A FRENCH PHILANTHROPIST.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1920, Page 5

A FRENCH PHILANTHROPIST.

MILLION'S FOR WAR AND POOR RELIEF. France also can boast of a Carnegie. His name is M. Cognacq. He accumulated his wealth in the sale of dry goods, owning a large department store on the left bank of the Seine. In 1917 he gave 40,000,000 francs for war relief work. The funds remaining after the war have now been turned over to dethe expenses of several lying-in hospitals where impecunious mothers will be cared for with all the comforts of the wealthy. He has recently given 57,000,000 francs to the Academy of Medicine. This sum is to be divided in bursaries of 25,000 francs each to be distributed to families of nine children bom of the same marriage. The funds will not necessarily bo donated to the poorest families, but to the most deserving. Ninety families per year are to be thus favored as long as the fund lasts. The money will be used to pay for the tuition of the children or establish them in little trades, according to the judgment of the investigators appointed by the academy. When asked the reason why he had specified that "children must be born of tho same marriage," Mr. Cognacq's reply showed that the philanthropist Is also a keen business man. He said: In order to prevent a widower with five children from marrying a widower with four for the sole purpose of obtaining the 25,000 francs."