RICH MAN’S PROBLEM

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1929, Page 14

RICH MAN’S PROBLEM

SPENDING A MILLION. If you were a millionaire, how would you dispose of your money so that it would, bring happiness to your less fortunate fellow-creatures? A prize of £2OO for the best answer to that problem is being offered by Mr. C. Harold Smith, an American millionaire, known as the Carbon King, states the Adelaide Observer. He is afraid of leaving his entire fortune of more than £2,000,000 to his family, thinking it may make them lazy and thriftless. After making adequate provision for them, he wishes to spend his money in the way that will do a maximum amount of good with a minimum degree of harm. Other millionaires have been2 faced with the same problem as that which is worrying the Carbon King. Fortunately, they do not, as a rule, allow it to make them commit suicide, like Guiseppi Boggiani. He was discovered hanging on a tree in the grounds of his beautiful chateau at Lake Como. In his pockets was £6OOO, in American notes, on some of which he had written: “Go to the devil.” A letter found on the body said he had been happy when he was a workman in New York. His millions had not prevented him from feeling sad.

The late Mr. Andrew Carnegie was an outstanding example of how millions could be used to useful ends. As a Dumferline Scot, he lavished his money on his native land. His wonderful scheme for enabling Scottish students to have free university education under

the Carnegie Education Trust is an example to all millionaires anxious to spend their money for the common good. The disposal of his millions by Mr. John D. Rockefeller in assisting scientific research and other activities is a matter of common knowledge. Worry on this score has not cut his life short,

at any rate. He will be 00 years of age next month. In the Coats family, the founders of the cotton-making industry in Paisley, near Glasgow, there have been twelve millionaires since ' the business was started a century ago. It has been a tradition with the family to spend some of their money in providing Paisley

with something or other that , it re* quires. ' ' • In his will Mr. Rodman Wanamaker, Philadelphia, left 2,000,000 dollars fol the creation of the John Wanamaker Free School of Artisans, as well as big sum for medical research and business scholarships. Trust funds were provid* ed for keeping a church bell in reuair.