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CHAP.
XXVII

How Illgotten Fortunes

Are Deodorized

wrecking, on customs frauds, on the stealing of public lands, on proprietary medicines and food adulteration, on public franchises won by bribery, on tariff favors corruptly obtained, on prison-labor contracts, on vice catering, on tax dodging, and on numerous other iniquities. I refer not to methods of wealthgetting which a later generation has learned to condemn, but to acquisitive practices which outraged the contemporary standards of right and were pursued to a triumphant conclusion only because bribery and corruption turned the edge of every instrument the people sought to use against such practices, or because a secret control over sources of opinion deceived or confused the public as to what really was going on.

In order that these dungheap fortunes may be sublimated into social luster they undergo a process of legitimation, whereby illgotten wealth is made to look precisely like well-gotten wealth. The gatherer of tainted money may have to endure lifelong odium, but his descendants, when they get ready to retire from acquisition and devote themselves to enjoyment, may exchange it for sweet-smelling forms of property which will yield less dividend but more prestige. Then, too, as the crimes, frauds, and treacheries which lie at the base of family pride and pretension recede a little into the past, they are quickly hidden under a veil of oblivion.

Many motives, some of them far from bad, are at work to bring this about. The present holders of ill-gotten fortunes not only have every interest in suppressing the truth, but they may be quite innocent of misleading the public as to the real character of the founder of the house. Then the rising generation is regularly fed with fairy stories which cloak the grim realities of the socal mêlée. Its school-teachers, moreover, are nearly as ignorant and credulous as their pupils respecting the origins of private accumulations. To spare national pride, the shameful episodes and scandals, particularly those which reflect on conspicuous and influential families, have been expurgated from school history. Some of the most social-minded persons, namely those interested in institutions of social welfare, higher education, and scientific research, cherishing the hope of recovering portions of ill-gotten wealth for public uses, refrain from alluding to historical facts which might alienate possible donors.

Through advertising, the use of credit, etc., the newspapers are

so dependent on the financially powerful that they generally keep silent as to the skeletons in the ancestral closets of such persons. Wide as is the range of partisan political discussions, they rarely acquaint the public with bits of history which might be resented as offensive by valued party workers or contributors. Let it be borne in mind, too, that the present holders of ill-gotten fortunes may be very decent and philanthropic persons, so that to the public it will seem wanton and malicious to rake up the piracies of their grandfathers.

СНАР.

XXVII

Most

sions Are

Founded

on the

Most

of Fictions

Thus there is a kind of conspiracy of silence as to the origins. of many fortunes which sustain present social pretensions. If a Pretenscholar should dig out the truth from court records, assessment rolls, reports of public officers, and findings of committees of investigation, he would hardly find a publisher. So, of all im- Elaborate portant historical matter, this is the most perishable, the soonest forgotten, the hardest to revive. Yet such oblivion legitimates. accumulations of the most scandalous origin and leads millions of capable and useful people to accept as their social superiors commonplace individuals who have no atom of distinction save that conferred by the skilful expenditure of income from inherited plunder.

SECONDARY DIFFERENTIATION

Contrasts

between

the Supe

rior and

the

Inferior

Great differences in social status presently give rise to con- Character trasts in character which serve to accentuate and justify these differences. Normally, the personal ideal that grows up within a hereditary upper class is to be proud, free-handed, and highspirited. If the class is also a martial and ruling class, its ideal will include courage and domineering will. Born to wealth and power, the members of a privileged order not infrequently manifest an independence of character, a frankness of speech, a simplicity of manner, and a dignity of bearing which are interpreted as natural traits of the aristoi or best. Hence, it is possible to popularize the myth that the nobility had its origin in the deliberate promotion of the best, and that its raison d'être is social service.

