and recreation for the 
 frivolous, the vain and the indolent. The 
 child of poverty — mean and shabbily 
 clad — turns back at the mosaic entrance. 
 With an intensified sense of the fitness 
 of things, he realizes that the free libra- 
 ries are not for such as he; and the con- 
 tumely of the gay throng, passing in 
 and out, bar the way to his opportunity 
 as completely as would gates and locks 
 of steel. 
 
 I would not encourage, with my 
 money, the building of great schools or 
 the endowment of colleges. These in- 
 stitutions, as at present conducted, are 
 practically closed to the children of the 
 poor, thus working an unjust discrim- 
 
 14 
 
ination against the multitude. The in- 
 fluence of the big school is distinctly 
 destructive of democratic ideals, and 
 makes for the division of society into 
 classes. 
 
 I would not concern myself much 
 about perpetuating the "homes" and 
 "shelters" and "settlements" provided 
 for the relief of a few of the unfortunates 
 who fall victims of the cruel, so-called 
 Christian system under which we live. 
 All these schemes of comfort and succor 
 are deficient, and deal their charity with 
 partial hand. 
 
 The care of the aged, and the indigent 
 cripple, who are incapacitated by the in- 
 firmities of years or physical handicaps 
 to make their own way, would awaken 
 my interest; likewise, the victim of in- 
 curable or wasting disease, and I should 
 feel warranted in contributing my share 
 to their support and comfort. But, such 
 action on my part would be prompted 
 more by a desire to relieve a known con- 
 dition of distress, demanding immediate 
 succor, than by a willingness to tem- 
 porize with the evils in our system that 
 furnish these public charges faster than 
 
 15 
 
they can be cared for. The various 
 charities devised to meet the appalHng 
 condition of society that confronts us 
 on every hand, fall woefully short of 
 their purpose. They deal with symp- 
 toms only and hence fail utterly to reach 
 •the cause that lies back of the distress 
 they are designed to alleviate. 
 
 The student of the situation, indeed 
 the most indifferent observer must note 
 that the crying need — the imperative de- 
 mand everywhere — is money, money! 
 
 The deeper we pursue the subject our 
 analysis discloses a direct relation be- 
 tween poverty and nearly all forms of 
 crime; between poverty and nearly all 
 forms of disease, and the further fact 
 that the indigence and pauperism that 
 mock our civilization and threaten our 
 national life, are the legitimate product 
 of a perverted governmental system that 
 supinely permits a criminally imequal 
 distribution of wealth. 
 
 To the man with a million, possessed 
 by a sincere desire to do real and last- 
 ing good for his fellow man, these facts 
 should afford inspiration, and should 
 suggest to him a course of action which, 
 
 16 
 
if wisely pursued, would accomplish the 
 greatest good for the greatest number. 
 
 He might address himself to the task 
 of devising some plan, or developing 
 some equitable scheme whereby the 
 State might effectually discourage 
 "swollen fortunes." The amassing and 
 concentrating of money, beyond a cer- 
 tain amount — deemed by experience and 
 a concensus of public opinion, to be suf- 
 ficient to supply every reasonable de- 
 mand — should be made to entail a cer- 
 tain hazard (created by law) that would 
 automatically operate to reduce and dis- 
 burse such excess accumulations. 
 
 The scattered millions of money 
 which yesterday ministered to the needs 
 and comforts of thousands, gathered to- 
 day into one hand, make a slave of their 
 owner — infect his activity with a per- 
 nicious quality — and become a menace to 
 the rights and opportunities of hundreds 
 of thousands. 
 
 The gravest danger in this country 
 today — indeed the most alarming and 
 destructive influence that has arisen in 
 the history of free governments, is the 
 modern man of millions. The accumu- 
 
 17 
 
lation of vast hordes of money, or the 
 convertable equivalent of money, under 
 a single control is the most unfortunate 
 and calamitous development of this 
 period. A majority of the ills of society 
 can be traced directly to the system 
 which permits one man, or one set of 
 men, to employ their surplus w^ealth for 
 their further private aggrandisement, at 
 the expense of the other members of so- 
 ciety. The fact that a multi-millionaire 
 is possible in this land augurs the insta- 
 bility of the republic. The development 
 here of such a parasitic growth is a seri- 
 ous commentary on our institutions. 
 The multi-millionaire serves no good 
 purpose ; gauged by every standard, and 
 from every point of view, he is a calam- 
 ity. Despite the possible charm of his 
 personality — his kindly mein, his gra- 
 cious manner, his genial comradeship ; 
 despite the largesse of his heart — the 
 multiplicity of his charities, the quiet, 
 unostentatious method of his giving, and 
 the thoughtful and practical value of his 
 benefactions — nevertheless, the multi- 
 millionaire is a positive menace. With- 
 out wishing to be — even without know- 
 
 18 
 
ing it, he is rendered — by virtue of the 
 subtle power of his money — an enemy 
 of society, and the foe of popular gov- 
 ernment. His very presence is a threat; 
 and his activity is a hindrance and an 
 obstruction to the industry of others. 
 His financial superiority serves to check 
 personal initiative, to discourage com- 
 petition, and accomplishes the despair 
 of the poor! 
 
 So, if I had a million dollars, I would 
 favor with my fortune the fixing by law 
 of a defined limit to the individual own- 
 ership of money — a limit beyond which 
 no man would be permitted to prey 
 upon the earnings of his fellow. 
 
 Why? 
 
 Because Money means Power; and a 
 concentration of money means a cen- 
 tralization of power, which in turn 
 means the circumscription of rights and 
 the abridgment of opportunities; and 
 that which interferes with the full en- 
 joyment of all the natural rights of the 
 individual, or which tends to destroy the 
 equality of opportunity — for all alike — 
 means disadvantage and disaster for 
 those whose privileges are cut off or 
 
 19 
 
curtailed. Such a condition can have 
 but one outcome, and that is class dis- 
 tinction, and eventually — Master and 
 Slave. 
 
 If every man who owns or controls 
 large sums of money were an honest 
 man, a conscientious man, a man imbued 
 with high principles — indeed, if every 
 man who acquires the use and admin- 
 istration of a fortune, were considerate 
 always of the rights of his neighbor 
 and controlled at all times by a sincere 
 and absorbing desire to serve his fellow 
 — this old world would be a very much 
 more desirable place in which to live, 
 and few would be willing to leave it, 
 even though assured through transpor- 
 tation and a clear title to mansion in 
 the sky. 
 
