People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1896 — An Honest Million. [ARTICLE]

An Honest Million.

I have never been so impressed by'a place -where there was so little to see as by Nazareth, once the home of the one whose gentle life and wise teachings have so remarkably influenced the civilized world. The place is not particularly impressive, but one’s, thoughts are thronged with memories ot teachings which began at mother’s knee, then continued in the Sunday school, church, etc., and connected with every sacred relation, as christenings, weddings and funerals. And here was His home! We are treading the streets that He trod. The views that meet our eyes in every direction are scenes once familiar to Him. Yonder mountain is practically the same now as it was when it was a familiar figure in His daily landscape. I went to bed that night with an impressive realization that I was to sleep in the town which was once His home. And when leaving the next day I often turned my horse about to look again and again at the little town and its surrounding hills and valleys—scenes of His daily life. In the last few years, during which the industrial question has assumed such great - importance in our country, my mind has often gone back to those scenes in Galilee. I have thought Of the principal actor, not as a teacher, but as a workingman—the Carpenter of Galilee. Millionaires and multi-million-aires have become numerous in our country, bringing in their wake an army of unemployed, many of whom, by force of conditions, degenerate into tramps

and t vagabonds. Both these classes, the millionaires and tramps, are a detriment to the best interests of our country. I have made a calculation bearing upon the honesty of these millions in private coffers, and to help us to realize what a sum a million dollars is and what it is to actually earn a million dollars. All will agree when a working man can save 81 every working day in the year he is doing well. Our era begins with the birth of this Carpenter of Galilee. Let us suppose that he was able to begin work on the day of his birth and that each working day lie is able to save $1 above his living expenses. Let us suppose that he never loses a day by sickness or bad weather and that his life and strength and health are miraculously prolonged until he shall earn one million dollars by saving 81 for every working day. Then we will be able to realize what an honest million is. We will trace our workman who began work on the day of his birth. At the historic time of his death, at the age of 33, what would he be worth? The calculation is easy; 365 days minus 52 Sundays equals 313 working days in each year. Multiply that by 33 years and we have 10,329 days; but we must add eight days for eight leap years. This would make it 10,387 —and $1 per day saved would equal as many dollars—slo,337. Far from a million, yet labor began at birth and never a holiday nor a day lost by sickness! Let us suppose that he had lived the alloted 70 years; then how would the account stand?, Only $21,927! Our workman has a long and weary task before him to earn so large an amount as a million dollars. Our hero must trudge along through summer’s heat and winter’s storms. Years and decades come and go until they grow into centuries and still he w’orks on, for his task is only begun. He sees kingdoms and empires rise and fall, but still he labors on. for the greater part of his task is still before him.

Christians are persecuted in various countries, the Roman Empire disappears, 1 the dark ages completed. The crusades are fought, America is discovered, modern science awakens the world from its shroud of darkness, and still he labors on. The stirring events of modern history transpire aud bring us down to the present moment, and—would you believe it?—our Carpenter’ is still laboring on, not yet having missed a single working day from sickness or any other cause in all these centuries. Let us see how his task would stand at this tim e. We are not counting interst, but purely the earnings of labor.We have seen that his savings would be $313 per year; this would be $31,300 per century, but adding 25 days for 25 leap years per century, it would be $31,325 per century. To determine how his account would stand at the begining of the present century multiply $31,325 by 18, and the result is $561,850, and add S3O- - for the 96 years of the present century and the amount is $591,898. So .the task at the present time would be only a little more than half done. Let us in imagination bring him before us. Here he conies time-scarred storm-scarred, labor-scarred. We ask him questions. He tells us interesting stories of how he has builded homes for princes and peasents in many countries, of how he worked on the Collosseum, the Alhambra St. Peter’s. He mentions familiarly such masters as Michael Angelo. He praises his good fortune in having steady employment durin g all these centuries, and that his wages were always promptly paid and that he was allowed to make up the time lost by going from one job to another by night work-butjsuddenly he says: “I must not tarry lam the drudge of the ages, with the task of earning a million of dollars. I must get it honestly, therefore I must earn it. My task will require many reflections concerning our millionaires and their millions? What shall we say to those who obtain not only one million, but many millions in the few years of the adult period of a single life?

It is plain that no man can earn a million dollars in a brief human life, however hard he may work. But many have become millionaires, and while it is impossible to do so honestly, in a strictly ethical sense, we will admit that some have done so legally. This shows that these men have been enabled to do this only by the many advantages of the institutions of this country aud aided by the protection of the la-w. Then

do these men owe nothing to the country and to the law? Indeed they owe much. But as a rule they systematically “dodge” taxes during life and at death are permitted to make any disposition of their vasfpossessions that they may desire to order in their will without any contribution to the goverment that made possible the ’accumulation of theii’ vast fortunes. Is it not just and fair that a percentage should go to the goverment? The people of other countries think so, but we, as usual are behind.—Dr. C. F. Taylor in the Medical World. The People’s Pilot, 81.00 per year.