The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-01
Enormous Sums They Place in Hands of Public Their
 Real Value
GIVE EMPLOYMENT
 TO MANY THOUSANDS
When Edison Had Made $3,000, ,000 Personally Out of Electric Light the Industry Was Already
 Worth $500, 100000
By HOLLAND

By HOLLAND
 New York, August 31-(Speciai.) .)-Should the recommendation which the chairman of the federal industrial commission Mir Walsh, and some of his associates, have united in making. viz: that the state take all of the estate left by any one in excess of $1,0O0O00. be adopted, nevertheless the state would really get no more than it now receives by reason of the services given by men of wealth?
 That was view which was taken and earnestly upheld by the late Abram S. Hewitt formerly mayor of New York city and for many years member of Con gross, representing New York city dis trict. Whenever MT. Hewitt spoke or wrote upon economic questions he was sure of wide circle of readers or lis- teners This was not only because he was gifted with marvellous capacity for analysis and for assembling facts, and then assimlating them, but also be- cause he was possessed. probably, of the greatest statistical information of any American of his time and was known to be, in the best sense of the word, a true democrat. He was a profound believer in the principle which lies at the bottom of . republican, democratic representative form of government.
 In conversation with MT. Hewitt shortly before his death, at the time of an an tracite coal strike, he spoke of ten dency which he had observed with regret to be growing in the United States fn ipba ifa a tendency, he said which, if carried to it's logical conclusion, would result in the state taking all of the estate which any man had accumulated.
 MT. Hewitt said that were he younger man he would have agitated against this tendency. since he believed that it rep resent1A nothing but rank socialism.
 He spoke of the great wealth which has been accumulated by Americans, say- Ing that the large part of it was after all in the possession of the people. No man plays the part of a miser if he be a man who has through industry and great ability created large fortune. He puts his fortune to use. He makes investment of it In that way, skilled artisans and humber labor receive considerable year
  vestments which a man of wealth has made Furthermore. manufacturers, mer- chants and especially those who develop mines and who are occupied with building railroads or furnishing railroad supplies. receive each one his proportionate part of the gains or earnings which investment of that kind made possible. MT. Hewitt illustrated his view by saying that while tho wealth gained by Sir Henry Bessemer through his invention of a cheap process for making steel was in the aggregate $2O0O0,000 American money, yet the wealth of the world had been increased by reason of that invention within 2 years after it was perfected by an amount substantially equal to the money capital of the civilized world as that was 100 years earlier. If the state had taken all of Sir Henry's estate excepting N,000,O00 thlt would have been small in comparison with the world wealth shared in by the people of the world which was created by Sir Henry's invention. In this wa. MT. Hewitt made his point.
 The Case of Edison
 Today, Thomas A. Edison is enumerated among Americans who puossess princely fortunes. If. after his death, the state took all of his estate excepting $1, coo, 900, the state would only get property in which MT. Edison has made investment. In 1892 Edison was asked what his in vention of the incandescent lamp had brought to him. He made a rapid com putation and then said that the return at that time was about $3000.000, and this was the first substantial capital he ever secured Yet this invention at that time represented newly-created wealth some- what in excess of $30O. .0O0.00O all of which, excepting the $3,0o0.O00 which Edison him. self possessed, belonged to the people or to some of the people. Furthermore, this evvo xuo ivo for S00.000 skilled artisans and their families, q total estimated by Edison to be about 100000 persons
 Were the recommendations of Chairman Walsh now embodied in law, then the es- tate of the late Norman B. Ream would receive only $1,000.00 the state taking all the rest of his accumulations. Yet MT. Ream put much the larger part of his possessions into properties which have yielded or will soon yield new wealth many hundredfold in excess of teh aggre- gate amount of his estate. One of the corporations which illustrates his genius for organization and for the creation of new wealth does a business of over s. O00000 a year. employs many thousand skilled artisans and is to a great extent owned by many individuals, and not by the estate of MT. Ream.
 At the time of the panic of 1907, it was disclosed that John D. Rockefeller pos- sessed on deposit several million dollars in cash. Whatever the amount was it was . very small proportion of the na- tional wealth which. in considerable measure reflects his almost miraculous gift ,fof organization and for construc- tive work. One of the departments of the industry created by MT. Rockefeller has increased the wealth of the United States each year through exports to for eign lands from $4O.O00OO0 to 50ec0.0O0. All of Mir. Rockefeller's possessions, except Ing the relatively small sum of money he carried on deposit. are at work. and there are thousands upon thousands of artisans who in this way are receiving some proportionate part of the earnings made possible by Mir. Rockefeller's invest ment. Should the state upon Mir Rock