 But, alas ! man is very much the same 
 sort of an animal today that he was in 
 the stone age, some fifty thousand years 
 ago. He has lost somewhat, perhaps, 
 of his native brutality — and yet I am not 
 so sure about that. His ideals, prob- 
 ably, have become more fanciful and ex- 
 travagant, but they are not above the 
 gratification of the senses; his Utopia 
 
 20 
 
is still an undiscovered country, and the 
 Millennium for which he has yearned, is 
 still a vague, impalpable dream. He has 
 not changed much in principle, or in his 
 moral conception of things, but he has 
 learned how to mask his motives, and 
 some of his ancient methods have been 
 revised. He is not above shifting re- 
 sponsibility, or shirking his duty, only 
 he does it now without exposing his 
 head or barking his own shins. Hypoc- 
 risy and deceit and cant and scientific 
 dissimulation are the cunning devices 
 with which he betrays, and destroys, and 
 — escapes detection. 
 
 A certain culture, or gloss, serves to 
 indicate an advance along various lines, 
 but the poor are still preyed upon by 
 the rich; the defenseless are still op- 
 pressed by those in power; the weak are 
 victims of the strong; the fallen cry for 
 mercy, but they are spurned and tram- 
 pled on; and, every man is seeking out 
 his own salvation, and rarely fails to 
 take advantage of his neighbor's misfor- 
 tune for his own profit or advancement. 
 
 The old tiger spirit still dominates: 
 the hearts of men are not yet civilized! 
 
 21 
 
Great wealth, in the hands of a few, 
 is the burden of this hour — the king 
 curse of this age. This cannot be too 
 strongly emphasized. The concenter- 
 ing of huge fortunes that we witness in 
 this country is inconsistent with the 
 spirit of free institutions; is inimical 
 to the life and purpose of a democracy, 
 and is a contradiction of the declara- 
 tions and hopes of a liberty loving peo- 
 ple. It aims at monarchy — oligarchy. 
 Its tendency is towards a centraliza- 
 tion of power. It generates a magnet- 
 ism that draws all to itself, and it holds 
 fast to that which it has. 
 
 And, I want to say here, and with 
 all the force at my command: unless 
 the people awaken to an appreciation 
 of the situation — unless they will rec- 
 ognize this great, appalling fact, and 
 rise in their sovereign power, and set 
 a just restriction upon this business of 
 fortune building — the amassing of 
 money, beyond any reasonable need; 
 the piling of million on million, just 
 for the brutal sport of depriving others; 
 the heaping and hoarding and entail- 
 ing of vast riches, beyond the power of 
 
 22 
 
the most reckless and dissolute spend- 
 thrift to squander — I say, unless the 
 people will put a stop to this mad and 
 merciless strife for dollars, they will 
 have forfeited their birthright; they 
 will have failed in their duty to the 
 flag; and they will have deserted the 
 cause of human freedom! 
 
 We are all more or less selfish, and 
 the degree of our selfishness may be 
 fairly approximated by the degree of 
 our dependence. We are sometimes 
 concerned about the rights of our fel- 
 low, because our own rights may be 
 involved, but just so soon as we be- 
 come independent of those about us, 
 our attitude changes; we grow formal, 
 distant, cold, indifferent. 
 
 The possession of great riches trans- 
 forms the man of sentiment and soul 
 into an intellectual machine which 
 knows neither sympathy nor compas- 
 sion, yet quite well simulates a native 
 benevolence. 
 
 The master of millions recognizes 
 no law above the dollar; and no duty 
 to his fellow that interferes with or 
 transcends the rights of property. He 
 
 23 
 
pays only for flattery and sycophancy; 
 gives nothing, for the joy of giving, 
 but always in response to some ulterior 
 motive — a bid for public favor, or an 
 opportunity for vainglorious display. 
 He doles his charities deliberately, and 
 with cold, calculating hand, and he de- 
 means and humiliates the object of his 
 counterfeit beneficence by exacting a 
 slavish obeisance. He measures men 
 by his own arbitrary standard — money. 
 Worth and ability are gauged by the 
 dollars possessed. The man without 
 capital is ruthlessly brushed aside as 
 of no account, his rights denied and his 
 opportunities restricted. 
 
 Great wealth sears the soul, dries up 
 the well springs of the heart, thickens 
 the skin, cauterizes the nerve-ends, and 
 dulls the sensibilities to the pain and 
 groans of all — save its own. It seeks 
 to wall itself off from the contaminat- 
 ing touch of the poor; shuts its ears 
 to suffering, closes its eyes to misery, 
 and with merry music drowns out the 
 cries of woe. Upon the theory that 
 "what it does not know, will not hurt 
 it," it seeks to make itself secure 
 
 24 
 
against the intrusion of those things 
 that would distract it from the enjoy- 
 ment of its own indulgences. 
 
 Great wealth creates privilege, builds 
 caste, accentuates class differences and 
 breeds an aristocracy that inevitably 
 leads to the enslavement of the masses. 
 
 I would not only declaim against 
 the multi-millionaire, and abet and 
 foster a sentimental antagonism for 
 him and his methods, but I would de- 
 voutly contend for the success of any 
 practical plan that would eliminate and 
 eradicate from our social structure, the 
 system of which he is the logical out- 
 growth. I would set about to secure 
 the enactment into law of an Initiative 
 Mandate of the People, which should 
 define and determine the course of the 
 multi-millionaire to the end that the 
 passing of this generation would mark 
 also the positive and permanent pass- 
 ing of these financial monstrosities that 
 afflict our social and commercial life. 
 
 And, in pursuance of this purpose, I 
 would seek first some popular expres- 
 sion upon the question : "When does 
 the private ownership of money become 
 
 25 
 
a menace, and at what point or sum 
 would Society—in its own defense— be 
 justified in setting a bar to further 
 money getting by the individual?" 
 
 To be expected, there would be many 
 diverse and conflicting opinions on this 
 question. The man who believes, as 
 many of our money barons profess to 
 beHeve, that lie is the chosen instru- 
 ment of Fate, and that leadership — 
 without service — is his mission among 
 men, will no doubt contend that his 
 metliocls are heaven directed, and that 
 any restriction of his activities would 
 be in the nature of an attempted sub- 
 version of the divine plan. 
 
