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11
DECEMBER 20,, 1912
The Commoner.
The Egotism of Andrew Carnegie
The Philadelphia North-American prints the
following timely article: It is now several days
since the Carnegie egotism reached its full flower
of offcnsiveness and without even the redeem
ing qualities of cynicism or of sardonic humor
proposed to impose upon ex-presidents of the
United States a pension of $25,000 a year for
life. We have searched in vain for any sign of
approval of this Carnegie scheme to mako the
little ironmaster the fairy godfather of the
United States government. If a singlo good
word has been said for it, such has escaped our
attention.
We can not recall any proposition related to
public policy that, so far as it has been dis
cussed at all, has induced such universal re
probation. There seems to be a general senti
ment that the dignity of the nation has been
offended; that one individual who has nothing to
commend him except his millions has set him
self up as a power so much greater than the
republic that he condescends to patronize it.
He pats it on the head and says, "Now, if you
are a good little boy, I'll give you $25,000 with
which to play store." Only, in this instance, the
game is not "store," but "statesman."
Now, this offended dignity of the nation, this
monumental conceit of the almsgiver comprise
one phase of the incident well worth considering.
Although, to our mind, not by any means the
most important phase, it is, however, the most
obvious and the most irritating. This feeling
is something entirely apart from the revulsion
to "tainted money" which has been exhibited
on several occasions, when Mr. Carnegie's great
est rival as a money-getter, Mr. Rockefeller, pro
posed large donations to religious work.
In the main, Mr. Rockefeller's public bene
factions have been received with general ap
proval. They have aided in invaluable work
of science, in the search for the causes, and
therefore the cures, of diseases which have
been age-long enemies of humanity. Rocke
feller endowments have helped to promote effi
ciency in public education, in every grade, from
the elementary in the common schools to the
post-graduate in the professional.
Mr. Rockefeller by his prodigious contribu
tions virtually founded a groat university in
Chicago. He could easily have had his name
blazoned thereon. He did not. If he has ever
even tried to control or to influence the teach
ings of the institution to which he has given
more than $30,000,000, it has not been ap
parent in results. For, long after Chicago uni
versity become a' center of free thought in
social and political science, in philosophy and,
to some degree, in religion, Mr. Rockefeller con
tinues to pour his millions into its lap.
It was only when Mr. Rockefeller offered
large sums directly to the cause of religion that
the cry of "tainted money" was raised. The
crimes by which tho Standard Oil monopoly
had been established were so enormous and the
impression of criminality in connection with that
trust was so clear in the public mind that Mr.
Rockefeller's donations to religion in his de
clining years suggested an attempt to pave a
royal road to heaven. Those who had to travel
by tho common route rather resented what
seemed like unjust discrimination in interstellar
commerce.
But, aside from Mr. Rockefeller's religious
endowments, his benefactions have never
aroused public opposition. The only adverse
comment they have raised has been due to tho
evidence of such tremendous power in the hands
of one man. There has been general agreement
that Mr. Rockefeller has distributed his endow
ments with rare judgment for the public good
and with singular good taste and commendable
freedom from bumptiousness, self-advertising
or offensivo egotism.
This review of the Rockefeller method is par
ticularly valuable in helping to form an esti
mate of the methods and motives of the Car
negie endowments. If Mr. Carnegie has ever
given anything for any other primary purpose
than that of advertising the greatness of Mr.
Carnegie, it has escaped the attention of his
avid and tireless press agents. He has studded
the English-speaking world with buildings,
across the face of which he has plastered the
name of Carnegie, and for which he has
shrewdly exacted a contract from each local
community for perpetual maintenance.
