WEALTH AS A TRUST
It is quite clear lhat Lord Nuffield, whose latest'gift in the cause of the alleviation of human suffering is of a magnitude to capture the imagination, holds the same view of vast wealth, as a trust for the people, held by the late Andrew Carnegie in his "Gospel of Wealth." According to this view, private wealth becomes, as it were, a reservoir to be used for the benefit of mankind by a system of irrigation through channels directed by the possessor. In the words of Carnegie this theory of -.wealth,'is summed up in. the following sentence: This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the wants of those dependent upon him; and, if after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called on to administer . . . the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee for his poorer brethren.
Of this gospel few men have heen more perfect exponents than Lord Nuffield himself. The simplicity with which he announced his gift of £50,000 to help the crippled children of New Zealand on his visit to Wellington last year will not "be forgotten. It is the same with his latest act of generosity to assist the scientific investigation of medical problems with headquarters at Oxford University. The State, with its graduated [taxation and death duties, levies a heavy toll on wealth. In the case of the late Sir . John Ellerman, Britain's" modern Croesus, the toll ran into millions. It was a windfall for the Exchequer, but was it a windfall for the people to the "same extent? I The example of the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and other trusts, and now of Lord Nuffield's use of a fortune created from very modest beginnings, does raise the question whether money is not best spent by the man who made it if he accepts the doctrine of wealth as a trust "for his poorer 1 buetteerti*
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Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 18, 19 October 1936, Page 8
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346WEALTH AS A TRUST Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 18, 19 October 1936, Page 8
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