Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919; Industrialists -- United States -- Biography; Philanthropists -- United States -- Biography
[Footnote 61: Mr. Carnegie refers to the gift of ten million dollars
to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust merely in connection with Earl
Grey. His references to his gifts are casual, in that he refers only
to the ones in which he happens for the moment to be interested. Those
he mentions are merely a part of the whole. He gave to the Church
Peace Union over $2,000,000, to the United Engineering Society
$1,500,000, to the International Bureau of American Republics
$850,000, and to a score or more of research, hospital, and
educational boards sums ranging from $100,000 to $500,000. He gave to
various towns and cities over twenty-eight hundred library buildings
at a cost of over $60,000,000. The largest of his gifts he does not
mention at all. This was made in 1911 to the Carnegie Corporation of
New York and was $125,000,000. The Corporation is the residuary
legatee under Mr. Carnegie's will and it is not yet known what further
sum may come to it through that instrument. The object of the
Corporation, as defined by Mr. Carnegie himself in a letter to the
trustees, is:
"To promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and
understanding among the people of the United States by aiding
technical schools, institutions of higher learning, libraries,
scientific research, hero funds, useful publications and by such other
agencies and means as shall from time to time be found appropriate
therefor."
The Carnegie benefactions, all told, amount to something over
$350,000,000--surely a huge sum to have been brought together and then
distributed by one man.]
Thus, Pittencrieff Glen is the most soul-satisfying public gift I ever
made, or ever can make. It is poetic justice that the grandson of
Thomas Morrison, radical leader in his day, nephew of Bailie Morrison,
his son and successor, and above all son of my sainted father and my
most heroic mother, should arise and dispossess the lairds, should
become the agent for conveying the Glen and Park to the people of
Dunfermline forever. It is a true romance, which no air-castle can
quite equal or fiction conceive. The hand of destiny seems to hover
over it, and I hear something whispering: "Not altogether in vain have
you lived--not altogether in vain." This is the crowning mercy of my
career! I set it apart from all my other public gifts. Truly the
whirligig of time brings in some strange revenges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account