In his early days Mr. Carnegie discovered
that the mnRf InaHnrr mnniimnnt fn thft momOlT
man is literature. He essayed, through a
aClC Writer, tn nrnrlitna a hnnlr Wfi Was W1S9
u is literature. He essayed, inrousu :;, element
writer, to produce a book. He was wise gerous eiemn
cient to JvUd?? Ul ni'fcted work as Insufll
worlri of u US p,i;oxy auU,or a Po In the
lie tint fnm0?", IV,tlh0 8tlH rotalncd
so whon V30 bG ad throuS" books. And
envehin, i mtUtnP whocl of U,G truBtmalcon
dJp?mifWOalith beyond evon nla own "lido
S",ot opulence, ho proceeded to purchase
lame through other people's books.
nJl? C?,uld no nroducc a book which would cir
culate throughout the world and for all time,
but he could and did invent a scheme by which
tne name of Carnegie would bo associated with
books forever. lie could not be a great actor.
He could not play Hamlet, but he could ns
somte his name with tho great art by being
a billposter and keeping his sign across the face
of tho hoardings. And, with business acumen,
no induced each community that nurtured his
imperishable fame to pay half the cost.
But ho was not content merely to rest his
fame on the books that others wrote. It should
also have a foundation on tho lives that others
risked. Mr. Carnegio could not be a hero, but
his money would purchase for him a share in
the heroism of tho world. Heretofore men and
women had risked their lives for their fellows
out of pure heroic instincts. Mr. Carnegie gave
the world a new and higher motive for great
hazards. Each person who took supreme risk
to save human life would have tho unparalleled
honor of being a Carneerle hero. Tie could wear
a Carnegie mqdal and share the Carnetrlo boun
ty. Here, indeed, was something worth striv
ing for. something to stimulate the flamrlnrr in
trepedity of the race. Who would not risk life
for the preater glory and wider advertising of
Carnegie?
Then, having made millions manufacturing
implements of war, Mr. Carnegie erected a
$10,000,000 international monument to peace
and Cnrnegie. He also proceoded to pension
everybodv in sight. That is, everybody who
might, through a sense of gratitude for the favor
to come, inculcate into the mind of youth the
greatness and goodness of Carnegie.
But that was not enough. There was one con
spicuous blank spot still In sight. Tho name
of Cnrnegie must be written there. The nation
itself must be made to feel and help to advertise
the greatness of this man. He would pension
the men upon whom tho nation had conferred
the highest honor the greatest honor that anv
man receives from his fellows on the face nf
the earth. He would give to tho world a pic
ture of the most-honored men In all the world
feeding out of the hand of Carnegie. And then
could tho world doubt as to who is its greatest
man?
We think this is a fairly accurate description
of the picture in Mr. Carnegie's mind. We do
not believe that ho had any sinister designs
against the government. If ho had had, he
would have offered to pension not the ox-president,
but the actual president. For Mr. Car
negie's monumental conceit there would have
appeared nothing out of keeping in such a pro
ceeding should it have suggested itself to his
purposes.
Mr. Archbold had long paid pensions to
judges and senators and representatives in con
gress. No doubt Mr. Carnegie would have tried
to pension a president if such appealed to him
as the necesasry move in his game. And in
offering a pension to ox-presidents he prob
ahlv had no intention of swerving the judgment
of the actual presidents.
Ho did not think that with $25,000 a year for
life dangling before him an occupant of tho
White House might bo unconsciously influenced
to nursue such public policy as would best pro
tect tho securities from which that $25,000
was to come, and, Incidentally, from which Mr.
Carnegie's enormous income- is derived.
Such action on the part of the president might
involve tariff laws, railroad regulation, prosecu
tion for rebates and other discrimination. It
mletat involve the vast body of new laws which
presently will seek to eradicate the conditions
m the steel trust's plants which have been
described as virtual slaveiytyelvo hours a
day seven days a week, twenty-four hours con
tinuous work when shifts change and a fright
5 ,i fnii of killed and maimed, all at wages less
han needed to keep a family on the American
St ai! So not think that Mr. Carnegie had this
We i,?c , fnfli ence in mind when ho offered
unconscious influence in
to make every President or
Smen? in his proposal was just this pos
sible Influence, beslda which oven Mr. Cnrncglo'n
unparalleled bumptlousnass bocomes tamo nnd
innocuous.
