The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-12-22
MIR. CARNEGIE BROADENS HIS
BENEEACTION TO PRO-
FESSORS.

Some months ago. When 1t was an
nounced that Mr.. Carnegie had given
ten million dollars as q fund to pen
sion college professors. this paper ex-
pressed regret that by the terms Of
the gift he had made it impossible for
any North Carolina professor to be
beneficiary of that fund, for the an
nouncement was made that no pro-
fessor in a sectarian college or in an
institution supported by the State
could draw pension from the Car
negie fund. We also stated that the
exclusion of these professors confined
the pensions to those who needed
them less than any others, for they
could only go to teachers in privately
established institutions, most of which
were already rich like the Leland
Stanford University, Chicago Uni
versity and John Hopkins. and eX-
pressed regret that Mr.. Carnegie's
really noble purpose was to be frus-
trated by the unfortunate and i'll
considered exclusion. Every college
and university in North Carolina and
in most of the Southern and Western
States was established and is support
ed either by a religious denomination
or by the State, and the same is true
of many in the North and East. There
fore the professors who teach in most
institutions in the country were cut
out. Mr.. Carnegie evidently had the
idea that the State was able to pen
sion its professors and that the
churches should do likewise. He
wished to have no connection with
sectarianism.
1t is gratifying to know that Mr.
Carnegie, after further investigation,
has wisely decided to increase the
fund to SIS, 000,0 900 ana to make all
college professors, whether in State,
church or private institutions, eligi-
BILE to receive pension. That makes
Mr.. Carnegie's gift the most notable
and useful in the life of this gener-
alton. It is said that in order to
make this fund ample. Mr.. Carnegie
has notified Carnegie Institute that 1T
must be scontent with what he has al
ready given. and that there will be
few more Carnegie libraries. 1t is
we'll to take the last two statements
with many grains of allowance, for
Mr. Carnegie's fortune is so ample and
grows so rapidly that this gift of
100000 does not seriously impair
il. The statement probably should
be that this gift will embrace all
that Mr.. Carnegie will give this year
and the next. He will be so engaged
for months in perfecting wise plans
for his pension fund thai he cannot
give consideration to other plans or
benefcence. The man who deems II
"a disgrace to die rich will not yet
the saying Of Sake:
There was man and people called
him mad,
The more he gave away the more ne
had.
We expect to live to see the day
when Mr. Carnegie or some other
equally rich and far seeing man will
turn his attention and his money to
building hospitals wherever they do
not now exist.
There is no class of men in any
secular walk of life who render SUCH
signal service to the world with such
poor compensation as the college pro-
fessors The average income in this
institutions, is smaller than men OF
like attachments receive in business,
in law. in medicine, in manufacturing
in mining The only professor who
leaves a lasting impression and pours
his life into his pupils is the man who
loves his calling and sees in the eX-
oandine mind of the youth under
him q reward greater than dollars.
No other man ought to be entrusted
with the important duty of teaching
young men. He has no time to make
money or to think of trade and COM
MERGE He must be engrosSed in his
studies and his instruction. But the
fear OF an old age without COM
potency troubles every such single
minded professor. The Carnegie
fund, providing for help in old age,
will not only give comforts to scholars
in their declining years. but will take
away the dread of an old age of want
that tends to lessen efficiency in the
meridian of life. That assurances VIII
therefore give a feeling of certainty
in the years when no help is needed
as we'll as bring help in old age.
The temptation to college professors
to go into business has deprived our
institutions of some men who would
have blessed the world far more
by training the youth than by mere
money making. Not many months
ago a leading professor in a North
Carolina college received a tempting
offer to go into manufacturing. His
salary supported his family in COM
fort, but he had dependent relatives
and felt that he could not be assured
of his present salary as long as he