The Washington times., 1903-06-01
SMART SET HAS NO
PLACE IN AMERICA"
Carnegie Tells Britons How
1t Is Regarded.
WASHINGTON THE REAL HUB
"True Center of the English Speak
ing Race" Asserts Pittsburg
IronmaSter.

Ironmaster.
The Philadelphia Press" publishes the
following this morning as special cor
respondence from London:
There was cabled to the American
papers yesterday brief extract of an
Interview with Andrew Carnegie wherein
he paid few compliments to the smart
set. But those extracts give only the
most vague idea of the worth of the
remarkable one both as a picture of the
man and as an evidence that the English
papers are at last becoming American
enough to obtain and print interviews
that interview and are worth reading.
The article appeared in the Daily
News" today it is the talk Of the city,
and men are asking who the II. S. who
wrote it, is.
AS has been said, the smart set and
the problem of riches were among the
most interesting subjects upon which
process thus:
Gospel of Wealth.
What of your Gospel of Wealth." 1
asked of Mr.. Carnegie who. vibrating to
a sympathetic note. replied:
81 hold to my Gospel of Wealth as
I stated it, and not as others state it.
1t is that when a man is thus rich he
should spend what he has to spare, after
first providing for those nearest to him
and leaving enough to maintain the
business which enriched him without
turt or detriment"
In Britain l said modestly, I'VE
love TO found families Even our
Shakespeare had that weakness. and our
Scott
Yes, here it is in the air. It is the
outcome of your primogeniture and your
entail. 1t is also the cause of your
weakness. Here a mans place is fixed
by what his father or his grandfather
was-in America a man stands fer him
self"
No Class in America.
Mr. Carnegie warmed to the subject
OF his life
Think of it, he cried. ION the one
side a country whose President sends
his children to the public schools.
whose President has never been chosen
for wealth or birth; on the other, a
country governed from top to bottom
by caste,"
And then Mr. Carnegie. with one OF
his swift changes of action-his CONVEX
sation is a perpetual drama-placed his
right hand fat above the left.
Your society here is like that. and
by that the upper class learns brutality
and the lower snobbishness. Every
c,ass has one above to crawl to and one
below TO kick" Al1d he shifted the left
above the right
In America" he went on, and his
eyes fixed me with the intentness of a
preacher preaching from his own text,
IF the plumbers son is better than the
millionaire's son, he goes up top. He
rules-he is the real king-he is the
man the girls run after-and no ono
cares a fig for his birth"
The Worthless Dukes.
Here ne flashed, fixing the humble,
caste-ridden Saxon with his eagle eye,
You have a duke at the head of your
board-he goes to sleep. and no one
except another duke-dares TO wake him
up or to tell him the truth And then
you wonder when your government and
your companies go to smash."
But what about your smart set-your
Misunderstanding New Yorkers-your Fu-
ropeanized rich?"
''They do not count We laugh at
them. You would initiate them. We
give them nothing to do. You would
place them at the head of your gov
eminent departments and your rail-
WAYS"
But won't you do that with your
millionaire sons?''
mo. there can't be hereditary gov
erning class in America. Great fo-tun, IS
are made, but in few generations they
get split up again. The !ncompctents
sink to the bottom, where they ought 10
be. Treat your idle rich as we treat
our smart set, and your competent
young men will not have to emigrate TO
America to find a career"
Washington's Place.
Taking a pencil, he drew for me a lit
tie map by which he essayed to prove
that Washington was the proper capital
for the English speaking world
See he cried. penciling the number
of days journey to the common center,
cit is nearer to Canada and Australia
it is quicker now. in a German liner. to
go to Washington from London than
from San Francisco-it is the real center
- ch Irfp
don"