Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
native town a library--its foundation stone laid by my mother--so that
this public library was really my first gift. It was followed by
giving a public library and hall to Allegheny City--our first home in
America. President Harrison kindly accompanied me from Washington and
opened these buildings. Soon after this, Pittsburgh asked for a
library, which was given. This developed, in due course, into a group
of buildings embracing a museum, a picture gallery, technical schools,
and the Margaret Morrison School for Young Women. This group of
buildings I opened to the public November 5, 1895. In Pittsburgh I had
made my fortune and in the twenty-four millions already spent on this
group,[46] she gets back only a small part of what she gave, and to
which she is richly entitled.
[Footnote 46: The total gifts to the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh
amounted to about twenty-eight million dollars.]
The second large gift was to found the Carnegie Institution of
Washington. The 28th of January, 1902, I gave ten million dollars in
five per cent bonds, to which there has been added sufficient to make
the total cash value twenty-five millions of dollars, the additions
being made upon record of results obtained. I naturally wished to
consult President Roosevelt upon the matter, and if possible to induce
the Secretary of State, Mr. John Hay, to serve as chairman, which he
readily agreed to do. With him were associated as directors my old
friend Abram S. Hewitt, Dr. Billings, William E. Dodge, Elihu Root,
Colonel Higginson, D.O. Mills, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and others.
When I showed President Roosevelt the list of the distinguished men
who had agreed to serve, he remarked: "You could not duplicate it." He
strongly favored the foundation, which was incorporated by an act of
Congress April 28, 1904, as follows:
To encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner
investigations, research and discovery, and the application
of knowledge to the improvement of mankind; and, in
particular, to conduct, endow and assist investigation in
any department of science, literature or art, and to this
end to cooeperate with governments, universities, colleges,
technical schools, learned societies, and individuals.
I was indebted to Dr. Billings as my guide, in selecting Dr. Daniel C.
Gilman as the first President. He passed away some years later. Dr.
Billings then recommended the present highly successful president, Dr.
Robert S. Woodward. Long may he continue to guide the affairs of the
Institution! The history of its achievements is so well known through
its publications that details here are unnecessary. I may, however,
refer to two of its undertakings that are somewhat unique. It is doing
a world-wide service with the wood-and-bronze yacht, "Carnegie," which
is voyaging around the world correcting the errors of the earlier
surveys. Many of these ocean surveys have been found misleading, owing
to variations of the compass. Bronze being non-magnetic, while iron
and steel are highly so, previous observations have proved liable to
error. A notable instance is that of the stranding of a Cunard
steamship near the Azores. Captain Peters, of the "Carnegie," thought
it advisable to test this case and found that the captain of the
ill-fated steamer was sailing on the course laid down upon the
admiralty map, and was not to blame. The original observation was
wrong. The error caused by variation was promptly corrected.
This is only one of numerous corrections reported to the nations who
go down to the sea in ships. Their thanks are our ample reward. In the
deed of gift I expressed the hope that our young Republic might some
day be able to repay, at least in some degree, the great debt it owes
to the older lands. Nothing gives me deeper satisfaction than the
knowledge that it has to some extent already begun to do so.
With the unique service rendered by the wandering "Carnegie," we may
rank that of the fixed observatory upon Mount Wilson, California, at
an altitude of 5886 feet. Professor Hale is in charge of it. He
attended the gathering of leading astronomers in Rome one year, and
such were his revelations there that these savants resolved their next
meeting should be on top of Mount Wilson. And so it was.
There is but one Mount Wilson. From a depth seventy-two feet down in
the earth photographs have been taken of new stars. On the first of
these plates many new worlds--I believe sixteen--were discovered. On
the second I think it was sixty new worlds which had come into our
ken, and on the third plate there were estimated to be more than a
hundred--several of them said to be twenty times the size of our sun.
Some of them were so distant as to require eight years for their light
to reach us, which inclines us to bow our heads whispering to
ourselves, "All we know is as nothing to the unknown." When the
monster new glass, three times larger than any existing, is in
operation, what revelations are to come! I am assured if a race
inhabits the moon they will be clearly seen.
The third delightful task was founding the Hero Fund, in which my
whole heart was concerned. I had heard of a serious accident in a coal
pit near Pittsburgh, and how the former superintendent, Mr. Taylor,
although then engaged in other pursuits, had instantly driven to the
scene, hoping to be of use in the crisis. Rallying volunteers, who
responded eagerly, he led them down the pit to rescue those below.
Alas, alas, he the heroic leader lost his own life.
I could not get the thought of this out of my mind. My dear, dear
friend, Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, had sent me the following true and
beautiful poem, and I re-read it the morning after the accident, and
resolved then to establish the Hero Fund.
