Judge, 1923-06-30 · page 7 of 37
Judge — June 30, 1923 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Rich People" by Arthur Stringer Kirche — Judge Magazine This satirical essay mocks the wealthy's self-serving logic about their own superiority. The accompanying cartoon depicts various figures of wealth and status, illustrating the author's ironic argument. The satire targets the rich's claim that wealth proves moral virtue—that God rewards goodness with money and punishes poverty. Stringer ridicules this theology, pointing out that the wealthy control government, set social standards, and monopolize scandal (their divorces and affairs are "juicy" newspaper fodder, while poor people's troubles are ignored). He exposes the absurdity of wealthy assumptions: that poor people lack judgment, that rich people naturally govern better, and that poverty indicates moral failure. The essay's heavy irony—praising the rich while describing their actual privilege and self-dealing—reveals how the wealthy justify inequality through circular moral reasoning. This reflects early 20th-century Progressive-era critique of unexamined class privilege and the myth of meritocracy.
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Vile scoffers may sneer at the rich, but, doggone it, I know. T’s THE early training that counts. “Always,” my father used to say to me, “take off your hat when you meet a millionaire.” And ry night, before I went to bed, T used to repeat a little prayer that ended. ake me a good boy and help me to be respeetful to rich peop! You can’t get behind a start like that. ies of maturity. Rich people are “And please, God, aith instilled in early youth repulses the her Vile. scoffers may sneer at the rich, but, me it, TD lnow, better than Tam, because they have more money. people aren't as good as Tam, because they haven't any money. The Power that governs us knows what it’s about. ‘That Power has no use for evil; it cares only for good. Would it That's absurd. So And poor reward the evil and punish the good? when you see a man with a lot of money you may be certain that he has been rewarded for his goodness. And when you see a man without any money you may be equally positive that he has been punished for his wrong I'm pretty tired of the filthy radicals who assail the rich. I think they all ought to be put in jail. I'd like to know where we'd be if it weren't for the good and benevolent rich people! Don’t they do all the work that amounts to anything? The rich people elect our governments. All the trouble Presidents and vernors and) Senators is assumed by the rich. Think what a rotten state of affairs would exist if the poor people did these things! Why, we might have in the White House a man who poured ¢ i the saucer to cool it, instead of blowing on it. W have a man occupying the highest place in the gift of the rich people, whose tie never matched his socks. What do the poor people know about the really vital things of | What country clubs do they belong to? Are their names in the “Blue Book” or the “Social Register”? Why, if the poor people were to nominate a ticket, E doubt if a single one of their candidates would know how to address a duke or God knows this country has little enough of nominating curse a boot! wsition as it is, but if the poor people ran it, we wouldn't socig have any at all. Wt wanes our wars for us? Did you ever hear of a poor man starting a war? Poor men don't have any foreign investments which involve the honor of the country. It 1 war to arouse patriotism and idealism, and you can’t 1 war unless there's some money involved—and the poor “no money. If the poor ran the country there'd never be any waves of spiritual exaltation sweeping over us, cleansing - our civilization. AIl they ever think about is paying the rent or the grocer. ‘The rich never bother about They own the houses they live in and they us of the vile materialism which is rotting awa For the poor are materialists. those things. tell the grocer to wait until next. year. The poor havent anything to their eredit. They don’t n supervise our morals or try to change our vicious habits. They're too busy making their vulgar livings to start agitations The poor against rum and tobacco and Sunday baseball. never more than seven aren't one hundred per cent.; they w and they can’t get that now. and a half per cent., Take all the seandal in a The poor are not interesting. poor section of thedtown, and it isn’t half as ripe and juiey and soul enthralling as a rich divoree or paternity suit. Think of it: the scandals of the poor never get on the front pages of And it’s ridiculous to say that the poor the newspapers. The Ford car has brought sin ha t an equal opportunity. within the reach of all. TueN Tam in New York Tlove to walk up and down Fifth avenue and look at the houses of the rich. Once [ stood all day opposite Mr. Vanderbilt's house. I never saw him, but his butler finally came out and told me to move on, and I felt so proud and happy that when a blind beggar asked me for a dime [ called a policeman and had him arrested. I knew that it was my duty, and just being spoken to by Mr. Vander- bilt’s butler awoke all the better things in my nature. Whenever there are any rich people playing golf on the same course with me, [ always ask them if they don’t want to go through. And frequently they say “thank you,” and T tell the children about it that night, and their eyes grow round and their lips part in eager questioning. “Do you think a millionaire will speak to us some day, Daddy?" they ask. “L know that life will give its best to my little boys,” I tell them. And they go happily to bed. I never expect to be rich myself, but I don’t whine about it. T lack the genius which would have made me choose a million- aire fora father. I chose a poet who wrote verse about lovely things. He should have written poems about lovely people who have money, and then they might have given some to him. I do hope that some rich people will read this article. I want them to know that they have at least one friend. And it them also to know that I'm patriotic and prefer Ameri- can rich to foreign rich. For it’s better to be an American snob than to be no snob at all. Iw comicbooks.com