The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-11-10
GOSPEL OF wealth
EDGAR SALrUS on CARNEGIE A.
THOR AND PLUTOCRAT.
Nothing New That Is True and NOth-
ing True That Is New In the Iron
Kings DOOk-Snltus Thinks MIR.
Carnegie Will Die Disgraceal-lf
Not 1t Will Take 200 Years to
Dispose Of His Wealth.

Mr.. Carnegie, under the entirely TAX
in yet not entirely original title of
1.-The Gospel of Wealth. has recently
delivered himself of book. This book
might have been very valuable, in
stead of which it is merely trite. But
that is natural. The books that might
be are always so much better than the
books that are. The present work is
not therefore exceptional. 1t is a COL
lection Of papers that have appeared
here and there during the last 10 or
Is years. and which are now handed
out as new. We wish they were.
The gospel of wealth is an evangel
so alluring that is were difficult for
any one, however lackluster, to make
it stale. Even Mr.. Carnegie has not
succeeded in doing that. Yet in read
ing that particular essay from which
the book derives its title we found our
selves bowing to his old friends.
Here. for instance, is the stately
exiom that the man who dies rich dies
disgraced. 1t was at Proundons, in our
infancy. that we met that axiom first.
And here is the axiom that the worst
thing for beggar is aims. The state
Illness of that thought we encountered
long since in a promenade which we
were taking through sections of the
NapoleOnic code.
Here is also Mr.. Carnegie's equally
stately praise Of poverty. That praise
is another old friend. We made it's ac-
Quaintance at Schopenhauser's and ran
into it again at Neuvilles. The former
n in oon
est man is the one who knows best
how to be poor The latter presented
it thus: "Poverty means tranquility"
Sweet are the uses Of adversity," said
Shakespeare, or. as we once presumed
to parody the bard. You can't strip a
naked man."
Summariy, then. these quips of Mr..
Carnegie, without being very valuable,
show commendable aptitude for re-
search and great ability in the occult
science of finding things before they
are lost.
Said Mollere, II gather my wares
where II find them. .''8i ''8 We know. Of no
ii good and valid reason why Mr.. Car
seem tOs object At isail, 1T & III merely III
2 -t1Ac 1OlII VI IL StIlu lHcluentdlly LOFE IHe
fun. What is new in this book is not
true and what is true is not new.
Yet that which lends an air of pseudo
benevolence to what he has to say are
his views on the distribution of wealth
Before considering them it may be
serviceable to inquire what wealth is
A ton Of gold on a desert island would
not be wealth to a sailor who happened
to be starving there. But the nuts
which the first troglodyte had the sense
to store were wealth to him. Wealth
consists in whatever is useful. It's his
tory is in three chapters-the energy
which creates it. the economy which in
crease it and the expenditure by which
it is distributed.
1t is on the expenditure of wealth
that Mr. Carnegie is at his worst He
has known how to create it and how tt
increase it, but how to spend it he has
still to learn. And yet, with fortune
which today runs pretty close to thu
quarter of a billion mark. his opportu
mites in that line ought to be tiptop
What is more he ought to be urged t,
take advantage of them. 1t is sham,
full thing that from the toll of others
cling to as much as he has. But it i
Il duty to be just. During the pas
decade or so Mr.. Carnegie has givel
away pretty nearly s12.OOO,OOO. Tha
is large sum of money 1t is a par
ticularly large sum to a man whose in