Excerpt from Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth”
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth. . . . In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. . . . The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer . . . to-day measures the change which has come with civilization. . . .
The price which society pays for the law of competition . . . is also great; but the advantage of this law are. . . greater still, for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development. . . . But, whether the law be benign or not . . . we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found. . . . We accept and welcome therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business . . . in the hands of a few, and the law of competition between these, as being . . . essential for the future progress of the race. . . . there must be great scope for the exercise of special ability in the merchant and in the manufacturer who has to conduct affairs upon a great scale. That this talent . . . is rare among men [and] proved by the fact that it invariably secures for its possessor enormous rewards. . . . Such men become interested in firms or corporations using millions; and . . . it is inevitable that their income must exceed their expenditures, and that they must accumulate wealth. . . . It is a law . . . that men possessed of this peculiar talent . . . must . . . soon be in receipt of more revenue than can be judiciously expended upon themselves. . . .
Use the excerpt to answer the question.
What is a major effect of the Second Industrial Revolution as Carnegie describes it?
A.
the creation of jobs in new industries
B.
a growing gap between social classes
C.
the difficulties of earning a living
D.
greater wealth distributed across classes