Vocabulary from a Selection from "What the Social Classes Owe Each Other" by William Graham Sumner

Adam C.
These two essays, by Charles Graham Sumner and Walter Rauschenbusch,from 1839 and 1912 respectively, take very different views on an issue still very much in the news today: how much should the government be involved in shaping the economic system and helping those who are struggling? Both claiming a moral high ground and finding the source of their inspiration in holy scripture, Sumner and Rauschenbusch reach very different conclusions about charity and government's function. If a solution to this problem still remains elusive, perhaps examining some of the early arguments on both sides will prove instructive.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. declaim
    recite in a skilled and formal way
    These two writers only represent a great deal of crude thinking and declaiming which is in fashion.
  2. prudent
    marked by sound judgment
    A good father believes that he does wisely to encourage enterprise, productive skill, prudent self-denial, and judicious expenditure on the part of his son.
  3. judicious
    marked by the exercise of common sense in practical matters
    A good father believes that he does wisely to encourage enterprise, productive skill, prudent self-denial, and judicious expenditure on the part of his son.
  4. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    If, however, the boy should read many of the diatribes against “the rich” which are afloat in our literature; if he should read or hear some of the current discussion about “capital;” and if, with the ingenuousness of youth, he should take these productions at their literal sense, instead of discounting them, as his father does, he would be forced to believe that he was on the path of infamy when he was earning and saving capital.
  5. ecclesiastical
    of or associated with a church
    There is an old ecclesiastical prejudice in favor of the poor and against the rich.
  6. invidious
    containing or implying a slight or showing prejudice
    It is not uncommon to hear a clergyman utter from the pulpit all the old prejudice in favor of the poor and against the rich, while asking the rich to do something for the poor; and the rich comply, without apparently having their feelings hurt at all by the invidious comparison.
  7. fallacy
    a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning
    A newspaper starts the silly fallacy that “the rich are rich because the poor are industrious,” and it is copied from one end of the country to the other as if it were a brilliant apothegm.
  8. apothegm
    a short pithy instructive saying
    A newspaper starts the silly fallacy that “the rich are rich because the poor are industrious,” and it is copied from one end of the country to the other as if it were a brilliant apothegm.
  9. denunciation
    a public act of condemnation
    Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work.
  10. dogmatic
    pertaining to a code of beliefs accepted as authoritative
    People who have rejected dogmatic religion, and retained only a residuum of religious sentimentalism, find a special field in the discussion of the rights of the poor and the duties of the rich.
  11. tariff
    a government tax on imports or exports
    Think, for instance, of a journal which makes it its special business to denounce monopolies, yet favors a protective tariff, and has not a word to say against trades-unions or patents!
  12. artifice
    the use of deception or trickery
    They put on new phases, they adjust themselves to new forms of business, and constantly devise new methods of fraud and robbery, just as burglars devise new artifices to circumvent every new precaution of the lock-makers.
  13. beneficent
    doing or producing good
    It is a beneficent incident of the ownership of land that a pioneer who reduces it to use, and helps to lay the foundations of a new State, finds a profit in the increasing value of land as the new State grows up.
  14. probate
    act or process of proving that a will was properly executed
    A tax on land and a succession or probate duty on capital might be perfectly justified by these facts.
  15. remuneration
    paying for goods or services or to recompense for losses
    He gains greater remuneration for his services, and he also shares in the enjoyment of all that accumulated capital of a wealthy community which is public or semi-public in its nature.
  16. boon
    something that is desirable, favorable, or beneficial
    It is often said that the earth belongs to the race, as if raw land was a boon, or gift.
  17. subjugation
    forced submission to control by others
    Raw land is only a chance to prosecute the struggle for existence, and the man who tries to earn a living by the subjugation of raw land makes that attempt under the most unfavorable conditions, for land can be brought into use only by great hardship and exertion.
  18. expropriate
    deprive of possessions
    We are told that John, James, and William ought not to possess part of the earth’s surface because it belongs to all men; but it is held that Egyptians, Nicaraguans, or Indians have such right to the territory which they occupy, that they may bar the avenues of commerce and civilization if they choose, and that it is wrong to override their prejudices or expropriate their land.
  19. perseverance
    the act of continuing or repeating
    Let any one try to get a railroad built, or to start a factory and win reputation for its products, or to start a school and win a reputation for it, or to found a newspaper and make it a success, or to start any other enterprise, and he will find what obstacles must be overcome, what risks must be taken, what perseverance and courage are required, what foresight and sagacity are necessary.
  20. sagacity
    the trait of having wisdom and good judgment
    Let any one try to get a railroad built, or to start a factory and win reputation for its products, or to start a school and win a reputation for it, or to found a newspaper and make it a success, or to start any other enterprise, and he will find what obstacles must be overcome, what risks must be taken, what perseverance and courage are required, what foresight and sagacity are necessary.
  21. aggregation
    the act of gathering something together
    The aggregation of large fortunes is not at all a thing to be regretted.
  22. aggregate
    a sum total of many heterogeneous things taken together
    There is every indication that we are to see new developments of the power of aggregated capital to serve civilization, and that the new developments will be made right here in America.
  23. dissipation
    breaking up and scattering by dispersion
    The capital which we have had has been wasted by division and dissipation, and by injudicious applications.
  24. injudicious
    lacking or showing lack of judgment or discretion; unwise
    The capital which we have had has been wasted by division and dissipation, and by injudicious applications.
  25. spendthrift
    someone who spends money freely or wastefully
    In the absence of such laws, capital inherited by a spendthrift will be squandered and re-accumulated in the hands of men who are fit and competent to hold it.
Created on Thu Nov 21 09:24:12 EST 2013 (updated Thu Nov 21 14:17:43 EST 2013)

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