Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-06
The equal Division" Fallacy.

One of the most persistent of all the
socialistic doctrines is that which de-
nounces the unequal distribution OF
wealth and advocates its compulsory d.
vision among all classes of people to give
every one an equal chance. This scheme
is of course only an academic expression
of an ideal which very few of It's propon-
ents actually expect or hope to see con-
summated Still, it fingers in the minds
of the disconnected and coors their views
of life The other night j. G.. Phelps
Stokes. who attracted attention few
years ago by marrying Miss Rose Pastor,
girl of the tenements, addressed an
audience of socialists in New Haven and
when his talk touched upon personal mat
ters one of his auditors interjected this
question:: What are you doing with the
millions you inherited?' Mr.. Stokes is re-
ported as replying:
You are mistaken. I did not inherit
millions. l inherited some thousands. and
/ wanted to give those thousands back
to the people that produced them as we'll
as the income from those thousands.
Those thousands consisted mainly of
shares in corporations and in part owner
ship of Office buildings in New York.
took into consideration the people who
produced this wealth and found that to
return it to all. figuring for some time
back. would be to give one quarter Of
cent to each one. which would do them
no good. So I decided to devote the en-
tire amount to the socialist propaganda
and give my life to it,
This frank statement should be spread
broadcast 1T reduces the division doc
trine to an absurdity which must appeal
to the reason of men. Doubtless Mr..
Stokes made perfectly sincere effort to
return his thousands to those whom
he conceives as having produced them.
But who and where are they? By what
system of research could they be identi-
fled? Every artisan who built the Office
buildings, perhaps; every employe of the
corporations: then, going back to more
fundamental causes. every artisan and
every employee connected with the enter
prises from or in which the elder Stokes
made the money which he later invested
in the corporations and office buildings.
and so on backward. until the thousands
were traced to their source. 1t is to be
noted. however. that Mr.. Stokes only
abandoned his quest when he found that
the real owners of his thousands would
get only a quarter of a cent apiece: not
because it was not right that they should
have 1T but because 1t would do them no
good.
1t would have been better for the I'M
derstanding of the New Haven audience
if Mr. Stokes had said: II kept the thou
sands because they belong to me. because
they were given to me by my father. who
in his day made money, not only for him
self but for others. whose enterprises
gave work to people and whose brains
created capital which added to the wealth
of the world. 1 regard this money as
nv own because no other man has q
righteous claim to 1t. Every one of the
men whom l have found to have partici-
pated in the enterprises which produced
this wealth received his proper reward, in
return for his labor, his skill, his fidelity,
at the prevailing market rates. 1t is my
business to do with this money as / will
and i purpose giving society the benefit
of it by devoting it to the propagation OF
ideas which 1 conceive to be wholesome. u