try? Not
if tried by an ethical standard. VON MOLTKE, the great man of Germany,
who has so recently passed away, considered war a _permanent_
institution.

In this wolfish stage of human development, altruism is almost unknown,
except as an eccentricity. It is safe to say, as a general rule to which
there are not many exceptions, that _no man is fit to be entrusted with
any more than he needs for his own comfortable existence_. Every dollar
beyond that sum is wasted in his hands. He has not the faintest
conception that he is a trustee of all such wealth, responsible to
heaven for its use. As he cannot consume it, he can but squander it to
gratify his vanity, and lift himself to a position from which he can, or
thinks he can, look down upon his fellows. The leading idea of the
average citizen is to construct a palace that will cost ten, twenty,
fifty, or a hundred times as much as the residence that would be amply
sufficient and pleasant.[17] His talent for the destruction of wealth
grows by indulgence, and thus the millions that the financial conquerors
have won from the conquered are thrown into the blazing flame of
ostentation, and might as well be thrown into a literal conflagration.
Such is the humanity with which we have to deal at present. Wealth, no
matter who holds it, does not restrain the destruction of the resources
of the commonwealth, but the growl of the suffering millions may, and
may lead to a recognition of the grand truth that everything beyond the
demands of human comfort is a sacred trust for humanity, and with the
millions thus aroused, I believe it may be possible to introduce laws
which will gradually change the entire condition of society, and leave
in this broad land neither an American prince nor an American beggar--a
change which will be a greater forward movement than that of 1776.

[17] Nob Hill, in San Francisco, is crowned with five huge
buildings in imitation of foreign palaces, utterly unfit
for private residences, which may possibly sometime be
utilized for public purposes. They but illustrate the crazy
ostentation of selfish wealth. Can it be possible, as
stated by the St. Joseph _Herald_, that "George Vanderbilt
is building a genuine old-fashioned mediaeval baronial
castle at Asheville, N. C., at a cost of $10,000,000"?

The leading purpose of such legislation will be the controlling of that
lawless selfishness, whi