 It does not seem reasonable that any 
 man could seriously cherish such a no- 
 tion concerning himself or his purpose 
 in the world. At any rate, we should 
 hardly expect to find him outside the 
 most benighted court circles of Con- 
 tinental Europe, or in some wild ex- 
 travaganza of the stage, and yet a 
 large and rapidh^ growing number of 
 this sort of creature is to be found in 
 the exclusive circles of our excessively 
 rich. 
 
 26 
 
When men acquire immense wealth — 
 out of all proportion to their efforts or 
 proper deserts — they are frequently 
 given to the conceit that they are bet- 
 ter than men of less fortune, and are 
 likely to ascribe their otherwise (to 
 them) unaccountable good luck to some 
 special dispensation of the Almighty. 
 This is the reall}' dangerous period in 
 the moral evolution of the multi-mil- 
 lionaire; and, it is against this over- 
 weening notion of self, entertained by 
 the indolent and title-seeking rich, that 
 the common people must maintain a 
 watchful lookout — lest their liberties 
 become imperiled. 
 
 Another class of people — good and 
 patriotic people — but given to super- 
 ficial reasoning and chance judgment — 
 would disapprove in toto the entire 
 scheme of setting any check to fortune 
 building. Not because of any possible 
 loss they might sustain, or any gain 
 they might enjoy, but simply because 
 they have not reached that point in ra- 
 tional development where the mind per- 
 ceives the causal relation between great 
 riches on the one hand and great priva- 
 
 27 
 
tions on the other. 
 
 Still another, and a much larger class 
 of people, would favor drawing the line 
 so low as to awaken widespread anxiety 
 lest the business of the country might 
 l)e embarrassed. It would be quite dif- 
 ficult to find a common ground on 
 which such opposing forces could reach 
 a fair compromise, and yet these dif- 
 ferences must be reconciled and these 
 divergent elements brought together, 
 if the ills of which we complain are to 
 be remedied. 
 
 If we lived in an ideal society, where 
 simple justice was the measure of every 
 man's reward, then every man's for- 
 tune would represent the money and 
 property equivalent of his own labor — 
 no more and no less. Under such a per- 
 fect system, there would be no "swollen 
 fortunes," no millionaires, no rich class, 
 and for that very reason there would 
 be no jails, almshouses or poor! But, 
 that is the millennium, and its realiza- 
 tion is so remote that, at best, we may 
 only look forward to it as one of the 
 possibilities of the dim, distant future. 
 
 Having given some study to the sub- 
 
 28 
 
ject, and to the equities involved, I may 
 be permitted to offer a suggestion that 
 may afford at least a basis on which 
 to figure a just and practical course. 
 
 I should recommend and urge that 
 the maximum limit to the individual 
 ownership of money be fixed at a sum 
 high enough to satisfy all the rational 
 and virtuous requirements of the most 
 vaulting ambition; and, at the same 
 time a limit low enough, so that no 
 single individual could own or control 
 exclusively any natural resource, or any 
 product of the mine, mill or farm — the 
 use of which was essential to the daily 
 life or comfort of the people. 
 
 So, in my judgment, the possession 
 of one million dollars in money, or 
 convertible propery, should mark the 
 utmost limit of any man's personal 
 holdings. Beyond that generous max- 
 imum, the law should provide a penalty 
 for the addition of another copper! 
 
 A Million Dollars! What a talisman 
 of power; but who knows just what 
 those words mean? No two minds 
 will accord exactly as to their signifi- 
 cance. We all have accustomed our- 
 
 29 
 
selves to the frequent use of large fig- 
 ures, and have acquired a sort of habit 
 of sometimes loosely employing such 
 terms to convey our idea of values and 
 dimensions; but no man can fully and 
 completely comprehend just what a 
 million means. 
 
 I recall a circumstance that occurred 
 in Wyoming, some twenty-odd years 
 ago, that may serve to illustrate how 
 far short of the facts the mind's eye 
 may fall in its measurement of a n'il- 
 lion. A number of titled Englishmen, 
 including Lord Churchill .tud the Duke 
 Oi Mayo, had gone out there to in spec r 
 their extensive cattle holdings. By 
 book account, these gentlemen and 
 their associates had in round numbers 
 just one million and twenty thousand, 
 head of cattle grazing on the short 
 grass of the northwestern plains. The 
 particular business of the distinguished 
 party, on this occasion, was to verif} 
 by actual ocular evidence, the reports 
 that had previously been made to them 
 — to satisfy themselves that they had 
 a steer on the range, for every steer 
 on the books. 
 
 30 
 
A pulpit-like reviewing stand had 
 been constructed on a little eminence 
 that overlooked the great basin that 
 stretches its cheerless waste from the 
 Powder River to the foothills of the 
 Rockies. Directly in front of this 
 stand, and at right angles to it, ex- 
 tended a wire fence as far as the eye 
 could reach. On one side lay the ever- 
 lasting plain, wnth not an obstruction 
 to mar the view, save here and there 
 a clump of sage or soap weed, that dap- 
 pled its rolling boson?^; and, on the 
 other side — the uncounted herd, gath- 
 ered there after a "round-up" that 
 searched the public domain of four 
 states. Here, at this dividing line, the 
 tally-keepers took up their positions. 
 At the word of command, the gates 
 were swung open, and the restless 
 beasts, b}' twos and fours, were crowded 
 by. Within four hours, the dull, dead 
 plain had become transformed into a 
 moving mass of life, resembling the 
 surface of a troubled sea, with russet 
 waves that surged against the sky. 
 Presently, all was cattle, and in every 
 direction they seemed to blend with 
 
 31 
 
the landscape. The mighty parade 
 was eleven days passing the reviewing 
 stand. Every steer was accounted for, 
 and the Englishmen returned home 
 happy in the knowledge of their vast 
 possessions. 
 
 It was common report, however, that 
 only 28,000 cattle had been employed 
 to work that deception on the noble- 
 men, who some months later became 
 involved in a sensational scandal as 
 the result of their American ranch spec- 
 ulations. 
 
