TONS OF MONEY.

Shannon News, 31 July 1925, Page 4

TONS OF MONEY.

A MILLIONAIRE'S GIFTS. BIG SUMS FOR CHARITY.. “CAN ONLY GIVE IT AWAY.” Mr. Bernhard Baron, a Brighton millionaire widower, aged 74, and worth millions, is giving his money away. He is chairman and managing ! director of Messrs. Carreras (Ltd.). How much he has given away and how much he is going to give away it is impossible to estimate, but it is piobable that already his gifts to private individuals, institutions, and hospitals run almost into seven figures. Within the last few years he has given something like £700,000 away. An interviewer recently called upon Mr. Baron, who lives in a comparatively unostentatious villa at Hove, to ask him to confirm a report that he intended to give £300,000 to charities. The writer says: “Mr. Baron shook hands with me cordially. When I asked my question he said: ‘I wonder how it has got out? Without giving me an opportunity to reply he went oii: ‘Yes, it is quite true. I have nothing to do with my money now but give it away. I have been giving ii away for a long time. I shall be 7• r >-next December, and then I hope to make people sit up.'” Mr. aßron then proceed to con,irm I!m following gifts which he has made during the last few weeks: — i'SMHMi for a new wing on the Hove Hospital; £II,OOO to the New Liberal Jewish Synagogues Building Fund; £2500 to the Jewish Maternity Home, London; £IO,OOO to the London Jewish Hospital; £IOOO to the St. George’s Jewish Settlements, London E.; £BOO to clear the debt of the Hutchison House Club for Working Lads, Aidgate; £6OO to the Leman Street (Aldgalo) Girls’ Club. Shams lor Workmen.

After some conversation Mr. Baron mentioned some of the more personal gifts he has made within the last year. Last December, for example, be gave. £300,000 to relatives and his children Recently, too, he made considerable money gifts to the employees of Carreras ,Ltd.). In the case of three workmen who had been in his employ for 27 or 28 years, his gifts consisted of shares in the company worth many thousands of pounds. But there is no doubt that of all his monetary gifts he derives the most intense pleasure from those made to hospitals and similar institutions.

Speaking with an earnestness which was moving to listen to, .Mr. Baron related something of what is in his heart. “Charity,” he said, “has no religion. Charity knows no nationality. It springs from something higher than ourselves, and of Avhich we know very little. I make money. I have made tons of money. But what good is it to me? I am still making plenty of money, and I tell you there is nothing in it—nothing in continually making, making, making. But to give! In some way which I cannot explain to you at all, I get the greatest joy out of that. When I see a sick man in hospital getting better, and I know that I have given toward making him better, then—as they say—that gets me. I feel a personal interest in that man. It seems to me that he is my brother.” A Man of Simple Tastes. Mr. Baron next went on to speak of his c\eryday life. He explained how he still attends io his business and goes up to London for a week, and then spends a week at home. “I still look after my interests there,” he said. “There are two million pounds’ worth of them. But here in Hove I live to-day no better than I\ lived 20 years ago. ‘I am an individual of simple tastes. Of course, if I want anything I get the best money will buy, but it is extraordinary bow little J want. I seem to have no desire.

"I arn not a sporting man, and 1 have never cared for society. I have never desired honours or anything like that. to quite lately I used to keep horses for going out, but this year I have taken to a car. I go to the south of France for a few months every year, and I have been doing that for the last 2 0 years.” In conclusion, Mr. Baron simply added these words, “It is not the giving of these tens of thousands that gives me pleasure. I mean it is not 1 ecu use I am able to give tens of thousands. It would be the same if I was a poor man and could give only sixpence.” Road to Fortune. 'Tlie life of Mr. Baron has been a remarkable one. To epitomise it one might say: “A penniless man; a poor inventor who made a revolutionary machine for manufacturing cigarettes; a millionaire.” He is of French descent, and started in America as a ( igar maker. In those early days he worked at the same bench as the late Mr. Sam Gompers, the American Labour leader. Then he invented the Baron cigarette-making machine. Mr. Baron has been a naturalised British subject for many years, and to-day Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and Mr. Arthur Henderson are among his friends. At the last election he started the Labour Party’s election fund with a donation of £SOOO.