Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1909 — A BREEDER OF SPENDTHRIFTS. [ARTICLE]

A BREEDER OF SPENDTHRIFTS.

When Charles M. Schwab was president of the steel trust, he threw Europe into an uproar by putting the bank of Monte Carlo temporarily out of business. When J. Pierpont Morgan goes abroad, he does not gamble, but spends money as lavishly for art works as the spendthrift gamblers do for pleasure. European money standards have been set topsy' turvy by American spendthrifts. Natives of the older countries dread travel now, because rich Americans buy up all the accommodations worth having. Even the hotels and transportation companies reserve the best for the lavish Yankees. The wife of an American millioniare suing for divorce said she could not dress on less than $40,000 a year. It is merely a question of standards. The rich spendthrifts have made ar-tific-al standards of their own, and they burn tip unearned money like dress. It W because the money is unearned that it goes so fast. Almost without exception, fast American spendthrifts derive their incomes from trust dividends. They are using up money contributed by producers and consumers in the form of indirect taxation. The tariff, we are told, is the mother of trtrsts. Therefore, the tariff is responsible for an era of financial profligacy without parallel in modern times. The trusts draw unearned wealth from the people, and the security holders burn it up to tlie detriment of public and private morals. And tlie producing west will continue, as long as the tariff barons rule, to furnish the wherewithal for eastern spendthrifts.- Carroll County Citizen.