 The immensity of a million — the re- 
 ally ungraspable proportions of it, is 
 the point I wish to make. The 28,000 
 head of cattle were made to look like 
 a million. The fact is, less than twenty 
 thousand cattle, if allowed to range 
 themselves on a feed ground will cover 
 all the space within the circle of the 
 horizon, from rim to rim, and, to the 
 inexperienced the number may be any- 
 thing from ten thousand to ten hun- 
 dred thousand. 
 
 The bulk and volume of a million 
 dollars in money, is very difficult of 
 appreciation. 
 
 32 
 
In twenty dollar gold pieces it would 
 weigh more than a ton and a half — to 
 be exact, just 3,125 pounds. 
 
 In silver dollars it would tip the 
 beam at 125,000 pounds, or sixty-two 
 and a half tons. 
 
 In five dollar bank notes — set end 
 for end — it would make a precious strip 
 nearly twenty-four miles long; and, in 
 certificates of one dollar, it would fur- 
 nish an unbroken ribbon — a veritable 
 long green — more than 123 miles in 
 length. 
 
 If we go to market with a million 
 dollars and exchange it for some com- 
 modity of daily use, we will not fail 
 to be impressed with its prodigious pur- 
 chasing power. 
 
 Suppose we reduce a million dollars 
 to bread. That will afford an inter- 
 esting measure of its magnitude. At 
 the full retail price, our money will 
 buy just twenty million loaves, and if 
 we get a full count, it will require about 
 fifteen thousand ordinary bakery wag- 
 ons to make the delivery. 
 
 That much bread would supply every 
 man, woman and child in a city of a 
 
quarter of a million with eighty loves 
 apiece — a sufficient amount of the staff 
 of life to enable them to withstand a 
 siege, or a period of flood and famine, 
 for six months. 
 
 The average five cent loaf of baker's 
 bread is about ten inches in length, 
 and four by five inches across the 
 end. or 200 inches cubic volume, and 
 sometimes weighs a pound. 
 
 A freight car, thirty feet long, will 
 accommodate less than fifteen thousand 
 such loaves. So, in order to move these 
 twenty millions of loaves by rail, it 
 would require a train of solid box cars, 
 eight and one-half miles long And, 
 if these twenty million loaves were 
 stored on a plot of ground 100 feet 
 square, and piled up as evently and 
 symmetrically as brick and mortar 
 might be piled — and solidly over the 
 entire area — it would make a novel 
 monument that would rise over 230 
 feet in the air. This illustration fails 
 to convey a fair idea of the huge bulk 
 of such a pillar of bread, owing to the 
 fact that the average mind perceives 
 only the surface outlines of the great 
 
 34 
 
mass and is not struck with its immense 
 proportion. In comparison with many 
 of our city sky-scrapers, it would ap- 
 pear mean and squatty; but, if these 
 loaves could be rearranged in walls con- 
 forming in thickness to the walls of 
 the Metropolitan Tower — say, an av- 
 erage of four feet — our unique bread 
 shaft would extend skyward, in doughy 
 grandeur, considerably more than a 
 quarter of a mile. Again, if this mil- 
 lion dollars' worth of bread were 
 threaded on a cable, it would make 
 an unparalleled "bread line," long 
 enough to span the Atlantic from Bos- 
 ton to London, or to stretch all the 
 weary way from New York to San 
 Francisco. 
 
 We are told, in Bible story, that 
 Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, was 
 a carpenter, and that he worked at his 
 trade in Galilee. Nothing is related 
 concerning his special skill. All we 
 know is that he was very poor, and it 
 is a fair inference that his opportunity 
 was limited and his pay irregular. We 
 have no reliable information concerning 
 the wages carpenters received in that 
 
 36 
 
day, but I am told that $2.50 a day is 
 a fair average wage for such labor at 
 this time. Skilled carpenters command 
 more money, but they are required to 
 put in several months each year in en- 
 forced idleness, so the average of $2.50 
 per day is a safe basis on v^hich to 
 figure. Out of such a wage it would be 
 quite impossible for any man to build 
 up much of a bank account, and the 
 carpenter who, with his family, could 
 manage to get along on $1.50, and save 
 one whole dollar every day — and keep 
 it up indefinitely — would be entitled to 
 special recognition as a model of thrift 
 and frugality. 
 
 Now, if Joseph could have lived 
 until January 1st, of the present year 
 of grace, and could have kept his 
 health and a steady job, and have 
 worked unremittingly every day, down 
 through all those ages of years, and 
 have received one dollar clear, over and 
 above all his expenses — in other words, 
 if Joseph could have saved one dollar 
 for every day — Sundays and week days 
 alike — during all the days of the Chris- 
 tian era, and have deposited them in a 
 
 36 
 
savings account, he would have had to 
 his credit in the Banks of Jerusalem 
 and Jericho on the first day of Janu- 
 ary, 1914, just $698,245. 
 
 Although now very much past his 
 prime; bent under the weight of more 
 than sixty generations of years, and 
 hoary with the frosts of twenty cen- 
 turies, the perennial Joseph would still 
 be required to patiently persevere — to 
 work and skimp and save — until the 
 22nd day of September, in the year 
 2739, before he could hope to enter 
 the millionaire class. 
 
 These illustrations and speculations 
 are indulged to impress in some de- 
 gree the magnitude of a million, the 
 significance — expressed in homely com- 
 parisons — of the figures commonly em- 
 ployed in this day of "big business," 
 to represent the financial power of 
 certain men and institutions. I repeat: 
 no mind can grasp fully the meaning 
 of a million dollars, or a million of 
 anything. 
 
 Let no man imagine that the limit- 
 ing of the ownership in money to one 
 million dollars will work any real hard- 
 
 87 
 
ship to his just rights or opportunities; 
 or that life will become dull and barren 
 for him. The average normal man 
 should experience little difficulty in 
 making ends meet, though required to 
 struggle along on the simple interest 
 earnings of a million. 
 
 The possession of a million dollars 
 means fifty thousand dollars a year — a 
 princely annuity — an income which 
 makes possible a degree of indepen- 
 dence that could not otherwise be ex- 
 perienced, under our imperfect social 
 system. It means freedom from care; 
 liberation from the bondage of unwel- 
 come toil, and relief from the monotony 
 and everlasting grind of mere exist- 
 ence. It means deliverance from the 
 pinch and pang of poverty, and im- 
 mimity from the wasting worries of 
 want. It means ease and luxury and 
 pleasing diversion ; carriages and auto- 
 mobiles and travel and books. It means 
 lands and houses and dress and dia- 
 monds. It means position and power 
 and popularity; and it means the grati- 
 fication of every reasonable desire and 
 the realiaztion of every w^orthy ambi- 
 
 38 
 
tion that money can provide. 
 
