CARNATION
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CARNEGIE LIBRARIES
Canada, held in highest esteem by all the churches.
Carna'tion, a beautiful and fragrant double-flowering variety of the clove-pink. It is a universal favorite of florists, and exists only in a state of cultivation. The flower is often three inches in diameter, and the prevailing colors are white, scarlet and pink. The carnation prefers a rich soil and should have plenty of fresh air.
Carnegie (k&r-nd'-gl), Andrew, the Scoto-American steel-manufacturer and philanthropist, was born at Dunfermline, Scotland, Nov. 25, 1835. His father was a weaver, who, with his family, emigrated in 1848 to the United States. Beginning life with only a limited school education, young Carnegie worked at first in various humble positions in Pittsburg, Pa., where he at length found employment in a telegraph office and obtained a footing in the railroad, world. The •basis of the im-•mense fortune he was afterward to amass was due to his connection with iron-works, which he established at Pittsburg, and which subsequently developed into the vast industry of the Carnegie Steel Company, located at Homestead and elsewhere in and about Pittsburg. The Carnegie Company, in February, 1901, was, with a number of other manufacturing concerns, incorporated as the U. S. Steel Corporation (q. v.), having a total capitalization of one billion one hundred million dollars. In achieving success, he was at a critical period in life aided by making the acquaintance of Mr. Woodruff, inventor of the railway sleeping-car, and by being one of a fortunate oil-syndicate. The story of Mr. Carnegie's career and the vast wealth he has amassed reads like a romance; and, to his honor be it said, he has made noble use of his princely fortunes. For 30 years he has been devoting large sums of money to benevolent objects and especially to the founding and endowing of public libraries, notably $500,000 for a library in Pittsburg and $250,000 for a library in Edinburgh, Scotland, and $5,-200,000 to erect and equip 80 public libraries in New York City. It is calculated that Mr. Carnegie has spent in all more than 60 million dollars on over 2,000 libraries, which he has been instrumental in founding or aiding. Besides, he has donated ten millions towards the founding at Pittsburg of the Carnegie Institute and fifteen millions for creating the Carnegie Foundation, a trust fund to provide annuities for college professors in the United States, Canada and Newfoundland, who from
old age or other physical disability have retired from active service.
He signalized his retirement from active business in 1901 by gifts of $5,000,000 for the benefit of his old employes. He donated to five Scotish universities the sum of ten million dollars, and twenty-five million dollars to found a university at Washington, D. C., which is to be under the supervision of the national government. He has also donated over ten million dollars for those dependent on persons losing their lives in saving life or for the heroes themselves if they are only injured. Mr. Carnegie is the author of the following publications: Round the World, Triumphant Democracy, The Gospel of Wealth, a Life of James Watt, The Empire of Business, An American Four-in-Hand in Britain, and Problems of Today, together with many articles contributed to the magazines and reviews of the day. Mr. Carnegie has contributed largely to the endowing, both in this country and in Great Britain, of educational institutions and the equiping of hospitals. He also provided funds for the permanent building at The Hague £q. v.) for the international court of arbitration.
Carnegie Institution, founded and endowed by Andrew Carnegie at Washington, D. C., in 1902, to encourage research, assist investigation and give aid in the promotion of discovery In the arts and sciences, as well as to help in laboratory work and assist meritorious persons and institutions in all departments of investigation and research, besides promoting the publication and dissemination of the results of the same. The institution, which has been endowed by its founder with gifts aggregating $25,000,000, is managed by a board of 24 trustees, who meet annually, and by an executive committee acting in concert with the president. ^ Its further design is to increase the facilities of higher education, giving aid to universities, learned bodies, scientists and experts in all important fields of research, investigation and meritorious practical work, and to provide buildings, libraries, laboratories and apparatus.
Carnegie Libraries. In 1891 Andrew Carnegie wrote in The North American Review as follows: "The result of my own study of the question: What is the best gift that can be given a community? is that a free library occupies the first place, provided that the community will accept and provide for it as a public institution, as much a part of the city property as the public schools, and indeed an adjunct to those. Closely allied to the library and, when possible, attached to it. there should be rooms for an art-gallery and museum and a hall for such lectures and instruction as are provided in the Cooper Union (New York City.)" ^This conclusion is largely the fruit of Carnegie's own experience; for as a poor boy he benefited largely by some books that a kind friend lent him. His
ANDREW CARNEGIE