IN THE TIME OF PEACE
'Twas said: "When roll of drum and battle's roar
Shall cease upon the earth, O, then no more
The deed--the race--of heroes in the land."
But scarce that word was breathed when one small hand
Lifted victorious o'er a giant wrong
That had its victims crushed through ages long;
Some woman set her pale and quivering face
Firm as a rock against a man's disgrace;
A little child suffered in silence lest
His savage pain should wound a mother's breast;
Some quiet scholar flung his gauntlet down
And risked, in Truth's great name, the synod's frown;
A civic hero, in the calm realm of laws,
Did that which suddenly drew a world's applause;
And one to the pest his lithe young body gave
That he a thousand thousand lives might save.
Hence arose the five-million-dollar fund to reward heroes, or to
support the families of heroes, who perish in the effort to serve or
save their fellows, and to supplement what employers or others do in
contributing to the support of the families of those left destitute
through accidents. This fund, established April 15, 1904, has proved
from every point of view a decided success. I cherish a fatherly
regard for it since no one suggested it to me. As far as I know, it
never had been thought of; hence it is emphatically "my ain bairn."
Later I extended it to my native land, Great Britain, with
headquarters at Dunfermline--the Trustees of the Carnegie Dunfermline
Trust undertaking its administration, and splendidly have they
succeeded. In due time it was extended to France, Germany, Italy,
Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark.
Regarding its workings in Germany, I received a letter from David
Jayne Hill, our American Ambassador at Berlin, from which I quote:
My main object in writing now is to tell you how pleased His
Majesty is with the working of the German Hero Fund. He is
enthusiastic about it and spoke in most complimentary terms
of your discernment, as well as your generosity in founding
it. He did not believe it would fill so important a place
as it is doing. He told me of several cases that are really
touching, and which would otherwise have been wholly
unprovided for. One was that of a young man who saved a boy
from drowning and just as they were about to lift him out of
the water, after passing up the child into a boat, his heart
failed, and he sank. He left a lovely young wife and a
little boy. She has already been helped by the Hero Fund to
establish a little business from which she can make a
living, and the education of the boy, who is very bright,
will be looked after. This is but one example.
Valentini (Chief of the Civil Cabinet), who was somewhat
skeptical at first regarding the need of such a fund, is now
glowing with enthusiasm about it, and he tells me the whole
Commission, which is composed of carefully chosen men, is
earnestly devoted to the work of making the very best and
wisest use of their means and has devoted much time to their
decisions.
They have corresponded with the English and French
Commission, arranged to exchange reports, and made plans to
keep in touch with one another in their work. They were
deeply interested in the American report and have learned
much from it.
King Edward of Britain was deeply impressed by the provisions of the
fund, and wrote me an autograph letter of appreciation of this and
other gifts to my native land, which I deeply value, and hence insert.
_Windsor Castle, November 21, 1908_
DEAR MR. CARNEGIE:
I have for some time past been anxious to express to you my
sense of your generosity for the great public objects which
you have presented to this country, the land of your birth.
Scarcely less admirable than the gifts themselves is the
great care and thought you have taken in guarding against
their misuse.
I am anxious to tell you how warmly I recognize your most
generous benefactions and the great services they are likely
to confer upon the country.
As a mark of recognition, I hope you will accept the
portrait of myself which I am sending to you.
Believe me, dear Mr. Carnegie,
Sincerely yours
EDWARD R. & I.
Some of the newspapers in America were doubtful of the merits of the
Hero Fund and the first annual report was criticized, but all this has
passed away and the action of the fund is now warmly extolled. It has
conquered, and long will it be before the trust is allowed to perish!
The heroes of the barbarian past wounded or killed their fellows; the
heroes of our civilized day serve or save theirs. Such the difference
between physical and moral courage, between barbarism and
civilization. Those who belong to the first class are soon to pass
away, for we are finally to regard men who slay each other as we now
do cannibals who eat each other; but those in the latter class will
not die as long as man exists upon the earth, for such heroism as they
display is god-like.
The Hero Fund will prove chiefly a pension fund. Already it has many
pensioners, heroes or the widows or children of heroes. A strange
misconception arose at first about it. Many thought that its purpose
was to stimulate heroic action, that heroes were to be induced to play
their parts for the sake of reward. This never entered my mind. It is
absurd. True heroes think not of reward. They are inspired and think
only of their fellows endangered; never of themselves. The fund is
intended to pension or provide in the most suitable manner for the
hero should he be disabled, or for those dependent upon him should he
perish in his attempt to save others. It has made a fine start and
will grow in popularity year after year as its aims and services are