NOT TIIK AM1CIUOAN TIIICOIIV
Secretary of War Stimson, In IiIh annual re
port, pleads for tho retontlon of the Philippines,
referring to thoso who favor Indopendonco na
displaying "misplaced sentimentality or lazy
self-Intorost." Tho American policy, ho Bays,
should bo continued to completion for "until
that time all proposals for Indopendonco nro'
pleas for national recreancy on our part, and
for the repudiation of the hoavy and dllllcult
burden which thus far wo have been bravely and
consistently sustaining. Kven more It is un
just to tho groat masses of Filipino peoplo, In
whoso behalf the high sounding slogans of
'liberty and 'Independence' nre shoutod. After
having been for centuries stink in Ignorance and
held In economic subjection, they aro now be
ing aroused to self-supporting manhood and bo
ing welded into national solidarity. Along this
line, and along this lino alone, lies tho true
port of liberty and Indopendonco."
When Mr. Stlmaon refora to "misplaced senti
mentality" ho uses the language of King George,
and when he says that tho "truo port of liberty
and independence" lie along tho lino of colonial
Ism he preaches tho doctrine that was shot to
pieces upon every victorious battleilold in tho
American revolution. If tho Americana had
never enjoyed Indopendonco until they woro
"flt" for it, America would oven now bo a British
colony. Filipinos havo demonstrated that thoy
lovo liberty, enough to dio for it, and that in
tho test. Colonialism and exploitation will not
teach them tho art of Bclf government any moro
than one could learn to awlm by avoiding water.
Theso people will learn rnoro of tho perfect
principle of popular government whon tho
American peoplo shall demonstrate that their
own charter of liberty, tho declaration of in
dopendonco, Is, Indeed, a passionate chant of
human freedom written not for ono particular
period but for all tlmo and for all men. We
can do more for thorn by treating them in per
fect armony with our national pretensions than
by all tho costly guardianship and colonialism
that money can buy or that tho spirit of thrones
can conceive.
mil itooHisvisrr's paiitx"
From tho letters ho has written to individ
uals and the speeches he delivered at Chicago
recently It is plain that Mr. Roosevelt la through
with the republican party. lie says that that
party Is so thoroughly reactionary that good can
not come out of It. He says tho flame thing of
the democratic party. His statements with ro
spect to tho republican party have some force
for neither under Taft or Roosevelt did tho .re
publican party render to the people relief from
tho oppression of special Interests. Ills chargo
against the democratic party, however, Is not
forceful for the reason that while Mr. Roosevelt
himself was permitting the steel trust to gobble
up Its rivals and while he was being elected to
the presidency by campaign funds contributed
by the trusts, the democratic party was stand
ing for real progressive principles. Fortunately,
democratic leaders now havo the opportunity
to prove that Mr. Roosevelt's Indictment of
the democratic party is without substantial
basis. If the administration and tho congress
chosen to represent the democratic party, shall,
as Tho Commoner believes they will, faithfully
discharge their obligations to tho peoplo, there
will bo one progressive party in America, whoso
name will lead all others in the hearts of tho
people. In that day tho title of "democrat"
will be the highest title in fact as well as in
theory in tho politics of tho world.
A Tale of Two Conventions. A carefully re
vised account of Mr. Bryan's reports of the
Chicago and Baltimore conventions, as prepared
for a syndicate of newspapers. Added to theso
are notable speeches made in those conventions,
including those by Mr. Bryan himself, the last
being his "Valedictory." An outline of the con
vention which nominated Mr. Roosevelt is also
given, with his speech of acceptance and that of
Mr. Wilson and comments on these, also tho
three party platforms, an introduction by Mr.
Bryan, a number of current newspaper cartoons,
etc. 12mo. Cloth. Send prepaid, $1. Address
orders to Tho Commoner, Lincoln, Neb.
If you want to mako a reactionary democrat
mad just suggest that platform pledges should
be carried out in fact, it is one way and a
pretty reliable one, too, of finding out whether
a democratic official is of the reactionary type.
11
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