The Ketchikan miner., 1908-12-19
CARNEGIE SAYS
The People Are Partners in Every Great Fortune and Advocates
 Progressive Death Duties

new book, "Problems of Today, which deals with vital questions that are confronting the nation as a
 whole, Andrew Carnegie describes the methods by which men become multi-millionaires and points out a remedy for the unequal division of wealth. He believes that the acquire ment of wealth is accomplished in one of two ways or botb-the simple pos- session of land or the exercise of bus mess scumen. Following are selec- tions from the supplement-:
 "Imagine,n says Mr. Carnegie In his analysis of the first method, "an honest, hardorSking farmer who finds himself able 10 give 10 each of his two sons farm. They have married admirable young women of the neighborhood, of good kith and kin, friends from youth-no mistake about their virtues. The sens find farms, one in the center of Manhattan ls- land, the other beyond the Harlem. They cast lots for the farms as the iairest method, thus letting the fates .iecide. Neither has preference. The Harlem farm falls to the eldest, the Manhattan to the younger. Mark now the problem of wealth-ho@ it develops.
 "Their children grow up and are educated together. The growth of New York City porthward soon makes the children of the younger son mil .ionaires, while those of the elder
 emain simple farmers in comfortable circumstances, but, fortunate in this beyond their cousins, still Of the class who have to perform some SCI vice O their fellows and thus earn livli- hood
 "Now, who or what made this difference in wealth? Not lahor. nor skill. No, nor superior ability, sa- gacty, DOT enterprise, nor greater public service. The community created the miilionaire's wealth. While he slept it grew as fast as when he was awake. It would have risen exactly as it did had he been on the Harlem and his brother CD the Manhattan farm.
 ''The younger farmer. now great property holder, dies, n his chiier II in due time pass away, each havin. millions. since the farm has become part of great city. and imtnense buildings upon it produce annual rents of hundreds of thousands of dol lars.
 "When these children die. who have neither toiled nor spuu, what canon of justice would he violated were the nation 10 step in and say that, since the aggra agation of their fellow men called The community created the decendents' wealth. it is entitled to large portion of it as they pass away. The community had refrained from exacting any part during thier lives. The heirs have ueen allowed to enjoy it because all though in their case the wealth was purely communal gi owlb. yet ID othre cases wealth oit n comes largely from individual effort and ability, and lence it is better for the community to allow such ability to remain in charge of fortune makers, because most likely to succeed, and in so doi- ug deveo p our country's resources.
 Ut would he unwise to interfere with the working bees. better allow rneu to continue gathering honey turing their lives. When they die, the nation should have large DOT tion of the honey remaining in the hives.
 Let population remain stationary, and so do values of property. Let it decline, and values fail even more rapidly and this law holds in the whole of that vast and greatest 6eid of wealth. real estate. In no other field is the making of wealth so greatly dependent upon the cummn- ity, so little upon the owner, who may wholly neglect it without injury Therefore, no form of wealth should con tribute to the nation so gener- ously.
 ''Let us now trace the acquisition of wealth by the active business man who has some personal part, and often not small one. in creating it.
 "Imagine five brothers, sons ol another bardworking farmer. Tue first settles in New York City, the second in Pittsburg. the third in Chicago, and the fourth in Montana. The first sees that railroads in every direction are essential to the coming metropolis, devotes himself to thi. field, and obtains large intrests there. in. As the population of the country increases, and that of New York City bounds ahead into the millions, these lines of transport laden with traffic justfy increasing bonded debt. Having the figures unde his eye, he sees thai the shares of these railroads are cure 1 10 become ide nd paving, that ever