Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-02-19
ANDREW cARNEGrE.
Hss pcsea~e es American MIIiioasirSs Re
~ viewed by Tho vosce,

nl< fNkett~t ~ ftttttttNNtt aNH"'Nsste- -"
viewed ny The vosce,
Andrew Carnegie has been lccturing
10 the students Of Union College. His
subject was "Wealth and Its Uses" He
gave the students some good advice in
regard 81 speculation. and then pro-
coed 10 q defense Of millionaires, One
Of the things said by him was this:
The principal c0yaplsint against om indus
fu4a, conditions ~ to-day Is thas they cause great
vraHh q, Cow into SIC hands of the few, Wen,
a. The vcry few, Indeed. Is this tIc, Ii was fcr.
us,rsy -, - have explained, imn'ciiatcly after
tao new iarcniioa> had changed the conditions
q, tie vorl6, To-day Il is not tupe. Wealth is
lc.ng more and more distributed among the
many. Tlc amount os the coTahsnea rrnats ct
la,,rr and CAPITA w9tch rscs a. tseT was never
utycr 50 ssax5l
Mr.. Carnegie furnishes no figures,
and therefore we will undertake TO do
il for him. We take them from Pro
feSsor S4uckeRberc's resume Homilet-
&c Review, February of Mulhalls His
tory Of Price" Here are some of the
points brought out;
In Isl. waSe-earners of the United
States received 2lS per cent. of the
value Of products; in 1860. they receiv-
Ell 2i.9 per cent: in 1870. they received
l9 per cent: in lSS0, but LIS per cent.
Here is drop of nearly one fourth in
the proportion which goes to the re-
ward of labor, as compared with that
which goes to reward capital.
In the same length of time the prod
t,rnal ont hx- aaah nnarafiyn has
increased So per cent, while the in
crease of wages has been but 43 per
cent.
In Great Britain operatives receive
in wages from 30 to 33 per cent. of the
value of the manufactures they pro-
duce.
In Europe, they receive 30 per cent.
In the United States, they receive
but Is per cent.
Conditions must have undergone a
marvellous change since 1885, when
Mulhall made his estimates, or else
Mr.. Carnegie is talking at random.
There has been change, but it has
been in the way of still further con-
centration of power in the hands of
capitalists.
Mr.. Carnegie says:
'sThe bees OF Il hive do not destroy the honey
making bees. but the drones. 1t would he a
great mistake for the community to shoot the
millionalres, for they are the bees that make the
most honey. and contribute most TO the hive
even after they have gorged themselves full.
Here is Il remarkable fact, that the masses of
the people in any country are prosperous and
comfortable just in proportion as there are mil
lionaires''
He goes on to say that in Russia the
only millionaires are the emperor and
few mobiles; in Germany he knows of
but two millionaires; in France there
are not half a dozen; in Great Britain
there are more than in all Europe, and
in the United States there are more
than in all the rest of the world.
Quite likely. And the fact that, as
shown by the figures above, the oper-
atives of America receive but a little
over one half as large proportion of
their product as the operatives of Eu-
rope receive may go far toward ex-
planning why we have so many more
millionaires. But there is something
besides millionaires in which we sur
pass Europe, Prof J. A. Collins, in
The American Magazine of Civios Jan
uary), gives the following table, show
ing the proportion of people in differ
ent countries who, instead of owning
their homes, are tenants; and it APP
pears that we have more than twice as
large proportion of tenants as the
other countries given. Here are the
figures: