"Let the Devil Take the Hindmost": the Appeal of Social Darwinism

Readings: Conwell Acres of Diamonds Readings: Carnegie Gospel of Wealth

Identifications: use www.answers.com to help identify the following Social Darwinism, Charles Darwin, Carnegie’s "Gospel of Wealth"

Homework Questions: answer the following questions using the readings that follow 1. What is Social Darwinism? In what sense does it build on the ideas of Charles Darwin?

2. What accounts for the popularity of Social Darwinism during the late 19th century?

3. According to Andrew Carnegie, what are the duties of the man of wealth?

4. How does Carnegie view charity? In what instances does Carnegie believe that charity is most beneficial? Why, according to Carnegie, are some people "worthy" of charity and others "unworthy"?

5. What does Russell Conwell mean when he says, "To make money honestly is to preach the gospel"? What is his attitude towards the poor? How does Conwell’s piece reflect the attitudes of the time period? Russell Conwell, "Acres of Diamonds" (1915) Russell Conwell was a Baptist minister and businessman. In the following speech, how does he depict the relationship between wealth and Christian virtue? Why might such a view be popular during the Gilded Age?

I say again that the opportunity to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now, within the reach of... every man and woman who hears me speak tonight.... I have come to tell you what in God's sight I believe to be the truth... men and women sitting here, who found it difficult perhaps to buy a ticket to this lecture or gathering to-night, have within their reach "acres of diamonds," opportunities to get largely wealthy.... Never in the history of the world did a poor man without capital have such an opportunity to get rich quickly and honestly....

I say you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me "Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?" "Yes, of course I do." They say, "Isn't that awful! Why don't you preach the gospel instead of preaching about man's making money?" "Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel."....

"Oh," but says some young man here to-night, "I have been told all my life that if a person has money he is very dishonest and dishonorable and mean and contemptible." My friend, that is the reason you have none, because you have that idea of people.... Ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are rich.... That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men.

My friend... [if you] introduce me to the people who own their homes around this great city, those beautiful homes with gardens and flowers, those magnificent homes so lovely in their art, and I will introduce you to the very best people in character as well as in enterprise in our city.... A man is not truly a man until he owns his own home, and they that own their own homes are made more honorable and honest and pure, and true and economical and careful, by owning the home.... Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it that you could without it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches... and money pays your preachers, and you would not have many of them, either, if you did not pay them.... I say, then, you ought to have money. If you can honestly attain unto riches... it is your Christian and godly duty to do so. It is an awful mistake of these pious people to think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious....

Some men say, "Don't you sympathize with the poor people?" Of course I do, or else I would not have been lecturing these years.... But the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small.... While we should sympathize with God’s poor that is those who cannot help themselves let us remember that there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings.... It is all wrong to be poor anyhow....

Andrew Carnegie, "Wealth" (a.k.a. "The Gospel of Wealth") (1889) Andrew Carnegie was a poor Scottish immigrant turned millionaire who came to symbolize the opportunity for social mobility that some call the American Dream. He formed the Carnegie Steel Corporation and his profits from the steel industry made him one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Also a noted philanthropist, Carnegie gave away some $350 million mostly to build public libraries and endow universities. In "Wealth" how does Carnegie depict the wealthy and the responsibilities of being wealthy? How does he depicts the poor, and charity for the poor? Why?

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: first, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance;... and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is... strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.... Those who would administer wisely, must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so-called charity today, it is probable that $950 is unwisely spent; so spent, indeed, as to produce the very evils which it proposes to mitigate or cure....

A well-known writer... admitted the other day that he had given a quarter of a dollar to a man who approached him.... He knew nothing of the habits of this beggar; knew not the use that would be made of this money, although he had every reason to suspect that it would be spent improperly.... The quarter-dollar given that night will probably [injure more than it will help].... [The donor] only gratified his own feelings, saved himself from annoyance and this was probably one of the most selfish and very worst actions of his life....

In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise; to assist.... Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving. Those worthy of assistance... seldom require assistance. The really valuable men of the race never do....

He is the only true reformer who is as careful and as anxious not to aid the unworthy as he is to aid the worthy... in almsgiving more injury is probably done by rewarding vice than by relieving virtue....

The best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise, parks... by which men are helped in body and mind; works of art, certain to give pleasure and improve the public taste... in this manner returning their surplus wealth to the mass of their fellows in the form best calculated to do them lasting good....

The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away "unwept, unhonored and unsung".... Of such of these the public verdict will then be: "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced." Such in my opinion is the true Gospel concerning Wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the Rich and the Poor, and to bring "Peace on earth, among men good will."