Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-06
DONOROF CHINESE CHAIR
General H. w. Carpenters Idea
 For Helping China.
WISHES MORE sooIABLE RELATIONS

OfRcer Who Gave S1OO,00O to CoIum-
 bia University to Endow Professor
 shIp Actuated by n Desire to Bring
 About Better Understanding Be-
 tween China and the United States.
 It is now known that General Horace ". Carpenter is the donor of the $100,- 900 recently given to Columbia univer- sity for the founding of a chair of Chi nese language, literature, religion and law. The gift is intended as nucleus for fund which is expected to reach something like $1,000,OO0.
 It is the idea of the donor that the chair shall be the means of bringing about a better understanding between the Chinese nation and the people of the United States The professorship will bear the nam of Dean Lung, a cultured ChinamaI who is friend of General Carpentiel s,When asked by reporter of the New York Herald con- corning the gift, the general made no denial that he was the donor.
 '.It would be mere affectation in me-" said he, 'sto try to conceal or to make mystery of what in some way be come known to rybody who cares to know about it. II I gave the money to Columbia university, my private reasons were simply that I wished to give 1t and that I could give it. The public reason has been so much dis cussed that think it is obvious"
 What the general meant by the pub lie reason which actuated him may be learned from a document which is now part of the records of Columbia univer- sity. It is a note which was inclosed with check for $100,000 sent to Presi- dent Low. At that time it was under stood that the name of the donor was not to be made public. It was only re- gently that the identity of the donor became generally known.
 In this note the reasons for making the gift are set forth as follows:
 am told that doubts have been ex pressed whether such an appropriation would be wise or practically useful. Pos- sibly not. It is not always easy to foresee results or to measure their value, especial ly when the means are largely tentative.
 It is said that the Chinese have no reli- zion. If this means only that our religion is not their religion, it need not be denied. If religion may be we'll defined as "emo- ton concerned about obligation and duty" then the Chinese are a religious people.
 And when it is considered that they are made up of several hundred millions, of like origin, race and character. earth born and firmly rooted in the soil bound to- gether by the common usage and tradi- tions of incalculable generation and weld ed into one nation by many cooperative causes and especially by the unifying force of written literary language; that, with their unrivaled endurance, temper ance and industry, their devotion to fam lily and almost Superstitious love of home holding to their purpose with the con- servatism of Englishmen and the tenacity of Israel-they are possessed by patient patriotism that never changes or forgets, that with a common, though variant speech, full and expressive and older prob ably than any other living tongue now spoken elsewhere, they are also a scholar ly people, with an abundant literature no less venerable than those we call classical and that have done so much to soften and reform our institutions and manners; that they have inherited 8 civilization reaching back into the forgotten past as far as any of those that grew up around the Mediter- ranean, but less sensual and superstitious; that they have complete system of an- cient and customary law well fitted to their needs and condition, regulating all the varied relations of civilized nfe-of family, society and government-a system that had grown up through infinite trials and failures until habit acquired the force and sanction of moral law, long before the makers of our common law had come out from their immemorial savagery, without arts, agriculture or letters and clothed, if at all, with the skins of beasts; that, be 1t for good or i'll and whether we like 1t or not, by manifest destiny no longer unrevealed, but now in course of swift fulfllment, we are brought together in close neighborhood, facing each other and separated only by quick ferry across g. Pacific sea hereafter to become in large measure a Chfnese-American sea- with in- dustrial and trade relations already of no mean proportions and which must soon | grow to billions annually, and, finally, that we claim to have higher gospel. which, in it's own spirit of peace. fairness and good will we would impart to other less favored peoples. Considering these 1 among other things, would it not be re- | proach to this university-"Mother of Hu- manities"-not to have taken first step ! in this direction to promote a better un- l derstanding, larger comity and more l hospitable relations?
 No one has been chosen as yet to fill the chair which General Carpenter has founded. The name of Wu Ting Fang has been suggested. The general thought that it was unlikely that Wu Ting Fang would accept such a posi- tion, as his genius and ability fitted him for the broader field of statesman 1 ship.
 General Carpenter is an alumnus of Columbia university. He is now seV- enty-seven years old. He lives at 108 East Thirty-seventh street. He has made his home in New York for the last twenty years, making frequent journeys to San Francisco to look after his interests there.