TRUE INDIVIDUALISM 519 



continually to impoverish the workers and to increase the 

 numbers of the idle, that it has been condemned as both 

 impolitic and evil. And we now see that, as it leads to 

 results which are opposed to " equality of opportunity," 

 it is also ethically unjust. 



Hereditary Wealth bad for its Recipients. 



There is yet another consideration which leads to the 

 same conclusion as to the evil of hereditary or unearned 

 wealth its injurious effects to those who receive it, and 

 through them to the whole community. It is only the 

 strongest and most evenly balanced natures that can 

 pass unscathed through the ordeal of knowing that 

 enormous wealth is to be theirs on the death of a parent 

 or relative. The worst vices of our rotten civilization are 

 fostered by this class of prodigals, surrounded by a crowd 

 of gamblers and other parasites, who assist in their 

 debaucheries and seek every opportunity of obtaining 

 a share of the plunder. This class of evils is too well 

 known and comes too frequently and too prominently 

 before the public to need dwelling upon here ; but it 

 serves to complete the proof of the evil effects of private 

 inheritance, and to demonstrate in a practical way the 

 need for the adoption of the just principle of equality of 

 opportunity. 



Conclusion. 



Under such a system of society as is here suggested, 

 when all were well educated and well trained and were 

 all given an equal start in life, and when every one 

 knew that however great an amount of wealth he 

 might accumulate he would not be allowed to give or 

 bequeath it to others in order that they might be free to 

 live lives of idleness or pleasure, the mad race for 

 wealth and luxury would be greatly diminished in 

 intensity, and most men would be content with such a 

 competence as would secure to them an enjoyable old 

 age. And as work of every kind would have to be done 

 by men who were as well educated and as refined as their 



