Revietc of Beriem, l/»/oa. 



Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



TO MILLIONAIRES: LOOK OUT! 



A Froposed Law of Maximum. 



One of the most significant signs of the times — a 

 veritable handwriting on the wall — is the article 

 " An Apj)eal to our Millionaires," signed " X,'' which 

 appears in the May number of the North Anicriuiu 

 Jievieiv. 



DANIEL ^VEBSTER'S warning. 



The wTiter begins by quoting the warning of 

 Daniel Webster, that a plutocracy is fatal to a de- 

 mocracy. Webster wrote : — 



"The freest government, it it could exist, would not be 

 long acceptable it the tendency of the laws was to create 

 a rapid accumulation of property in a few hands. In the 

 nature of thingrs. those who have not property and see 

 their neighbours possessed of much more than they think 

 them to need cannot be favourable to laws made for the 

 protection of such property. When this class becomes 

 prey and plunder, .and is naturally ready at all times tor 

 violence and revolution. It would seem, then, to be the 

 part of political wisdom to found government on property, 

 but to establish such distribution of property, by the laws 

 which regulate its transmission and alienation, as to in- 

 terest the great majority of society in the support of the 

 government." 



The exact condition mentioned by Mr. Webster is the con- 

 dition which confronts the American people to-day. 



THE MOTOE-CAB AND THE MHIilONAIRE. 



" X,'' says that the motor-car may prove the last 



straw that will break the back of the patience of 



the people : — 



Our millionaires, and especially their idle and degenerate 

 children, have been flatinting their money in the faces of 

 the poor as if actually wishing to provoke them to that 

 insensate rage whicli is akin to madness, and leads " to 

 murder and the breaking up of laws." 



Their huge motor-cars, driven along narrow roads 



at lightning speed, are the symbol of their disregard 



of all lives and privileges save their own : — 



Since New Year's Day these great cars, simply for the 

 pleasure of their occupants, have killed more people on 

 the public highways than were killed in the war with 

 Spain, 



The result is a widespread detestation of the 

 millionaire, which is finding the most emphatic 

 methods of expressing itself : — 



The other day twelve American citizens, presumably also 

 of the middle class, and sworn jurors in a court of justice, 

 declared by their verdict that the odious offence of kid- 

 napping an innocent child was not to be regarded as a 

 crime if the victim of it was the child of a millionaire. 



WHAT MUST BE DONE ? 

 " X." declares that the issue of what must be 

 done with the millionaire is likely to be the dominant 

 question at the next Presidential election. He wams 

 the millionaires that 



they are destined to a very early «nd nawelcome awaken- 

 ing, when they will find themselves confronted with the 

 transfer of the Government witli all its great powers for 

 good and for evil into the hands of men of a ver.v limited 

 conception of " vested interests," and whose minds will be 

 iiifl.-imed with a wrath which they will consider rie-hteous 

 and a hostility whi"h may prove to be implacable. Unless, 

 therefore, some moral basis for what the majority of 

 voters believe to b« the present grossly unjust inequality 



in the distribution of property in this country i3 Boon 

 found — a moral basis which will prove acceptable to the 

 majority of American voters — we may encounter in the 

 coming presidential election a situation infinitely more 

 disturbing and iufinitel.v more dangerous than haa ever 

 before been encountered. 



WHAT CAN BE DONE? 



The notion of the inviolabiUty of private property 

 and the impregnable entrenchments of vested in- 

 terests " X " laughs to scorn. He asks : — 



What are the bulwarks of private property in the im- 

 perial commonwealth of New York, where so much of it 

 is situated? As to incomes, nobody will have the effron- 

 tery to deny that, if the majority of the voters choose to 

 elect a Governor of their own way ot thiukiug and a 

 majority in both houses of the Legislature, they can readily 

 enact a progressive taxation of incomes wliiolK will limit 

 every citi/.en of New Y'ork State to such income as the 

 majority of the voters consider sufficient for him. 



It is. if possible, even less likely that anybody will deny 

 that, in order to effectually turn every dollar of the pro- 

 perty of every decedent into the public treasury at his 

 death, no alHrmative legislation is necessary. It is only 

 necessary to repeal the statutes now authorising the deecont 

 of such property to the heirs and legatees of the decedent. 

 It is perfectly api>arent. therefore, that there is no ultimate 

 security for a single dollar of private proiierty ia New 

 Y'ork, and precisely the same statement is true of all other 

 American States, except such as a majority of the voters 

 may decide to be just and wise, both to the possesson* of 

 such property and to the communit.v at large. 



A PROPOSED LAW OF THE MAXIMUM. 



We have heard much about the law of a minimum 

 wage. It is now: to have as its correlative a law of 

 maximum wealtti. "X." says: — 



Suppose we shoultU try the harmless experiment ot apply- 

 ing some practical ethical test whereby the rightfulness of 

 each man's pcKSsessions could be somewhat fairly, even if 

 rough l.v jtidged on moral grounds or grounds of " the 

 general advantage." The American people have decided 

 that, in Lord Coleridge's words, it is for " the general 

 advantage " that £10.000 a year, witli allowances, should 

 be the compensation of the President of the United States. 

 Why shoxild an.v other citizen either wish or 1^ permitted 

 to withdraw from the common store a larger annual sum? 



It is difficult to see how any real injustice would be 

 done to any honest member of society, or how undue re- 

 straint would be put upon any abilit.v or energy of a 

 beneficent character, if the law encouraged every man to 

 earn for himself, say. a yearly income of fifty thousand 

 dollars and to acquire a solid fortune of a million dollars. 

 Such sums would allow not only an ample but a very 

 generous provision for everybody dependent upon him while 

 he lived and after he wa^ dead; and it is difficult to 

 realise what more the heart of any man could desire, who 

 recognises that he is part of a Christian society and not 

 a pirate on the Barbary coast. 



WOULD THIS DESTROY INCENTIXT:? 

 To the question whether such a law of the maxi- 

 mum would destroy incentive to effort, '' X.'' replies 

 emphatically in the negative: — 



The truth is that no genuine service in any department 

 of human effort has ever been conferred upon mankind 

 merely for the sake of money, nor is any jierson who is 

 desirous of having; " money to burn " capable of rendering 

 any really valuable service. The two qualities of mind 

 always have been; and always will be incompatible. The 

 time, indeed, is perha]>s not distant when everybody pos- 

 sessing private property will be required to answer' these 

 two plain questions: "How much have you withdrawn from 

 the common store?" and " What service did you give in 

 return for it?" 



The appearance of such an article in so staid and 

 conservative a periodical as the Nortli American 

 Rcvirw is a portent indeed. 



