“The accumulation of millions is usually the result of enterprise and
judgment, and some exceptional ability or organization. It does not
come from savings, in the ordinary sense of the word. Men who, in
old age, strive only to increase their already too great hoards, are
usually slaves of the habit of hoarding, formed in their youth. At
first they own the money they have made and saved. Later in life the
money owns them, and they cannot help themselves, so overpowering is
the force of habit, either for good or evil. It is the abuse of the
civilized saving instinct, and not its use, that produces this class
of men. No one needs to be afraid of falling a victim to this abuse
of the habit, if he always bears in mind that whatever surplus wealth
may come to him is to be regarded as a sacred trust, which he is bound
to administer for the good of his fellows. The man should always be
master. He should keep money in the position of a useful servant;
he must never let it be his master and make a miser of him. A man’s
first duty is to acquire a competence and be independent, then to do
something for his needy neighbors who are less favored than himself.”
Mr. Carnegie has always lived up to this doctrine. He has made
philanthropy a factor of existence. Already he has endowed over ninety
libraries in different cities of the United States, having spent about
$4,500,000 in this manner alone. He believes that a man can learn the
science of true life and success in good books. In Scotland, where
many of the residents of a poor hamlet have been benefited by his
generosity, he is called “the good angel.” Whenever he visits any of
these places, he is a greater man than the King of Great Britain.
While thus endowing the city where his fortune was made, he has not
forgotten other places endeared to him by association or by interest.
To the Allegheny Free Library he has given $375,000; to the Braddock
Free Library, $250,000; to the Johnstown Free Library, $50,000, and
to the Fairfield (Iowa) Library, $40,000. To his native land he has
been scarcely less generous. To the Edinburgh Free Library he has
given $250,000, and to his native town of Dunfermline, $90,000. Other
Scottish towns to the number of ten have received helpful donations of
amounts not quite so large.
“I should like you to say some other important things for the young man
to learn and benefit by.”
“Our young partners in the Carnegie company have all won their spurs by
showing that we did not know half as well what was wanted as they did.
Some of them have acted upon occasions with me as if they owned the
firm and I was but some airy New Yorker, presuming to advise upon what
I knew very little about. Well, they are not now interfered with. They
were the true bosses,—the very men we were looking for.”
“THE MISFORTUNE OF BEING RICH MEN’S SONS.”
“Is this all for the poor boy?”
“Every word. I trust that few, if any, of your readers have the
misfortune to be rich men’s sons. They are heavily weighted in the
race. A basketful of bonds is the heaviest basket a young man ever had
to carry. He generally gets to staggering under it. The vast majority
of rich men’s sons are unable to resist the temptations to which wealth
subjects them, and they sink to unworthy lives. It is not from this
class that the poor beginner has rivalry to fear. The partner’s sons
will never trouble you much, but look out that some boys poorer, much
poorer, than yourselves, whose parents cannot afford to give them
any schooling, do not challenge you at the post and pass you at the
grand stand. Look out for the boy who has to plunge into work direct
from the common school, and begins by sweeping out the office. He is
the probable dark horse that will take all the money and win all the
applause.
“The first thing that a man should learn to do is to save his money.
By saving his money he promotes thrift,—the most valued of all habits.
Thrift is the great fortune-maker. It draws the line between the
savage and the civilized man. Thrift not only develops the fortune, but
it develops, also, the man’s character.”