Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919; Industrialists -- United States -- Biography; Philanthropists -- United States -- Biography
Implore Peace, O my reader, from whom I now part. Implore
peace not of deified thunder clouds but of every man, woman,
child thou shalt meet. Do not merely offer the prayer, "Give
peace in our time," but do thy part to answer it! Then, at
least, though the world be at strife, there shall be peace
in thee.
My friend has put his finger upon our deepest disgrace. It surely must
soon be abolished between civilized nations.
The Stanton Chair of Economics at Kenyon College, Ohio, was founded in
memory of Edwin M. Stanton, who kindly greeted me as a boy in
Pittsburgh when I delivered telegrams to him, and was ever cordial to
me in Washington, when I was an assistant to Secretary Scott. The
Hanna Chair in Western Reserve University, Cleveland; the John Hay
Library at Brown University; the second Elihu Root Fund for Hamilton,
the Mrs. Cleveland Library for Wellesley, gave me pleasure to christen
after these friends. I hope more are to follow, commemorating those I
have known, liked, and honored. I also wished a General Dodge Library
and a Gayley Library to be erected from my gifts, but these friends
had already obtained such honor from their respective Alma Maters.
My first gift to Hamilton College was to be named the Elihu Root
Foundation, but that ablest of all our Secretaries of State, and in
the opinion of President Roosevelt, "the wisest man he ever knew,"
took care, it seems, not to mention the fact to the college
authorities. When I reproached him with this dereliction, he
laughingly replied:
"Well, I promise not to cheat you the next gift you give us."
And by a second gift this lapse was repaired after all, but I took
care not to entrust the matter directly to him. The Root Fund of
Hamilton[50] is now established beyond his power to destroy. Root is a
great man, and, as the greatest only are he is, in his simplicity,
sublime. President Roosevelt declared he would crawl on his hands and
knees from the White House to the Capitol if this would insure Root's
nomination to the presidency with a prospect of success. He was
considered vulnerable because he had been counsel for corporations
and was too little of the spouter and the demagogue, too much of the
modest, retiring statesman to split the ears of the groundlings.[51]
The party foolishly decided not to risk Root.
[Footnote 50: It amounts to $250,000.]
[Footnote 51: At the Meeting in Memory of the Life and Work of Andrew
Carnegie held on April 25, 1920, in the Engineering Societies Building
in New York, Mr. Root made an address in the course of which, speaking
of Mr. Carnegie, he said:
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