MR CARNEGIE’S WILL.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3329, 6 November 1919, Page 5

MR CARNEGIE ’ S WILL.

INTERESTING DOC-UMLENT. The will of the late Mr Andrew Car-' negie, disposing of about £6,000,000, is a document of extraordinary public interest, writes a corre‘aspon=dent from New York, and discloses the fact. that although the Laird of Skibo did not actually die poor, according to his announced intention, he did during his lifetime dispose of nine-tenths of his vast fortune, or £70,000,000, thus living up to his altrustie purposes. The real surprises in the will are the annuities to men who have rendered public service on .both sides of the Atlantic. Names such as those of Mr Thomas Bu-rt, .\[r Lloyd George, Lord Morley, eze-Presidient rt-aft. Mgr W'.al’terr (Dam; roseh, and Mr John Blll'ns,:} it is commeifted, suggest the breadth of Mr Caraegie’S interest on Tooth sides of the sea. There is no suggestion that Mr Carnegie lacked ordinary family feeling in devoting the greater portion of his wealth to -general purposes. What more precocious possession, it is asked, could Mr Carnegie devise his heirs than the fact that he reaTTy did divest llinl— of his great fortune for the benefit of mankind, as he said lie" would. The will comprises about 3000 words, and many paragraphs dealing with bequests to relatives, friends, and helpers are written in later in Mr Carnegie’g own hand, and in his own phrasing The spelling is 7-also his own, being in “simplified” form, and incorrect as to some of the names. Although drawn originally in 1911, and revised to ‘February. 1912-, none of the malker’s quaint. ways of writing was changed in the final draft. Every part of the document has “Andrew Carnegie” signed in full at the bottom, and every alteration or correction is initialled “A.C.”

With true Scottish precaution, one 0I:111;~‘e provides that if there is anything legally amiss with any bequest it shall go to Mrs Carnegie. The late President Roosevelt’s opposition f 0 Mr ‘Carnegie.’s plan to provide for ex-Presidents of the United States did not prevent Mr Carnegie from bequeafhing an annuity of £IOOO lo “Mrs Theodore Roosevelt, of Oyster Bay,” _although no mention is made of Mr Roosevelt liimself. Aside from his landed pro'pert.y, furniture, and other household property, which he leaves to Mrs Carnegie, the will makes no beqlT"cs't 4.70 his wife or daughter. Mrs Roswell Miller, ample provision having been mafle for them, as "the will states, during Mr -Carnegie’s lifetime.