On the other hand, by the presence above them of the privileged, the masses are liable to be warped out of their true line of character growth. They accept the master-idea of the disgracefulness of work; yet for them there is no other lot. Their en

CHAP. XXVII

forced economies and frugality of expenditure are taken as proofs of a want of natural dignity. So far as they lack adequate legal protection they find themselves under the necessity of combating force with deceit. In case the masses are mostly disinherited, they lose the property sense and are despised for their petty thievery. Thus, when concentration of wealth and power in the upper class is marked, the resulting want of manliness and truthfulness in the common people is held to reveal a natural defect, and inferiority of social status is justified as being the inevitable recompense for inherited weakness of character.

CHAPTER XXVIII

GRADATION

HE existence of social grades is established, not so much by

ΤΗ

the assumption of superiority by some, as by the fact that others acknowledge such superiority. Plebeians may gird at the pretentions of patricians, but their eagerness as individuals to be admitted to patrician circles betrays their secret sense of inferiority. A true social hierarchy is as real to the lower grades as it is to the higher.

CHAP. XXVIII

In Early
Aged Were

Times the

Distinguished

In the simpler human groups one finds a temporary grading based on seniority. Among the Eskimos, the Bushmen, the Australians, the Fuegians, the Veddahs, the Dyaks, the Caribs, and many other nature peoples, there is marked deference to the aged. Among the Homeric Greeks experience was the only education and age alone gave that. The counselors of the king were called gerontes or elders, although in war time few of them would be old. The basing of distinction on age is reasonable enough in early times when there are no short cuts to wisdom via the record of other men's experience in books. Generally the older man has seen more and has heard more of other men's experiences. In the barbarian stage of culture, people are graded chiefly Fighting according to the dignity of their employments. The leading inc Emhonorific employment is fighting, which is a better test of prowess than work and is graced by an element of exploit. The warrior class regularly lords it over the working class, which includes, of course, all the women. The taproot of the European feudal nobility was not landholding, but military exploit. One did not lead fighting men because he held a fief; he held a fief because he led fighting men. As the old saw put it, "who would be a gentleman let him storm a town." Although in Western Europe feudalism has been dead a third of a millennium, its value standards still influence a third of the human race.

Or in the words of the old ballad:

"To pillage, to rob, that is no shame,
The best in the land do quite the same."

an Honor

ployment

СНАР.

XXVIII

Govern

ment

Confers

Prestige

Implies

Mastery

Closely related to martial pursuits is government, which has always been an honorific occupation. The notion that those who govern are servants of the people has played but a late and slight rôle in the history of the state. Generally, those who have to do because It with government regard themselves as ruling rather than as serving. They enjoy prestige because they are able, not only to shun all pursuits tainted with vulgar usefulness, but obviously and irresistibly to impose their wills upon other men. The service of the state has been so honorable that often even its petty officials are looked up to by private persons much superior to them in real importance. The military-dynastic prestige of states like Prussia and Japan exalts even minor civil officials above leading merchants and professional men. The reason why Great Britain has been able to recruit for her colonial empire her ablest and besttrained young men is that in the eyes of the English upper caste government is much more honorable than business. The type of man who in this country works to the head of a great business, in England spends his best years in exile and is content with an occasional visit home and a little money rather than forfeit his caste in "trade."

Those Who
Have to
Do with

the Gods
Are
Honored

The professional offering of sacrifice and prayer is another honorific occupation. At first, to be sure, rites are so simple that the petitioner approaches his god directly. But in time it comes to be considered prudent to have the sacrifice offered by some one who can do it in a workmanlike way, and who is believed to enjoy divine favor. In Homeric Greece the priest was generally a man who by repeated sacrifices and services had made himself dear to a god and had then set up an altar on his own account, or else he was a noble to whom his fellow-tribesmen had confided the care of a common shrine. As a supposed expert in "getting results from a sacrifice the priest could command fees, so that he stood high, not only from his favor with the god, but also as a man of substance. In Homer's eyes all priests were rich.

Not only does the priest as servant of a mighty potentate enjoy a social standing which reflects the exalted station of his master, but he becomes the parent of various intellectual pursuits and learned professions which in time win no small credit. In Greece there began to be visible a scholar's pride, and it was a Greek who protested that the mathematicians of Sicily degraded their science when they applied it to the problems of machines.

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