 But, with these eagerly sought pos- 
 sessions life assumes a different aspect; 
 the perspective becomes radically 
 changed, and the mind adjusts itself to 
 the new angle of view. The owner of 
 a million no longer wears his heart on 
 his sleeve; no longer touches elbows 
 with the motley throng, nor senses the 
 strain and stress of their unequal strife, 
 and — feeling not — heeds not the suffer- 
 ings of his brother! 
 
 When a man acquires control of such 
 vast sums of money that he is enabled 
 thereby to embarrass or destroy the 
 business, or the earning powder of other 
 men, there is always the danger that 
 he might do so: and, I hold that it is 
 entirely within the province of the state 
 to establish such safeguards as will 
 protect the rights of the great body of 
 citizens as against the harmful activi- 
 ties of such individuals. 
 
 The owner of a great fortune should 
 be required to submit to some reason- 
 able handicap, in the struggle for com- 
 mercial supremacy, that would tend to 
 off-set, in some measure, his financial 
 
 39 
 
advantage over the man without for- 
 tune. This suggestion does not design 
 that any undue advantage, or any ad- 
 vantage, shall be given one class of 
 citizens as against another class, but 
 simply this — that the natural rights of 
 the individual shall not be ignored, and 
 that a fair consideration be accorded 
 the least citizen, solely in the interest 
 of the preservation of his right to live. 
 Man is so constituted that the main- 
 tenance of his physical life constantly 
 imposes upon him the necessity of sat- 
 isfying certain physical wants. Among 
 these, food, clothing and shelter may be 
 classed as the essential requirements, 
 for without any of these no member 
 of the state could long continue to live. 
 Clothing might be dispensed with dur- 
 ing some seasons and in some sections, 
 but the conventions of society oppose 
 the free exercise of this right by the 
 individual ; but food and shelter are in- 
 dispensably necessary. These involun- 
 tary needs, which in justice are a part 
 of every man's birthright — his natural 
 inheritance — as free to him as air and 
 sunshine, are not to be had by wishing 
 
 40 
 
for them, or for the asking. Under a 
 natural society, the enjoyment of these 
 wants would follow as the result of 
 each man's personal exertion, and in 
 such measure as his tastes would de- 
 mand and his industry govern. But, 
 under the existing order, these neces- 
 sities of every life come only in re- 
 sponse to the persuasive quality of the 
 coin of the realm — the recognized me- 
 dium of exchange. But, this medium 
 of exchange is limited and controlled, 
 and those who have it in greatest abun- 
 dance, rarely employ it in their daily 
 transactions, while those who have it 
 in least measure, or are entirely desti- 
 tute of it, are required in some way to 
 find it — the actual money — or die! 
 There is no alternative: That is the 
 law — the cruel and barbarous injunc- 
 tion of this civilization ; get the money, 
 or get off the earth. 
 
 It is all well enough to assert solemnly 
 that labor means money, and that "there 
 is always a living for the man who is 
 willing to work," but this is not true. 
 The fact is, the opportunities to work are 
 less than the number seeking work, and 
 
 W ■ 41 
 
every day, in this land of plenty, thou- 
 sands of honest, anxious, needy appli- 
 cants are turned away empty handed, 
 and other thousands are physically un- 
 able to perform the labor offered them, 
 but the daily demands of their living, 
 in each case, continue to run against 
 them just the same. 
 
 To remedy this condition which 
 presses so heavily upon some and so 
 light]}' upon others, has been the dream 
 and hope of every economist and hu- 
 manitarian, who has sought to bring 
 about a more equitable adjustment of 
 the relations between man and man. 
 
 Those circumstances and conditions 
 that operate to make money hard to 
 get — even though devoted services are 
 eagerly tendered — necessarily make life 
 difficult and uncertain ; and, so long as 
 life and money are so inseparably re- 
 lated as they are under our present 
 system, then the men who own vastly 
 more money than they need, must bear 
 responsibility — at least in large part — ■ 
 for the presence of other men who need 
 vasth' more money than thev own. 
 
 I am sure, if there were fewer mil- 
 
 42 
 
lionaires and no multi-millionaires 
 there would be a more even distribu- 
 tion of the wealth of the people: more 
 men would have comfortable fortunes; 
 a larger number of deserving people 
 would have homes of their own; there 
 would be less dependence; and fewer 
 children would go hungry to bed. 
 
 It will be contended that all million- 
 aires are not of the wolf and vulture 
 type that my characterization of them 
 would lead many people to believe. 
 Probably that is true: let us hope that 
 it is. I refer to millionaires as a class, 
 and as such, I regard them as a grave 
 public danger, but I am also sensible 
 of the fact that there may be, here and 
 there — Heaven bless them — "good, 
 grand souls in this world of shame." who 
 notwithstanding their millions, remain 
 true to themselves and loyal to their 
 fellows — but, I want to say in passing, 
 that the millionaires of that sort can 
 be counted on the fingers of the left 
 hand. 
 
 I still maintain that the man with 
 vast sums of money — not earned by 
 himself, perhaps — is a menace to the 
 
 43 
 
rights and opportunities of thousands, 
 and the law shouLd provide some sane 
 and practical means whereby the man 
 of small capital, or no capital, might 
 find protection against the avarice and 
 the unjust aggression of a rich and 
 powerful competitor. 
 
