St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-02
USES OF WEALTH.

that the tax laws should be so amended
as to compel the millionaire classes to
disgorge a part of their accumulatiOns
for public uses. The proposition is all
the more remarkable because it comes
from man whose property yields him
in one day more than the average yearly
earnings of the American people. and
yet he supports his proposition with an
argument fully characteristic OF that
sturdy common sense for which the
Scotch people are noted.
Mr.. CARNEGIE points out that under
the law of competition society gains
cheap comforts and luXuries, but loses
its hOmogeneity, and class divisions
with class frictionS result. Under the
competitive system there must be great
scope for the exercise of special ability
in the merchant and the manufacturer
who has to conduct affairs upon great
scale. That this talent for organlZa-
ton and management is rare among
men is proved by the fact that it in
yariably secures for its poSSeSsOr enor-
nous wealth, no matter where or under
what laws or conditions. Men possessed
of this peculiar talent for affairs, under
the free play of economic forces, must
of necessity soon be in receipt of more
revenues than can be judiciously eX-
pended upon themselves, and according
to his theory it then becomes problem
deserving public attention OF whatto do
with the excess. 1t is to this question
that Mr.. CARNEGIE addresses himself
and applies the argument in support OF
his proposition that the public are en-
titled to that excess. The proposition
has communistic feature about it that
sounds strangely coming from such
source, but the fact that it does come
from that source will attract the more
attention to it.
IL is not MI. CARNEGIE'S idea to abol-
ish the competitive system. On the
contrary. he holds that it is better for
the human race than any other that has
been tried. He thinks it all right that
the few should continue to amass the
bulk of property, but that they should
be compelled to administer their wealth
in the public interests. One plan that
he proposes is to tax large estates left
at death so heavily that there will be
no inducement for man to leave large
holdings behind him. He is satisfied
that the Pennsylvania law which gives
to the state one-tenth of the property
left by its citizens has had salutary
effect, and that the budget recently pre-
scented in the British parliament pro-
posing to increase the death duties is
indicative of healthy change in pub
lie opinion toward his idea. He argues
that it is more apt to be curse than
blessing to leave huge fortunes to heirs,
and that meu who leave wealth to public
uses only after their death may fairly be
thought to be men who would not have
left it at all il. they had been able to take
it with them. He does not undertake
to set bounds to the share of rich mans
estate which should go at his death to
the public through the agency of the
state, but he does commend the Justice
of the judgment rendered in SHY
LOCKS case which decreed that one
half of the Jews wealth should come
into the privy Golfers Of the state. This
ion, work powerfully to induce the rich
man to attend to the administration of
his wealth during his life.
When it comes to the question of dis
posing of Individual surplus wealth Mr..
CARNEGIE departs from the accepted
ideas on that subject, and, in fact, strays
from the teachings of Christianity. He
81 IN
terms, and says most positively that it
would be better for mankind if the mill
ions of the rich were thrown into the
sea than to be spent as most charity
contributions are now spent, in encour-
aging the slothful, the drunken and the
unworthy. He insists that nine-tenths
of the money now expended in so-called
charity produces the very evils which it
proposes to cure or mitigate. The only
true refOrmer is the one who is as care
full and anxious not to aid the unworthy
as he is to aid the worthy, and perhaps
even more so, for IN almsgiving more
injury is PROBABLY done by rewarding
vice than good done by relieving virtue.
PETER COOPER, ENoCH PRATT, Sena-
tor STANFORD and others are held up
as examples of rich men who knew how
to administer wealth wisely, because
they studied the best means of bene-
fitting the community and returned
their surplus wealth to the mass of their
fellows in the forms best calculated to
de them lasting good. According to
Mr.. CARNEGIE's idea, the best way of
benefting community is to place
within it's reach the ladders upon which
the aspiring can rise; to provide parks
in the cities and means of recreation by.
which the toiling masses are helped in
body and mind; to add to the pleasure
of the masses and improve the public
taste by establishing public libraries
and art galleries, and institutions of
various kinds which improve the gen
eral condition of the people. ''Thus is
the problem of the rich and the poor to
be solved" says Mr.. CARNEGIE. 1.-THE
laws of accumulation will be left free;
the laws of distribution free. In
dividuallsm will continue, but the
millionaire will be but trustee for the
poor; intrusted for a season with
great part of the increased wealth of
the community, but administering it
for the community far better than
it could or would have done for itself.
The best minds will then have reached
stage in the development Of the hui
man race IN which it is clearly seen
that there is no mode of disposipg of
surplus wealth creditable to thoughtful
and earnest men into whose hands it
flows, save by using it year by year for
the general good. This day already
dawns. But little while, and although
without mourning the pity of their fell
lows men NAV die sharprs in great hnsi-