Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-08-10
TO GIVE OR NOT TO GIVE.

] What to do with his multi millions is
| not problem that haunts. distracts
! and fortunes the average man who is
apt to lie awake planning how he may
| hustle around and make one dollar do
! duty for two in keeping the wolf away
| from his door. But to a few men whom
1t would be an error to call the happiest
OF mankind, this is burning question.
Several of our multi-millionaires have
been interviewed lately, and asked
what in their opinion, is the best
method OF dsposing Of their super
| f1uous wealth.
| John d. Rockefeller is called the rich
est man in the world. Out of his al
legged S5OO,O0O.0OO he is said to have
given away 100000 900, it being notice
able that every great donation from
his hand is followed by a slight raise
in standard oil. He says that he holds
1t every mans duty to make as much
money as he can, and to give away as
much as he can to good purpose His
own favorite charities are to religious
enterprises of the Baptists persuasion,
and he has been very liberal to his pet
creation, the University of Chicago.
Philip D. Armour, who has given
away 10000, 900 out of his immense re-
turns from the pork packing business,
and government contracts, says
that his ideas of charity are embodied
in the Armour institute, which aims TO
give the poor boys of Chicago a techni-
cal and trade education.
C. P Huntington, who has placed
himself on record as an enemy to the
higher education, and looks askauce at
a college graduate when he applies FOR
place, believes in millionaires keen
ing their money in their business in
stead of using it to spoil young men bv
over-educating them, or throwing il
away on Utopian schemes He SAYS
that if man has set a great industrial
enterprise in motion the question Of
what to do with his money need ut
bother him, since it is doing good in
developing trade and employing labor.
]. PierpOnt Morgan's favorite charity,
the building of hospitals for the sick
poor, is one that appeals to all humane
hearts. This form of benevolence gives
him more satisfaction than buying
works Of art for public museums and
helping to build a great cathedral
objects to which he has donated il
great deal of money.
DR.. Rainsford rector of ST. Georges
Episcopal church in New York city,
who is the almoner Of many charities,
says that the best use he could make OF
a million dollars would be in tearing
down whole blocks of disease-breed-
ing tenements and converting their
sites into Fairgrounds for poor chill
dren. Another charity that strongly
appeals to him is the relief of aged
pOverty-str1cken persons who have
failed in the battle of life. He believes
that no form of charity is doing more
good than that Of Darius o. Mills, who
is providing cheap, clean and COM
Portable lodgings for poor working
men. He finds that the great trouble
with millionaries is their having be-
come $50 masterful, so accustomed TO
authority, that they want to dictate
exactly how their gifts shall be used
Mr.. Mills states that his idea Of
charity is helping the honest man who
has had bad luck, and the hard-work-
ing man out of job, who needs assist
ance and will profit by it. He thinks
this is better than trying to reform the
man so determined to go down hill that
nothing will hold him back.
Russell Sage, who not long ago sur
prised everybody by squeezing $4,000
out of his many millions and giving it
to woman hospital, believes that 20
relieve the sick is the best form OF
charity. He has no faith in a million
aires scattering around his dollars
promiscuously, and scouts Mr.. Carno-
gie's saying that to die rich is to die
disgraced. In any event, he himself is
determined to die rich, and his most
narrowing anxiety is that when he dies
he cannot take his millions with MIN.
Nathan Strauss believes that the
question of the unemployed is the one
which should most appeal to philan-
thropists, and that the noblest form OF
benevolence is helping people who
help themselves. He has proved the
sincerity of this faith by his works.