THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1908. THE MISUSE OF WEALTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9123, 24 June 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1908. THE MISUSE OF WEALTH.

Mr Roosevelt plays an exceptional and a very useful part in the formation of public opinion, writes the London "Spectator." The singular frankness which characterises some of his speeches could hardly be shown in any position but that which he actually holds. A king necessarily speaks with reserve upon almost every question that comes before him. Mr Roosevelt's latest message to Congress is the most outspoken even of the remarkable series to which it belongs. The subject is one that he has often handled —the misuse of wealth by that small section of the community which possesses it in ex-

ceptional amounts. The special form of this misuse against which his attack is directed is, of course, his old :enemy the Trusts. The President sees clearly that the "tasteless and extravagant luxury" which is sometime associated with great riches can give no real pleasure to anyone. A man who is able to gratify every fancy that occurs to him inevitably finds that the process yields enjoyment so long as it is new, but no longer, 'ihe multiplication of pleasures become 3 in the end a fight against the depressing influences of custom, and in this contest custom always wins. The one joy which remains to the end is that which comes from the use of power and the control of men. A gigantic Trust is a machine for riding down every rival whom you have not enlisted in your own enterprise, and in the sleepless watchfulness which the conduct of vast speculations demands there is a large store of intellectual enjoyment. But it is enjoyment that of necessity belongs only to the few. Here and there, no doubt, great business capacity is an hereditary quality, and the third generation is as eager to add to its possessions as the first was to start collecting them. But instances of this kind are rare. More commonly the undertaking by which the fortune was made no longer gives either employment or interest to the descendants of those who made it. They are thrown back on the "nominal pleasures" which Mr Roosevelt denounces as soundesening of the name they bear. This is the kind of wealth that does so much to encourage socialism. Great wealth is almost always cosmopolitan in its origin, and there is no reason why it should be spent at home if the owner prefers to spend it abroad. If the rich man dislikes the English climate or English habits, let him live in the Riviera, or on the Italian lakes, or in Africa. All that we would ask of him is that the neighbourhood which he chooses should be the better for his preference. If this is too much to expect, if he cannot endure being obliged to live for any length of time in one place, ht him become a beneficent wanderer, and, in really fine buildings, in wellendowed hospitals, or other charities, in the prompt execution of public works for which the State cannot at present find money, leave evidences of his passage which shall endure in the recollection of his momentary neighbours long after it has faded from his own. Whether Mr Roosevelt's sermon will make any converts we do not know; but it is so like other and more common-place sermons that, if it were but translated into action, those whom it had influenced would be the first to recognisa how much they had gained by laying it to heart.