Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-03-16

) sum would do wonders It's mere
interest income, amounting to 1929
a day, would forever feed a F1eisch-
man bread line of $3.50 men, giving
one a loaf of bread every night That
line would extend not merely around
Grace church, as at present, but %
miles up Broadway to Tarrytown-
Would Build Another Subway.
1t could. build another subway in
New York city like the present one.
the most marvellous railway in the
world, carrying more passengers in a
day than many great lines do in six
months. 1t could construct trunk
line from New York 1,2S0 miles west
ward to Kansas City, at the rate of
$4,000 a mile, which is all that roads
cost under normal conditions.
The things that could be done for
the material benefit of humanity with
the sum of $50, 100000 are of great
number. The question arises whether
the money might have been better ap-
piled to some of them.
Mr.. W. H. Mallock, the eminent
English antagonist of socialism, was
asked how he regarded Mr.. Rockefel-
ler's bequest.
ITO pass any competent opinion on
it's effects on public welfare and hap
pineSs would require careful study"
he replied. Such an enormous gift
SO overtops anything we have had in
England that 1 hardly know how to
gauge it.
I'm one sense 1 should say that the
individual who by extraordinary abil-
ity and talent makes a great fortune
would do better not to attempt giving
it away himself, but pass that duty
on to his sons. His genius has been
that of work and money-making- The
sons would not necessarily be brought
up in the same line of accumulation.
They could devote their time and tai
emit, therefore, better to the question
of proper distribution.
Mr. Carnegie's requests to Hbrar-
les have produced much criticism in
England because of the burdens he
imposes on the taxpayers. In this
respect the giving failed of due appre-
citation.
Gift Should Benefit Labor, Too.
'sYou ask me how / should have
liked to see this bequest of Mr.. Rookie
feller's applied differently? / cannot
answer, as / have not examined it full
ly. To a. certain extent I would have
the philanthropic gifts so made as to
benefit labor as well as education.
For example, a gift that would enable
the excavations of Herculaneum and
other buried cities to be uncovered
would afford not only labor but in
crease our sum of knowledge.
Whether such enormous donations
will affect the theory of socialism is
a question yet to be answered. In
one form it certainly is a distribution
of wealth. The scale on which it is
being conducted in the United States
fairly bewilders one
Socialism views the Rockefeller be-
quest with partial approval as a
means toward the end it desires. ].
G. Phelps Stokes, one of the party
leaders, said:
J. G. Phelps Stokes Ideas.
while 1 am not prepared to dis
cuss off-hand how l would dispose of
so vast sum, 1 certainly would not
give it to public charity. I would
regard the doing out of $32, 100000
in aims as a calamity. do not ap-
prove of extensive charity. 1t accom-.
plishes no permanent results in re-
lieving poverty, without removing its
cause. Education alone will do that,
and this gift to higher education will
affect the poor in that it will work
to create a keener appreciation of JUS
tice.
1T is unfortunate, however, that
the suspicion should attach to this
gift for the purpose of leading men to
the truth that men who dare teach
the truth as they see it may find their
chairs in colleges vacated.
Should that money be given to hos
pitfalls, you ask? 1 should say no. 1
would have the hospitals supported
by the state. Disease is the result
of conditions created by man. And
to have the individual turn around
and give back to society part of the
money he has wrung from it to allevi-
ate the conditions he himself has Gre
ated is incongruous. That is the
function of the state.
Education is the only hope for the
relief of the conditions of the poor.
Until man is taught the rights of his
fellow-man and learns to respect
them, conditions will continue as they
are. Under present social conditions,
gifts to education are the best way of