 Tn the town where I passed the 
 marble playing period of my boyhood, 
 there Hved a much envied youth who 
 was known far and wide as the "wiz- 
 ard." This boy was not endowed with 
 any special genius for "readin', writin', 
 or figgers," but, bully gee! he could 
 play marbles. He was singularly ac- 
 complished in his art, and was capable 
 of marvelous execution in a "Boston 
 circle." He could place an ordinary 
 agate between the thumb knuckle and 
 the forefinger of his right hand, and 
 direct it anywhere within fifteen feet, 
 and nineteen out of twenty times it 
 would go with unerring precision to 
 the desired spot. He was rarely known 
 to lose a game, and when he did it was 
 an accident. If he got a shot, it usually 
 meant the end of the game. It was 
 not an uncommon thing for him to 
 
 44 
 
start out on a Saturday morning with 
 four or five marbles, and return at 
 sundown with four or five hundred. 
 Every boy in the community had meas- 
 ured skill with him, and had failed. 
 The "wizard" became so expert and his 
 prowess in that respect so well and gen- 
 erally known, that his opportunity be- 
 came more and more circumscribed. 
 (Under the natural conditions, such as 
 usually prevail in the commerce be- 
 tween marble players, this result was 
 inevitable, and of course to be ex- 
 pected.) The other boys were not 
 courting games with him, and in order 
 to induce any of the knowing ones to 
 play with him, he was required to 
 grant some concession, or to submit to 
 some restriction of his rights. This 
 handicap was imposed in order that the 
 difference in skill might be made up 
 in some measure, and thus equalize the 
 chances of success. This attitude to- 
 wards the "wizard" was prompted by 
 the dictate of self preservation, and he 
 seemed to appreciate the justice of it. 
 When it became known that to play 
 with him meant loss, there were very 
 
 k. 45 
 
few players who could be induced to 
 see any fun or profit in the game; and 
 the handicap was a proper and legiti- 
 mate compromise which suggested it- 
 self in the logical order of things. 
 
 Now, let's speculate a moment. 
 
 Suppose the "wizard" had control of 
 practically all the marbles — comies, 
 two-tickers, crockeries, glassies, etc., 
 and the other boys were required 
 to get their supplies from him; 
 and then were forced to play with 
 him, and on his own terms — 
 what would have been the outcome? 
 One of two results would inevitably 
 have followed. The ''wizard" would 
 gradually have exhausted the resources 
 of the other boys, and have taken over 
 all the marbles of the community; or 
 some physically capable fellow would 
 have found a following, and forced him 
 to submit to fair regulation. 
 
 I want to urge the adoption of this 
 same sane and civilized method of deal- 
 ing with our captains of industry, for 
 the protection of the toilers in the 
 ranks; in defense of a wise public pol- 
 icy, and that the common good might 
 be better subserved. 
 46 
 
It matters little, in principle, whether 
 we play with marbles or wheat, with 
 iron or beef, or oil or bread, but it must 
 be borne in mind that a monopoly in 
 marbles cannot in any way involve the 
 life, liberty or real happiness of any in- 
 dividual. 
 
 Society must meet this condition that 
 makes a few men rich, while millions 
 are in poverty, just as it now meets 
 other conditions that produce or invite 
 contagion, or other harmful or threat- 
 ening consequences. And, it must act 
 promptly, too, if those who now live 
 are to enjoy any of the benefits. It 
 must not delay to moralize or to philos- 
 ophize, or to dally with precedent, but 
 it must proceed with a sort of ruthless 
 expedition, having but a single aim and 
 purpose, viz., the common good. 
 
 A safe and rational public policy de- 
 mands that limitations be placed upon 
 many of the activities of the individual, 
 where it appears that his unchecked 
 operations would, or might, infringe 
 those rights of his fellow claimed to 
 be natural and inalienable. The courts 
 and the constabulary of the state stand 
 back of these regulations of society, 
 47 
 
and the rights of all the people as 
 against the wish, .or mischievous pur- 
 pose of a few, is the sufficient reason 
 and justification. In this way only has 
 any real moral advance ever been ac- 
 complished in the social relations of 
 men. 
 
 No cause, however just and holy, 
 ever succeeded simply because it was 
 just and holy, but because its defenders 
 were willing — if need be — to do and die 
 for it. Force, or a show of force, has 
 ever been the open sesame to the en- 
 joyment of things worth while. Moral 
 suasion is good enough in some in- 
 stances and under some circumstances, 
 but in cases where immediate relief is 
 demanded, it is not a dependable and 
 efficient means. 
 
 The processes of education are too 
 slow. The world cannot wait until 
 every man reaches his full moral stat- 
 ure — until every heart is civilized. Men 
 are dying, while we dream of the mil- 
 lennial time when the Golden Rule will 
 control every man's attitude towards 
 his brother; when Democracy will be 
 the recognized religion of every land; 
 
 48 
 
when the holy principle of the "Single 
 Tax" will be universally accepted, or 
 when the Collective-ownership of the 
 means of production and distribution 
 will satisfy the hopes and ambitions of 
 men. 
 
 Appeals to the moral side of man — 
 to his innate sense of right — have 
 never alone sufficed. Simple love of 
 justice has rarely ever inspired the 
 activities of the rich and powerful. 
 
 And, I declare to you that our polit- 
 ical salvation, and the hope for social 
 justice, lies in our ability to further and 
 properly extend the present police 
 power of the state, to cover offenses and 
 crimes against the public peace and or- 
 der not now recognized by the statute. 
 
 If a man develops smallpox, or any 
 other particularly dangerous and known 
 to be contagious disease, thereby men- 
 acing the health and life of his neigh- 
 bors, the law provides a means of pro- 
 tection. The unfortunate sufferer is 
 quarantined in his home, or he is car- 
 ried away to some isolated place and 
 there confined until the condition is 
 healed or the danger past. 
 
 49 
 
If a man, without apparent cause, 
 begins to talk strangely and to threaten 
 his friends and others about him, or to 
 charge them — without reason — with 
 evil designs upon him, the statute 
 makes provision for the protection of 
 society against such unfortunates. 
 
 If a broad shouldered, coarse ruffian 
 with blood in his eye and murder in his 
 heart, sets out on a mission of disorder 
 — seeking trouble and making it where 
 there was peace before — deliberately 
 using his superior physical strength to 
 wound and strike down and kill inno- 
 cent and helpless people, he will not be 
 permitted to continue his saturnalian 
 spree without hindrance. The law will 
 stop him, and its penalties run hard 
 against such offenders. 
 
 If a desperate man lies in wait for 
 you, at the entrance of a dark alley and 
 there, without provocation on your 
 part, brutally "black-jacks" you; all 
 right minded people will condemn the 
 cowardly assault, and if apprehended, 
 the law will mete out swift punishment 
 to such an assailant. 
 
