Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1909 — ONLY TOO TRUE. [ARTICLE]

ONLY TOO TRUE.

The People Pay Little Attention to Public Extravagance. A few nights ago I sat with a party of men—one an upstate banker, two New York merchants, one of the head of a great corporation whose product enters into the manufacture of a dozen or more leading staples used in nearly every home, and the other engaged in a large way with International trading; the fourth gentleman, a literary man of recognized attainments, and the last other than myself, a politician of national repute—an honest man, though the reputed possessor of a large fortune acquired principally by making shrewd Investments and as a result of advanced information respecting Wall street operations. The topic, entirely by chance, was the extravagance of the present age, and the consensus of the opinion expressed and assented to by alll was to the effect that national, state and municipal governments rush into engagements involving in execution vast sums of money raised and to be raised through the only available source, taxation of the people, and many times larger than the known w’ealth of the country or the probable endurance of the people’s prosperity warrants. The people, inherently committed to woeful waste and prodigality according to their means in personal expenditures, are blind to proper realization of the meaning of these stupendous budgets. They are too much absorbed in their own pursuits to give attention, even could many of them do so understandingly, to the direction affairs are taking. The multiplicity and duplication of public offices and thelncumbents thereof, mny of whom are In charge of vast expenditure of public funds are in the hands of men who never have made and never could make commercial success in business ventures of any description. They look on while graft, direct and indirect, runs riot with the people’s money. Contemplation of the foregoing picture is not pleasant Is it too grossly painted?—Communication in N„ew York Sun.