HOW I GAVE AWAY 50,000,000 DOLLARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 80

HOW I GAVE AWAY 50,000,000 DOLLARS.

j The first accurate list of Mr Andi'ew Carnegie's gifts, and a statement by him of how it feels to give away half a hundred million -dollars, >'s published' by Collier's Weekly. Here is a list of library gifts, revised to 31st December, 1908: — Cost. Library Buildings. DOJ.B. United States 959 .. 34.870,745 Canada 86 .. 2,059.415 England and Wa'es . 329 .. 7,859,550 Ireland 42 . 724,610 Scotland 105 2,075,080 New Zea.ia.nd 14 . 146,250 British West Indies .. .. 6 . 119,000 Australia and' Tasmania 2 . 47,500 South Africa 3 . 23,500 Seychelles Islands ... 1 . 10,000 Fiji Islards ... 1 7 500 College libraries .. .. .. .. 3,653,753 > Total cost .. 51.596,903 j "Many times hare I been asked," writes IMr Carnegie, "whether I am satisfied with the result of my^ gifts of library buildings to communities willing to maintain and keep them open free to all the people. I have always replied in the affirmative. Yes ;in the fullest measure I am more than satisfied, and rejoice that it has been permitted' me to stand ready to give aary English-speaking community in any part of the world a sum necessary to erect a library building on the conditions mentioned!. "Perhaps I owe something to heredity an following this library development^ but it was not until long after I had begun that I learned that my father, a weaver in Dunfenmline, was one of five fellow-weaveris w*ho aigxeed to combine their few books and give them out to applicants. A vacant space in my father's loom chop was filled with the few books, and this was the beginning of the library movement in my native town. This was shortly after 1 was born. "The records show that this collection was moyed seven times, the first time in the aprons of the pioneers, each move increasing its sphere imtil it was merged in the Mechanics' Library. So that ray, father may be said to have assisted in j giving the first public library to Dunferm.lrne andi his son has been privileged 1 to give the la«bt. I have often said that I do not know a lineage which I prefer to that of a library-founding weaver. "My secretary tells me we have given 1800 library buildings all under the same conditions scattered 1 among the Englishspeaking peoples of the <rk>be, including New Zealand, the West Indies, Australia, and all English-speaking countries. So far, Canada has taken almost as many as our own land in proportion. "The 1 otters received from parents thanking me for libraries established and telling of the change these have made upon their children are numerous. -It i.s not only what a library does in a community ; that is only one-half- of its sphere. What it prevents is equally important. If young men do not spend their evenings in the library, where will they spend them? If the young do not acquire a taste for reading, what will, they otherwise acquire? "It is ofiter charged against public libraries that they supply so much fiction. There Ls something to" be said upon that .side, but the impression received by the figures is greatly misleading. The novel i.* returned, on an average, in a few days, but the solid hook, conveying instruction, i« kept five times longer. "I like library-giving for one reason particularly. The library gives nothing" for nothing. Tho youth who is improved by it must co-operate. If he does not read and «tudv he finds no reward. Nothing for nothing i-s the law within the walls. Help yourself is the decree.'*