The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-27

Mir. Andrew Carnegie, since he laid down the business of the best-protected steel manufacturer in the world and took up the role of a professional philan- thropist, living in a Scottish castle, has been posing on the other side of the Att lantic in the press and on the platform in season and out of season, as a prophet on the question of the ultimate destinies of the British empire and our own re- public Possibly this proclivity on his part is due to heredity. He may be the de- scendant in some remote degree of one of the old seers of his native land, who got their board and lodging free in the fortresses of the Highland chiefs be- cause of their supposed powers of vati- cination with respect to cattle-liftiBs expeditions or border forays dignified by the name of war. As the ancient and ven- erable second-sight man was in the busi- ness purely for revenue only, so in measure is Mir Carnegie who takes his compensation in the form of a bonanza of international advertising that places him far in the lead of either Kaiser Will liam or President Roosevelt, who may be said to be pastmasters in the art of obtaining this sort of current notoriety The view generally taken in this country of this ministration on the part of MT. Carnegie to his own vanity is, that it is an amusing addition to the gayety of the nations. Commenting on one of the recent Carnegie prophecies, a metropolitan con temporary observed that the only excuse for such an exhibition of 'hap-doodle' was that the occasion was prandial celebration, when, under the effervesence
 f1a tpl1 txfh the rules of common sense are suspended by unanimous consent.
 This is one way of dealing with MT. Carnegie's word because of his eminence in the day, will, he would have us be- leve become realized facts at not very remote period. It is a question, how eyer, whether it is the wisest way that could be pursued. MT. Carnegies word, because of his eminence in the world of industry, and his benevolence with re- speet to mankind, carries with it very naturally more than ordinary weight, and when it Is allowed to go unchallenged, it of course becomes all the stronger with the very great multitude who do not stop to reason or reflect upon what they read. Some recent predictions" and ut- terances of his are of this character. At a banquet in Barrow-in-F -Furness, Eng land, this month, he expressed regret that the Atlantic was not so much prairie land, instead of water, so that "the con quering old lady and her family should now be all under one roof and one flag" It was certainly great oversight on the part of the Creator of the universe that, in the separation of the waters from the dry land He did not make arrangements for the preservation of the dominions of George III, and save Thomas Jefferson the trouble of writing the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately MT. Car negie was not on hand to advise Him, when He was calling order out of chaos. The Omnipitent Architect would, in Mir. Carnegie's opinion, have done a thous- and times better if He had provided Him. self with a board of directors with the retired steel king as chairman. Not in this light did the revolutionary fathers look upon the Atlantic Reverently they thanked the Creator that it was by Him set between them and the oppressive governmental systems of the old world. and one of them went so far as to wish that 1t were an ocean of fire instead of water"
 Look at MT. Carnegie's wise views of it from Skibo castle as contradstin- guished from that absurd one taken by the fathers of the republic from old In- dependence hall in Philadelphia Here 1t is in his own words to Barrow ln-F Furness audience: "Gentlemen. unfortunately an ocean exists where we should have pre- ferred praires. but it is traversed in aboat the same time as the three thous-