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THE
I1UJKCTMDE
V O L . L V 1 I I . N o . 1 5 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, April 11, 1914
SING
$ 2 E O 0 C ( PE I R\E 0 AR E N T S
Anent Kinds of Profit Sharing.
I
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WAS silling in a car while on a recent trip South when I heard a gentleman, who occupied
mi adjoining seal, vigorously denounce Carnegie for his library gifts, and the red-hot shot
which he poured into the gentle, peace-loving Andrew would have made the olive branch in
his hand wither had he listened to the verbal pyrotechnics.
While many feel that Carnegie might have acted in a manner which would have conveyed
greater benefits upon humanity in the bestowal of his numerous gifts, still it is only right that we
should give full credit for the generous acts of such men who are spending their vast fortunes
along lines which they deem best for the uplift of the human race.
It seems to me ridiculous when I hear a man who probably has never made even a moderate
success in life denounce the intellectual giants for disposing of their accumulations as they see fit.
The millions they are spending to promote the cause of world-wide peace, to fight diseases
that are still unconquered, and to spread the blessings of education to those who otherwise would
be left in ignorance is certainly money well spent. And suppose lhat rank selfishness existed
where this generosity is now shown! What a difference there would be!
No matter whether these men do these things through selfishness or for advertising purposes,
or what the world profits by their acts, and that to me is the reasonable way to view it.
It is a good thing for the world that there are some who are able and willing to try to remedy
some of the existing evils, and the fact that there are wrongs to be righted should awaken a sense of
gratitude rather than of criticism towards the men who arc at least doing something to change
conditions for the better.
Great as their gifts may seem to us, the work which they are doing is but a drop in the great
ocean of human need.
Their money will help to accomplish good results in the special fields in which they are oper-
ating, but there is still greater work to be accomplished in which everyone can take a part.
We are always too prone to criticise the motives of men who do things. Here is Henry Ford,
who astonished the world by his new profit-sharing plan. He has been criticised from one end of
the country to the other. Some of the papers have said that his was one of the shrewdest adver-
tising moves that a man ever made.
Why is it we are always ready to criticise the work of a man when he divests himself of good
coin of the realm which he did not have to part with for others?
I should say that if a man wishes to spend his money even for selfish purposes let him do it.
It is his money. He acquired it under the laws of the land, and he has a right to do with it what
he wishes.
It is usually the small men who criticise the acts of the truly great ones. They have time to
criticise, and the man who is successful is not making drafts upon his valuable time by indulging
in criticism.
After all, these gifts made by successful men are personal ideas of profit-sharing.
Fifteen or twenty years ago selfishness dominated everything in the business and social world
to such an extent that little time or thought was given to those less fortunate.
To succeed it was not against the laws of commercial warfare for a man to ride rough shod
(Continued on page 5.)
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