 And, if another man, more daring 
 
 50 
 
perhaps, accosts you and at the point 
 of a revolver demands your money and 
 other valuables; the law will hunt him 
 down. Society resents the act against 
 your person, as an attack upon the 
 peace and dignity of the state, and has 
 framed a criminal statute to fit the 
 crime. 
 
 But, if another individual — rich and 
 powerful — surfeited with the good 
 things of life, far beyond his personal 
 needs, but envious of your prosperity, 
 and ambitious to rule in certain de- 
 partments of trade — if this man seeks 
 to ruin you, and to despoil you of your 
 property; and does; but instead of a 
 bludgeon employs the surer and subtler 
 power of money; instead of a pistol, the 
 cunning and crafty method of trust 
 competition — what protection, pray, 
 does society or the state afford? 
 
 You have absolutely no recourse at 
 law or elsewhere. The whole commun- 
 ity may have knowledge of the crime 
 that is being worked against you and 
 against the very life of the state, and 
 yet they actually look on while you 
 are slowly and torturously destroyed, 
 
 5' 
 
and your family reduced to want — no 
 voice is raised to" help you — no officer 
 of the law dares to interfere! Why? 
 
 If a man physically superior is not 
 justified in using that advantage to 
 crush and destroy his business rival who 
 may be physically inferior, then by the 
 same reasoning and the same moral 
 rule, a man of great wealth is not jus- 
 tified in using his financial advantage 
 to destroy or hamper the business op- 
 portunity of his financially weaker com- 
 petitor. 
 
 Far worse than plague or pestilence; 
 more to be dreaded than the lunatic 
 who may run amuck ; or the strong-arm 
 brute who cracks a few unoffending 
 heads, is the man with surplus millions 
 who, under the protection of the law, 
 boldly appropriates the product of an- 
 other's toil, and filches — without let or 
 hindrance — from the hard earned sav- 
 ings of the poor. 
 
 The burglar or the highwayman, 
 probably driven by hunger to despera- 
 tion, who sets out in pursuit of dan- 
 gerous plans, stakes his life against 
 the property he covets and, in compari- 
 
 52 
 
son with these public plunderers who 
 operate secure from attack, the former 
 takes a position of such respectable 
 eminence that any relation that might 
 be traced would shed lustre upon the 
 latter. The burglar wears his sign 
 upon his forehead and hazards his right 
 to live, while these cruel and craven 
 hypocrites, from a clear, cold vantage 
 — :with face of Jekyll and heart of Hyde 
 — ply their nefarious schemes. The 
 average house breaker would disdain- 
 fully reject their system and scorn the 
 employment of their methods. 
 
 Society must abandon its present 
 futile and ineffective practice of symp- 
 tom treating, and direct its healing 
 agencies to the seat of the disorder that 
 is, at this moment, insidiously sapping 
 its very vitals. 
 
 It must protect itself against the 
 ghouls and jackals, in human flesh, 
 that infest the politics of the land and 
 whose diabolism penetrates and satur- 
 ates through and through the whole 
 social fabric; or it will be worse than 
 useless to frame statutes for the pun- 
 ishment of petty offenders whose acts 
 
 53 
 
are in truth the unavoidable sequence 
 of a policy, which/ to paraphrase an old 
 maxim, strains at the effect, but swal- 
 lows the cause. 
 
 The important thing that people 
 most need, in this countr}-, is not some- 
 thing for nothing — profits without in- 
 dustry; not charity; not even sym- 
 pathy; not special privileges or ad- 
 vantages of any kind, but equality of 
 opportunity — simple justice. 
 
 Under existing conditions, equality of 
 opportunity is impossible. This most 
 precious boon of democracy may never 
 be realized until, by some device of the 
 law, the marauding millionaire is in- 
 terrupted in his ruinous course, and is 
 forced to respect the rights of the 
 masses. 
 
 In the interest of a peaceful working- 
 out of the great social and industrial 
 problems that are now pressing for so- 
 lution, I have made bold to outline a 
 plan and to indicate a method — crude, 
 perhaps; imperfect, to be sure, but con- 
 ceived in a Jeffersonian spirit of the 
 square deal. I offer it as a remedy 
 for most of the ills in our economic 
 
 54 
 
S3"stem of which we have reason to 
 complain — a sufficient and workable 
 plan; adapted to present needs; fitted 
 to the purposes of free government, 
 and, in my judg"ment capable of prac- 
 tical and beneficial exploitation. 
 
 If I had a million dollars, this mes- 
 sage which T have so imperfectly pre- 
 sented to you, would be carried by abler 
 spokesmen to ever}^ receptive mind be- 
 tween the two oceans; and, if earnest 
 advocacy of the right ever found ex- 
 pression in the statutes, then the prop- 
 osition I have here laid down, respect- 
 ing the fixing of a just limitation upon 
 the individual ownership of money, 
 would become the law in this land. 
 
 I apprehend that there would be op- 
 position to such a law — no doubt many 
 objections would be urged against it — 
 but no man will rightfully take excep- 
 tion to its impartial fairness. It will 
 be borne in mind that the reform I 
 urge does not contemplate seizure or 
 confiscation; it does not threaten the 
 rich with despoliation, nor the poor 
 with increased burdens, and it cannot 
 be tortured into an attempt to appro- 
 
 55 
 
priate the products of honest industry 
 to the uses and -purposes of the idle 
 and the indolent. 
 
 The success of such a measure might 
 involve certain constitutional changes, 
 but no man will plead that such a 
 statute would offend the moral sense; 
 or that it would interfere with the 
 rights, or abridge the opportunity of 
 the citizen; or that it would hamper 
 individual effort or destroy personal 
 initiative. 
 
 The man of small capital, and the 
 man of no capital, certainly would not 
 decry the enactment of a law that con- 
 templated such a just and reasonable 
 restraint upon money-getting, but on 
 the contrary, they would give it their 
 endorsement and support, and for many 
 reasons, but chiefly because the aver- 
 age man's ambition and hope for for- 
 tune is far inside of a million dollars. 
 
 The normal man of large capital 
 would offer no serious objection to such 
 a measure, because he would recognize 
 its justice, and he would have occasion 
 to rejoice in the fact that a good rea- 
 son was now afforded him to slacken 
 
 56 
 
a killing pace, and he might devote 
 possibly his best years to some really 
 worthy and useful pursuit. 
 
