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 Carnegie's attitude toward trusts and monopolies in the excerpt?
A.
They are run by men of exceptional talent.
B.
They create harmful socioeconomic differences.
C.
They provide jobs for the masses who need them.
D.
They are avoidable evils that society should eradicate.