POOR SCOTS LAD'S GREAT IDEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23281, 25 February 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

POOR SCOTS LAD'S GREAT IDEA

Vf|7"E may often see the name of Carnegie on a library, and most of us know well the great work of the Carnegie Trust, but how many young people know Andrew Carnegie, perhaps the most remarkable of America's many millionaires? As a poor Scottish boy he emigrated to America and in course of time became the head of a great steel corporation. One day he made his will and found that he had a fortune of £30,000,000. He was thirty millionaires rolled into one. He conceived the idea of forming a Trust to use the money. The Trust was not to spend the capital, but to use the income "for the improvement of mankind. He talked it over with his friend Elihu Root, . another well - known American, and this gave Root a great idea. "Why not form the Trust now, while you are alive," he said to Carnegie, "and have the satisfaction of seeing for yourself the good work done/' Carnegie jumped at the idea, and so was born the Carnegie Foundation, which ho entrusted with £25,000,000 of his great fortune. The trustees have worked wonders with the income. They have established libraries, concert halls, and peace institutions. Mr. Carnegie felt the lack of education when he grew up; hence his fondness for establishing libraries. His Foundation also trains librarians and

supplies books to existing institutions. Not the least of the benefactions was the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. . ~ Hundreds of rich Americans, notably Mr. Rockefeller with the Rockefeller Foundation, and Mr. Edward Harkness with'the Pilgrim Trust, have followed the Carnegie example. It is truly a great idea. At present Lord rsumeld is the chief British exponent.