Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-01
COMMENCEMENT DAY at tn

COMMENCEMENT DAY at the
famous educational institutions OF
~ the country regularly brings an
nouncements of big gifts Just what
the total of the benefactions to Har-
ward, Chicago, Yale, Columbia, Prince
ton and other universities will have
amounted TO this year remains for the
statisticians to figure up and make the
basis of articles showing that the very
rich men of the country are alive to
their duties toward the younger gener-
alton The total is certain to be in the
millions.
Meantime, the commencement crowds
who, each June, throng that city, al
ways, as a part of their stay in Boston,
attend the "Pops"-people's concerts at
popular prices in Boston Symphony hail.
where the best of classic and modern
music is rendered by members of the
celebrated Symphony orchestra, where
one may enjoy light refreshments with
ones friends about a comfortable little
table, may gossip between numbers and
smoke all the while, may on "college
nights" witness the enthusiasm of the
gay young collegians of ages twenty to
eighty-all this with perhaps little
thought that, curiouslv enough. in only
has the generosity of millionaires taken
the direction of endowment of music on
large scale.
The uniqueness of the treat which
college men and others get in Boston
during the season of the Pops, which
always extends until the last of the
great schools of the neighborhood has is
sued it's annual edition of sheepskins is
an indication of the slight attention that
in most American cities has as yet been
given by men of wealth to founding
and conducting musical institutions.
For the millionaires in this country
have only just begun to realize that the
musical arts especially need protection
and fostering. Andrew Carnegie, Henry
L. Higginson and Eben D. Jordan are
the three most conspicuous exceptions.
The former has been aware for a
good while of the exigencies of the
musicians. 1t is reported that Mr.. Car
negie gives every year about $4,000 in
this direction alone-a munificence that
Is not unnatural, considering his well
known devotion to the church organ in
his New York house, to which he lis
tens as regularly as he eats his break
fast. One is not surprised to find that a
large proportion of his benefactions
thus far have gone to the endowment of
pipe organs, about 400 of which he has
already given to churches all over the
world. He has been quoted as saying
that he won't stand for the doctrine of
the preachers, but that the church
organ can teach no wrong.
Mr.. Carnegie has, of course, done
other things for American music. His
wealth has made Pittsburg one of the
leading music centers OF the country,
with it's excellent facilities for hearing
and learning good organ music, and
with it's orchestra led for many years
by Victor Herbert, one of the most
original of modern conductors. Car
negie hall in New York city has become
the center of the music life of the
metropolis.
Equally conspicuous with Mr.. Car
negie, and indeed even more so as a
special benefactor of music, is Major
Henry l.. Higginson, the Boston banker,
who since 1881 has stood behind the
Boston symphony orchestra, cherishing
II with the same affection and enthu-
siasm with which other millionaires re-
gard their yachts or their racing sta
bles. The great orchestra which Carl
zerrahn, one of the three musicians of
German birth who have done so much
70 give standing TO American music,
and who has just returned TO this eoun-
try from several years residence In
Germany, declares is now generally re-