The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-09-19
Nhe Aerala aud 0e1rs>
JEALOUSY OF WEALTH.

The Engineering Magazine contains
an interesting article Oh this su3)ec1
by William Nelson Black, in which ne
SAYS: There is a popular impression
that men get their wealth by taxing
something out of the hands other men
and appropriating it to their OVID uses.
There could hardly be greater miscon-
ceptiou. The accumulation of wealth oy
ali the honest processes OF the produc-
ton, or ~ buying and selling, is really
the creation Of wealth; the productlon
Of something that would absolutely
have had no being had it not been for
ms-esrsoual exertions of it creator.
Yet this fact IS only dimly compre-
henGed by most men who bother their
heads with social problems. Some
times tits not eomprehended atall. Men
seem to go upon the assumption that
there is just so much wealth IN the
world, and that life is a struggle to see
who shall make the largest grab. But
as a matter of fact the fortune Of every
man who earns money by lawful means
is simply his part contributed to the
total OF the national or social wealth.
Take the career of George N. L.
man, Just now conspicuous targfsor
the abuse of addle-headed labor lesISrs
and Popu!ist cranks and "reformgg."
Starting as a poor boy through sEeer
force of inventive genius and masterful
business capacity lie has amassed an
enormous fortune. But every dollar
represents new wealth, and no man
has ever dared to cast suspicion upon
the character or methods of the man.
In fact, William T. Stead, the sensa-
tional English editor and reformer, who
lately had so much to say IN favor OF
the poor and against the rich and the
corrupt elements of Chicago society,
when it came to Mr.. Pullman, found
1t, Unnecessary to say this:
sIThe first Pullman car which he
constructed and put on the rails cost
$4,000 to build, as against 81 600, which
was the price of the ordinary sleeper.
Railway men shrugged their shoulders.
It was magnificent, they said, but it
was not business. A palace sleeping
car st $4,000 could not possibly pay.
MI. Pullman refused to be discouraged.
Let the travelling public decide was all
he asked; run your Old sleepers and the
new ones together; ! will charge half a
dollar more for berth in the Pullman,
and see which holds the field The
verdict of the public was instant and
decisive; every one preferred the Pull
man at the extra price and the success
of. the inventive Car builder was
assured. Ee has gone on step by step,
from ear to car, until at the present
moment be is said to have fleet, as
he calls it, of nearly 1000 sleepers
which are operated by the Pullman
Company. They have besides IS din
ing cars and $50 buffet cars. Alto
gether the cars which the company
operates number 2,573. Other COM
petitors have come into the field, but
Mr.. Pullman deserves the distinction
of having placed every railway traveller
under an. obligation by acting as
pioneer of commodious, luxurious, and
safe railway travelling.
after building his car in various
parts, Mr.. Pullman decided finally to
certralize in the center of the Ameri-
can continent. Carrying out his
decision, he naturally fixed upon
Chicago as the site for bis works. The
Pullman company was incorporated
with capital of S30, 600, ,000, the quota
ton for which in the market to-day IS
twice that amount. He took up an
estate Of over three thousand acres
round Lake Calumet, which is four
teen miles from the center OF chicago,
and which was at that time far outside
the city limits. There, following the
example of Messrs. Krupp at Essen, ne
set to work to construct 8 model city IL
his own image. The car works were, of
course, the center and nucleus of all. In
these gigantic factories, where 14,00O
employees work up 50,000,000 feet OF
lam5er every year, and $1,000 tons OF
iron, they have productive capacity
OF 100 miles Of cars per anrum. Thelr
annual output, when they are working
at full stretch, is 1880 freight cars,
313 sleeping cars, 626 passenger cars ana
939 street cars"
Now all this enormous accumulation,
representing millions in value, afford
ing profitable employment for thou
sands OF people, and comforting gratetui
comfort upon millions of travelers-ail
this had no existence when Mr.. Pull
man began, and it has all been created
under his immediate personal direc-
ton. To say that bis employees did it,
or that it would have been done by
some one else, is equivalent to saying
that Napoleon was not necessary to MS
work, or that electricity would have
reached its present practical develop
ment without the aid of Morse ana
Edison and Bell!
Or take the case of Jay Gould. This
much-abused millionaire left fortune
estimated at SIC, 900, 900, the product OF
a life of great activity in planning and
executing works Of public utility which
continuously employed whole armies
Of men. But will any man doubt that
he contributed the full total of $40, ,OOc,-
600 to the national wealth? Will any
man doubt indeed, that he contributed
several times the amount of his own
fortune to the total? Consider the
wilderness reclaimed, the new towns
that have grown into importance along
his lines of railway, with their increase
in the values of real estate, the manu-
fac:ures promoted, the contractors en-
riched, and the various other Incidental
profits that follow upon the prosecu-
tion of great works, Were it said that
Jay Gould contributed S50S,O0 20 to
the national weaith during tn. Iorty
years of his active career, the estimate
would not be excessive.
What is said of Jay Gould could be
said in different terms of Commodore
Vanderbilt, whose fortune, noW en-
larged in the hands of his family,
causes so much jealousy. He con-
tribused to the total of wealth vastly
more than he secured for himself, and
it is reasonable to presume, much more
than his entire family of the third
generation now holds in its possession.
So with many other men Of his kind,
and in this field of research examples
crowd upon Us. The Bell Telephone
Company, the electric light companies,
and the electric railway companies are
all very recent representatives of a
wealth that would have been non
existent but for the inventive talents
and enterprise of their promoters. But
even here, too, we must make large
estimates for an incidental increase in