Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1902-05-22
NEW VOL. 37.---NO. 27.
Carnegie on Poverty.

1t is the fashion, says Carnegie, to
bewail poverty as an evil, to pity the
young man who is not born with
silver spoon in his mouth but I
heartily subscribe to President Gar
fields doctrine, that "the richest her.
itage a young man can be born to is
poverty" make no idle prediction
when say that it is from that class
from whom the good and the great
will spring. 1t is not from the sons
of the millionaire or the noble that
the world receives its teachers, its
martyrs, its inventors, its statesmen,
Its poets, or even its men of affairs.
1t is from the cottage of the poor that
all these spring We can scarcely
read one among the few immortal
names that were not born to die" or
who has rendered exceptional service
to our race, who had not the advan-
tage Of being Graded, nursed and
reared in the stimulating school of
poverty. There is nothing so ener-
waiting, nothing so deadly in its eff
fects upon the qualities which lead
to the highest achievements, moral
or intellectual, as hereditary wealth.
And if there be among you a young
man who feels that be is not CON-
PEELED to exert himself in order to
earn and live from his own efforts,
tender him my profound sympathy.
Should such one prove an exception
to his fellows, and become a citizen
living a life creditable to himself and
useful to the state. instead OF my pro-
found sympathy bow before him
with profound reverence; for one
who overcomes the seductive tempta-
tions which surround hereditary
wealth is Of the salt of the earth"
and entitled to double honor.
The bees OF hive do not destroy
the honey-making bees, but the
drones 1t will be a great mistake
for the community to shoot the mil.
lionaires, for they are the bees that
make the most honey. and contribute
mc-' to the hive even after they have
gorged themselves full. Here is
remarkable fact, tna, the masses Of
the people in any country al +. 'ns-
porous and comfortable just in pro-
portion as there are millionaires. Take
Russia, with its population little bet
ter than ,erfs, and living at the point
Of starvation upon the meanest pos
sible fare, such fare as none of our
people could or would eat, and you
do not find one millionaire in Russia,
always excepting the Emperor and a
few mobiles, who own the land, owing
to their political system. II is the
same to great extent in Germany.
There are only two millionaires known
to me in the whole German empire.
10 France, where the people are bet
ter off than in Germany, you cannot
count one half dozen millionares in
the whole country. In the old home
Of our race, in Britain, which is the
richest country in all Europe-the
richest country in the world save one,
our own-there are more millionaires
than in the whole OF the rest Of
Europe, and its people are better of
than in any other. You come to our
own land we have more millionaires
than in all the rest Of the world put
together, although we have not one
to every ten that is reputed so.
Under our present conditions the
millionaire who tolls on is the cheap
est article which the community se-
cures at the price it pays for him,
namely, bis shelter, clothing and
food.