New-York tribune., 1901-03-19
mR. CARNEGIE AND PROCDHON.

Two earnest socialists called one day upon the
head of the Rothschld family in Paris, reminded
him that property was robbery and demanded
that he should cease being a great. wholesale
thief ana should permit them and their fellows
also 20 he thieves on a smaller scale--in brief
thar he should make an equal distribution Of his
wealth among the members of the community
To their surprise and no little embarrassment
he did not demur nor call for the police. on the
contrary. he readily assented 10 their demand
Certainly citizens" he said. with all tine
pleasure IN the world Ny fortune is about
'5o.WH.em francs. There are about two million
people in Paris That is - francs apiece
Here are your shares. - francs apiece Now,
'of course you are quite satisfied. Good day.
citizens" History unfortunately does not
record the sequel. that We do not know
whether the two reeenerators of society
promptly drank themselves 10 death with
absinthe or renOunccd the unsatsfactOry Proud
hon and lived honestly forever after.
The incident comes 10 mind, however with
luminous significance at every sO-called distri-
button of wealth. such. for example. as the
superb and unsurpassed benefactions which Mr.
Carnegie has Just made to communities in
which for many years he has been accustomed
10 hear himself harshly criticised for his great
accumulation of wealth In two or three major
strokes he redistributes more than Sl00000 600
among the people. and in scores of minor strokes
probably as much more and there are intima-
tionS of tens of millions more 10 come Accord
ing 10 the strict Interpretation of Proudhons
creed, he is thus merely diseOrging the proceeds
of robbery Well, granted so. for sake OF argu-
ment. Then il will be difficult surely. 10
draw the line between honesty and dishonesty
For, strictly speaking, if property is robbery,
the possession of 81 is petty larceny lust
as truly as the possession of 81 900 0O0 is grand
larceny 1t is 10 he supposed that few social
lists would approve strict a construction of
Proudhons dictum. But if they do not. il will
lie with them 10 declare how much property
may honestly be held and beyond what line il
becomes robbery. And il will not be easy, i'm
the present case. to draw that line according 10
the service of public welfare.
For Jet us suppose that Mr. Carnegie instead
of accommodating profits into a great fortune
had day by day rediStrbuted all the profits of
his business TO all who were in any way con-
nected with il. Each Of his employees would
have had few more cents a day in wages and
each OF his customers would have got his iron
and steel for fraction of cent less a pound
That j. all. At the end of a year or ten wears.
or fifty years neither the individual nor the
community would have been perceptibly better
off with such distribution than without II
There would have been no accumulation of
reserve capital with which 10 create a vast loan
and pension fund and TO found schools and
/ libraries without number. and these latter
things, which are of simply incalculabIe benefit
4 10 the whole community. would never have come
/ into existence Under the application of the
socialists rule the benefactions of Andrew Car.
negie. of Peter Cooper. of George Peabody. ~
Stephen Girard and of innumerable other phi-
| lanthropists could never have been made. Nor
will IL do 10 argue that such things should be
| provided by the state, as though the state were
the custodian of some Fortunatuss purse The
state would mean only the mass Of working
men. IL Is easy TO ask the state TO appropriate
money now for public works. because the vast
hulk OF taxation falls upon the rich. But il
there were no rich men 10 be taxed would city
of poor men tax itself S5.0oo.Oo0 or $4,000 OOG
for public librariese Had New-York contained
no man with an income Of more than 81 900 a
year would IL have taxed itself for the new
library building which IS now going up? And
for the great libraries which are 10 be housed