The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-11-07
Just Now DR.. ButtriCk is
Not Giving.
VISITING THE SOUTH
Dr.. Wallace Buttrick, of the General
Education Board and Slater and
Peabody Funds in Raleigh to
Attend Smith Heck We'd
dina.

|
son of his offices talks of millions
quite casually although he himself is
! only comfortable in more than one
sense, is spending a day or two in Raj
eigh, meeting old friends and here on
a social call as well to the marriage
of Dr. Alphonso Smith and Miss Heck
on Wednesday evening.
Quite incidentally DR.. Buttrick will
visit practically every higher institu-
| ton of learning in the State, will 60
| from North into South Carolina, will
pause enroute in Tennessee and quit
| his swing through the South at Chi
cag0,
yesterday in conversation with Super
intendent Joyner, that | have too
much to do Naturally a man with
other folks millions about his person
to give away finds his time occupied.
Like a wise man, DR.. Buttrick seeks
for ease in the statement that he ism t
giving anything away just now. Just
Cooking about for investment" The
statement is a trifle chilling, but it
does not affect either speculation or
interest:
What is he going to find out p
that is the question.
Everybody who knows anything
about educational affairs, or who is in
terested in a college or has even rub
bed against classic wall, knows who
DR.. Buttrick is in the large sense of
one of the coterie of powerful North
ern men who, interested themselves in
educational affairs, and ambitious to
make higher education universal, have
become the repositories of CONNER
cial wealth ambitious for educational
I, T. IL of
the brain of Croesus and quite in line
with twentieth century notions of or
der in business that the lieutenants of
dollars should be the men whose lives
have been set against the current of
wealth as such. SchoOl-teacherS are
proVerbially poor, and, comparatively,
the maxim holds good even with a
Buttrick with his millions to give
away. The idea is charming when
one squnts at it: Money? it is fine
to give away"
And all the fellows who have not
had time to do anything except make
it and don't know where to give it
when they have made more than they
want and haven't the time to quit
making it to administer their gifts for
themselves, hear of the educational
fellows who care nothing for money
except to give it away and give it to
them-and out of that involved SEN
tence the physical impression of DR..
Butrich and the moral significance of
his offices is evolved.
After you have found him, you
meet a short, round gentleman, with
the frankest of ways and the most
engaging fellowship who tells you
gravely that the money they have is
now earning interest until they get
ready to begin giving. Nobody
would suspect DR.. Buttrck of his mill
lions and he never talks about them
until you have abbed the subject by
the neck and dragged 1T into view.
Then. so to speak, he pats the good
dog on the head and tells it to keep
quiet by explaining that he merely
looks over the ground and that the
board does the giving.
The Board" in his case is three.
1t is the General Education Board,
to which John d. Rockefeller recently
gave $10,000,000 in a lump, the in
terest to be expended in the Board
discretion for higher education, the
John +. Slater Fund, the Peabody
Educational Fund. OF the first DR..
Buttrick is Secretary, of the second
he is the General Agent of the third
he is the representative.
One feels, aside from the fact that
he tells joke we'll and laughs at any
that are told him, that it is nice TO
have DR.. Buttrick in town.
AS stated he will spend a day and
more in Raleigh and will then, ne
stated yesterday, probably visit the
University at Chapel mill on Thursday
morning. Leaving Chapel Hill he will
visit Wake Forest, will go to Charlotte,
from there to Davidson, and after that
into South Carolina to Spartanburg,
before going West and North again.
Speaking of the administration of
the large fund now in the hands of
the General Board, DR.. Buttrick refer
red to the fact that there was UNI
bounded discretion vested in the trus-
tees of the fund in giving to higher
education. The usual character of
the gift. he said, was to endowment
funds, but one principle was always
followed in making the donations con-
ditionaI upon the raising of d sum to
be added to the amount provided for
by the board. Money was also given
for buildings which were needed, but
always in the same conditional meth
cd. The policy of the Board was %
stir UP educational interest so as to
operate to make the gifts really go
much further than the actual amount
expended.
AS what he called typical instances,
DR.. Buttrick referred to the gifts Of
buildings to Howard University, in
Alabama, and Clinton College, in Mis-
sissippi, where the money given was
conditional upon the raising of twice
the amounts by the institutions among
their friends.
l had seen DR.. Buttrick before dur
ing the trip of the ogden party to Co
lumbia, the trip which came to grief
near Spartanburg through the wreck
of the special train furnished by MI
Ogden for the conference. Seen
among some three or four hundred
people engaged largely in his own
work and with his own interests Dr
Buttrick was 2 marvel of energy and
Democracy. He is a man who knows
people by the thousands who has, as
he says, friends scattered every
where" In Raleigh he is not SO busy
and, always approachable, ready to
stop and talk about anything except
money.
Before leaving Raleigh DR.. Buttrich
will certainly nUpr tha and M