 The multi-millionaire would regard 
 such a movement with a degree of com- 
 placence and a sense of relief. The suc- 
 cess of such a law could do him no 
 violence. He would still have his mil- 
 lions, and he would enjoy the uniq^ue 
 distinction of having "gone the limit," 
 so to speak, in the accumulation of 
 dollars; and he would also have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that he was 
 the last of his kind. 
 
 "Big Business" would not suffer, but 
 instead would be ^placed upon a safer 
 and firmer basis, because such enter- 
 prises would no longer represent the 
 money-forced dominance and dictation 
 of one man, or one set of men, who 
 might at will arbitrarily force the price 
 of labor and likewise fix the cost of 
 commodities. Brain and brawn would 
 quite naturally come in for larger rec- 
 ognition and tact and talent would find 
 fairer recompense. In any event "big 
 business" is not the product of either 
 the genius or the labor or the capital 
 
 57 
 
of rich men, but It Is the product of the 
 mental power, the muscle and the 
 money of thousands of work-people and 
 small investors whose skill and savings 
 are exploited by the rich. 
 
 Under my proposed reform of the 
 existing order, respecting the amassing 
 of private fortunes, not less than two 
 thousand men — each receiving the max- 
 imum of $50,000 — would share the large 
 profits of an institution like the United 
 States Steel Corporation, instead of 
 only five men. 
 
 Tn the oil industry another two 
 thousand or more men would divide 
 the cream of the proceeds instead of 
 only three men. 
 
 The sugar industry would annually 
 contribute a fortune to each of a thou- 
 sand or more men, where it now en- 
 riches but a few. 
 
 The vast smelting interests of the 
 country would serve to flood with in- 
 creased sunshine and greater abund- 
 ance many thousands of homes, in- 
 stead as at present serving only to en- 
 dow and perpetuate the financial prow- 
 ess of a single family. 
 
 58 
 
Five men control the great meat 
 packing industry of this country, and 
 this little coterie of money-kings manip- 
 ulate — entirely within their own dis- 
 cretion, and to their personal profit and 
 aggrandisement — the price the farmer 
 shall receive for his live stock, and also 
 the price the consumers of the land 
 shall pay for the meat products. Such 
 an assault upon the rights and liber- 
 ties of the people would be impossible 
 under the equitable plan I propose. 
 
 Many forms of crime against the 
 State would practically disappear, 
 owing to the fact that the conditions 
 which invite such corrupt practices 
 would have ceased to exist. For ex- 
 ample: the profit would be taken out 
 of bribery, and the representative of 
 the people would become more trul}' 
 representative. No individual would 
 have at his command unearned fortune 
 with which to dower the palm of 
 traitors — thus both the incentive to 
 and the purpose of bribery would be 
 largely removed. 
 
 These are but a few of the conse- 
 quent and incidental blessings that 
 
 59 
 
would surely flow from the enactment 
 of a law which would place a reason- 
 able and just check to the destructive 
 commercial and industrial activities of 
 the excessively rich. 
 
 No man would contend that such a 
 law would impoverish anyone, or that 
 it would take from honest toil its fair 
 reward. 
 
 On the contrary, such a limitation 
 upon the individual ownership of 
 mone}-, as I have suggested, would do 
 no violence to property or property 
 rights. It would neither destroy nor 
 discourage business, endanger credit or 
 stifle competition; and, it would in no 
 v/ise menace the just powers of capi- 
 tal, or infringe in any degree the rights 
 of labor. It would not provoke a tear 
 in all the land, or anguish a single 
 breast, or visit upon any home fore- 
 bodings or loss! 
 
 But such a law — in the name of jus- 
 tice and humanity — would operate to 
 curb the ruthless sway of financial 
 despots by fixing a definite barrier be- 
 yond which the tyranny of money 
 could not go; and, by setting a just 
 
 60 
 
limit to greed and extortion, and a rea- 
 sonable restraint upon rapacity and 
 plunder, it would interpose its saving 
 arm between the sordid master of 
 money and the helpless victim of his 
 cruel machination. 
 
 In short, such a law would retire 
 from the field of competitive endeavor 
 that man only whose personal control 
 of vast wealth gives him an artificial 
 advantage over his financially less for- 
 tunate fellow, and thus the difference 
 in opportunity would be made up in 
 some measure to the man without a 
 fortune, and, as a result there would 
 be secured to industry, frugality and 
 honorable thrift something more nearly 
 approximating an even break in the 
 struggle for existence, and there would 
 be guaranteed to the citizen a larger 
 enjoyment of his declared to be inalien- 
 able right to Life, Liberty and the 
 Pursuit of Happiness. 
 
Let^s Civilize 
 
 The Marriage Laws 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD D. KATHRENS 
 Bound in Cloth Prepaid $1.50. 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF 
 
 A Nan Who Does Not Mince. 
 
 A Novel Conception of Marriage, 
 
 A new Angle on the Divorce Question. * 
 An Exalted Tribute to Woman, and an 
 Eloquent Plea for the Child to be. 
 
 An unanswerable argument in support of the 
 writer's position that; THE WIFE SHOULD 
 HAVE FINAL POWER IN ALL DIVORCE 
 ACTIONS. 
 
 A Book For 
 
 'The MATED and Married 
 ,The Married and UN-MATED 
 lTh« DIVORCED, and 
 I Those who should Divorce, and 
 Those Contemplating Matri- 
 mony. 
 
 The Burton Publishing Company, 
 
 PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 609 East 9th St. Kansas City. Mo. 
 
WOMANHOOD 
 
 AND ITS 
 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 A TREATISE ON ADOLESCENCE DESIGNED 
 FOR THE YOUNG WOMAN 
 
 Embracing the Fundamental Principles of 
 
 Biologp, Phjfaiologg and Reproduction, 
 
 Together with Personal Hygiene 
 
 LUELLA Z. RUMMEL, Ph. B.; M. D.; D. 0. 
 
 Professor of Embryology, Materia Medica, 
 Hygiene and Sanitary Science, 
 Medical Department of Kan- 
 sas City University. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 A handaome 12nio of about 200 pages, printed 
 on good book paper, sold by all book deal- 
 ers or sent prepaid on receipt of price. 
 
 Clotk • . . - - $1.50 
 
 BURTON PUBLISHING CO. 
 509 E. 9th St., Kansas City, Mo. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ] 
 
 013 732 125 7a