Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-02
THE WORLD CAPITAL
Washington the Center Of the
English-Speaking Race.
TALK WITH CARNEGIE
THE scoTcHMAN's REASON FOR
SETTING UP LIBRARIES.
The American Union Outstripping
Great Britain in the Commercial
Affairs of the Earth.

| London Correspondence of the Philadelphia Press.
There was cabled to the American papers
recently brief extract of interview
| with Andrew Carnegie, wherein he paid
| few compliments to the smart set. But
those extracts give only the most vague
| idea of the worth of the interview a
| whole. which is really remarkable one,
! both as picture of the man and as an evil
dence that the English papers at last
| becoming American enough to secure and
! print interviews that interview and are
worth reading. The article appeared twen-
| ty-four hours ago in the Daily News; now
| it is the talk of the city.
| AS has been said the smart set and the
problem of riches were among the most in
| teresting subjects upon which the inter-
view touched. He records the process thus:
What of your gospel of wealth." I
asked of Mr.. Carnegie, who, vibrating to
| sympathetic note, replied:
| Il hold to my Gospel of Wealth as /
| stated it. and not as others state it. 1t is
| that when man is thus rich he should
| spend what he has to spare, after first pro-
| viding for those nearest to him, and leaving
enough to maintain the business which en-
riched him without hurt or detriment.
In Britain 1 said modestly, I'VE love
| to found families. Even our Shakespeare
| had that weakness and our Scott"
| Yes. here it is in the air 1t is the out
come of your primogeniture and your en-
| tail 1t Is also the cause of your weakness.
| Here a mans place is fixed by what his
father or his grandfather was-in America
| a man stands for himself
No Glass in Free America.
his life.
Think of it," he cried ION the one
side a country whose President sends his
children to the public schools, whose Presi-
| dent has never been chosen for wealth
birth; on the other. a country governed
| from top to bottom by caste!"
And then Mr.. Carnegie, with one of his
swift changes of action--his conversation is
a perpetual drama-placed his right hand
| fiat above the left
your society here is like that and by
| that the upper class learns brutality and
the lower snobbishness. Every class has
one above to crawl to and one below to
kick And he shifted the left above
the right.
I'm America, he went on, and his eyes
| fixed me with the ntentness of a preacher
preaching from his own text. 'ff the
plumbers son is better than the million
aires son, he goes up top. He rules-he is
| the real king-he Is the man the girls
run after-and no cares fig for his
BIRTH"
The Worthless Dukes.
Here he flashed, fixing the humble,
| CdSlle-Iluueu odAOIl With cd5ic eye.
you have duke at the head of your board
! he goes to sleep, and no one-except an
| other duke-dares to wake him up or to
| tell him the truth! And then you wonder
when your governments and your COM
panieS go to smash!
But what about your smart set-your
| prank pla ying New YorkerS-your Euro
| peanzed rich
"They do not count. We laugh at them.
You would initiate them We give them
! nothing to do. You would place them at
| the head of your government departments
| and your railways"
But won't you do that with your mil
| lionaire sons?'
| NO there can't be a hereditary gov
erning class in America. Great fortunes
are made, but in few generations they
get split up again. The incompetents sink
| to the bottom, where they ought to be-
| Treat your idle rich we treat our smart
| set and your competent young men will
not have to emigrate TO America to find "a
career"
As to Libraries.
struck out boldly for a change Of sub
| ject.
| why libraries?'
1 do not know that 1 said it quite as alb
ruptly as that, but that was the gist of It.
1t is the unspoken thought Of multitudes.
| Mr.. Carnegie loves frank question, and
| he set himself to answer 1t with as much
| care as If I was the lord chief justice. He
| answered it by chapter from his own life.
| When 1 was boy in Dunfermline, he
said, Il lived among books and talked
! about books Mr.. Barrie in his Window
in Thrums,' gives you the gossip of the
| Scotch home-but that is not the reality.
The reality is the talk of high things"
| The high-ceilinged London room. with Its
scarlet wall paper and the scattering OF
roses and tulips in random vases-from the
| gray London street.-the eye of the mil
lionaire seemed to go back to the little
home of infancy in Dunfermlne. where tn
| Scottish loom weaver first taught his little
| son the love of books.
Proud of His Race.
| "Ah! am proud of my genealogy-I am
he cried and he crossed his arms with
| look of tender humorous vanity. Il am
proud of the Scotch library-giving weaver.
who gave the first books to Dunfermlne
| out of his savings''-the books which his
| son completed into a library. And then
| came to exile to America-the long day
| hours in the Pittsburg factory, the still
| longer evening hours at home without
| books.
| books-and have vowed that, as far as
| can prevent it, others should not go with
| out. There was man who came and gave
| us boys books Saturdays, and he did q
| better deed than many men have done by
| years Of worship and alteration.
| 1t was the language of the religion of
! humanity-the clue to the mans outlook,
| the faith of Comics millionaire ruler, WHIP
| was to solve the problems of confused
| world.
Business With Mankind.
II am not philanthropist" he said
| with an energy and emphasis almost
| amounting to passion. Not one of those
| people who give people something that will
| do them harm. I administer estateI
! transact a business with mankind" The
talk shifted until it passed from libraries
| to the Standardization gift and the in
| siderable Marie Corelli's unwarranted
| declaration that Carnegie would injure the
| literary associations of the place. Then"
| asked the interviewer "they attack the
| wrong MANI" And he thus continues:
| THE birthplace OF Shakespeare is to me
| the most sacred spot in the world-more
! sacred than the Holy Sepulcher itself.
| Shakespeare has taught me more than all