Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-03-29
GARNETT, KANSAS, MARCH 20, 1901.
10 MCDILL'S MUSINGS.
CARNEGIE.


less time than the period of his natural
life. 1t goes without saying that such an ac-
emulation was only possible through his buy
ing at low prices and selling at high prices
Any other man of ordinary ability could have
done what Carnegie did under similar circum-
stances. Carnegie set both the buying price
and the selling price, and sold for so much
above cost that his possessions grew TO colossal
proportions.
Carnegie is not alone in his acquisition OF
wealth, but he is alone in his methods of dis
posing of i.
So far as l am informed, Carnegie has NO
family to whom he NAV bequeath his fortune,
so he is disposing of his millions in public Len-
efactions Some time since, Carnegie announced
his intention of giving away his fortune before
his death, observing at the same time that "to
die rich is disgrace"
Following his announced intention, Carnegie
has gone out of business, and has converted his
possessions into available cash and bonds. Be-
sides the endowment of numerous Libraries, he
proposes to provide for his old employees who
are lndigent, disabled or too old to work.
kind of pension system is to be inaugurated-
the interest Oh certain funds to be applied.
AS the world looks at things, it may be un-
kiud to criticize. We all free to admit that
Carnegie's application of wealth is superior to
the Goulds', Vanderbils' or Rockefelers', and
still it is hardly up to the advanced ideas of
modern benevolence. From any standpoint,
would it not have been more in keeping with
true beuevolence for Carnegie to have paid bet
ter wages tor the services rendered him by his
employees, and charged less to his customers for
what he sold? To put it in other words, would
it not have been more God-lik for him to have
retained no more capital than was necessary to
keep his manufacturing plants in operation?
Carnegie, i'll his farewell address TO business,
gives the "dlsturber'' between labor and capl-
tai final parting, in which it is assumed that
the system that permitted him to pile up hun
Der of people in want and privation, was all
right, and any man who opposed such system
was t'disturber." Well, am "disturber."
From Carnegie's own confession, large num-
Der of people formerly in his EMPLOY are with
out the means of a comfortable existence. Some
the means and without strenfith to labor. Some
men are cripples, mutilated by the machinery
that turned out his hundred million dollars All
his former employees are poor, few of them being
home owners. Tens of thousands of people
who bought his wares are poor men.
Now, when old age has crept upon Carnegie,
he proposes to play the role of benefactor Tue
time for true bene6cence has passed. Can
Carnegie give back to the old men what they
lost in youth? Can he restore to lite the men
who fell in the Homestead massacre? Can he
now comfort the families of the dead, and com.
pansate them for their grief and privation?
Do Carnegie's Libraries make DIP for the over
charges? Is it not fact that Carneg:e's be-
nevolences are very hmsy affairs compared
with the real thing?
Now, it would be interesting to know what
passed through Carnegie's mind before he re.
solved to unload. 1t is pretty certain that he
would have to unload in few years at most.
AS Carnegie is devout Presbyterian, it is
probable that he has read John Bunyan's "Pil-
grim's Progress" although Buuyan was Bap-
tist. According to Bunyan, Christians enter
Heaven through small gate. Once upon
time, the moneygetter started to Heaven with
his money done up il numerous bags. Money
ge;ter reached the little gate, after much toll,
and essayed to enter with all his moneybags.
1t was no go. Money -getter dropped one bag
after another, but could not enter with even
one bag. There was just room for a soul.
Money-getter picked up his money and started
earthward He got in at the other gate.