126 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



EDITORIAL 



The Obstacles to the Dissemination of 

 Good Things. 



Only in a limited sense are all men 

 created free and eqnal. No one is free 

 to act for himself nor are all people 

 equal. Everybody must regard the 

 rights of others, and so long as there 

 are differences of capacity and ability, 

 so long will there be those who have 

 much and those who have little. This 

 is true of mental as well as of worldly 

 wealth. Everyone possessed of know- 

 ledge or of goodness, or of a desire to 

 disseminate that goodness among 

 others, knows that the weak-minded, 

 pernicious and miserly are few. I have 

 had opportunity to know men and 

 women of great wealth but I have 

 known very few who were not desirous 

 to disseminate that wealth among 

 others, and they do do it as far as they 

 •can, but they would accomplish vastly 

 more if there were no obstacles that 

 w'ork against such dissemination of 

 good things. 



The rich man desires to do good with 

 his wealth and would do so more fre- 

 quently, if his efforts were not so dis- 

 couraged. And yet people who try to 

 bridge the apparent chasm between the 

 so-called classes and masses are espec- 

 ially found of thinking that the rich 

 man disregards the masses and they 

 quote, or misquote, the alleged saying 

 of an old-time wealthy man who is 

 reported to have said, "The public be 

 damned." I seriously doubt whether 

 any rich man ever said that or felt like 

 saying it. If he were wealthy, he did 

 not acquire his wealth without a fair 

 degree of common sense, and that com- 

 mon sense would tell him that his 

 wealth came from the public. The 

 wealthier a man is, the more regard he 

 has for the public, and this regard 

 manifests itself in efforts to benefit the 

 public. One needs to be only ordina- 

 rily observing to see that many ex- 

 amples which come to the rich man 

 thoroughly dishearten and discourage 

 him in his philanthropical efforts. 



In Sound Beach only a few years ago,, 

 a wealthy man tried to share the de- 

 lights of his extensive acres with his 

 fellow citizens. He said, "Come and 

 use my well mown acres as a free golf 

 ground." The offer was gladly accept- 

 ed by the mass of his fellow citizens. 

 But everywhere there are always sel- 

 fish, ignorant citizens, although in 

 Sound Beach there are few such. Some 

 of these came from New York and other 

 places temporarily for the summer. 

 They became members of that gclf 

 club and took the privileges as if they 

 were inherited rights not only for use 

 but for abuse. A prominent woman 

 of Sound Beach only a few days ago- 

 told me that she saw people comings 

 from those golf grounds laden with 

 shrubs and flowers ruthlessly broken 

 and ungratefully gathered from this 

 man's premises. One day, the owner 

 met a party of such vandals and found 

 examples of their plundering. There 

 was but one thing to do : regretfully 

 he did it. He told the golf club to go. 

 The result was caustic criticism ; he 

 was "a mean man," "he wanted to keep 

 all his acres to himself," "wouldn't let 

 the golf club," etc., etc. Every right 

 thinking person should have said, 

 "Those despoilers should have been 

 taught a lesson even if it had required 

 a jail sentence to do it." 



There is the old story of boys in an 

 apple tree who would not desist for 

 kind words or pieces of turf ; nothing 

 availed but stones. It is that principle 

 that necessitates laws, jails and state 

 prisons. 



There has been another marked ex- 

 ample in Sound Beach. AVe have an 

 exceptional example of a well-to-do 

 man who has made serious efforts to 

 ]:)enefit the public, and to scatter good 

 things so that everybody might enjoy 

 them. Mr. William L. Marks has spent 

 a fortune on Laddin's Rock Farm and 

 his joy in doing so was generous and 

 altruistic ; it centered wholly in his 

 pleasure of doing for his fellow beings. 



