New-York tribune., 1910-10-02
THE LUTON LIBRARY
Mr.. Carnegie's Gift-His Total
More than S150:0OO, 900.

wore IMAM ) iSU.UUU,UUU.
London, Oct 1.-The American Am
| oassador who has taken a neighborIy
interest in Luton since his residence in
bedfordshire. made to-day his second
speech in that town. The occasion was
the opening Of the public library built
through the beneficence OF Andrew Car
negle and enriched by serviceable sets
OF reference books presented by the
Duke of Bedford, whose residence is
near by, at Leighton Buzzard. The dukes
family, the Russells have long been con-
spicuous there and in British public life
since long before Lord John Russell's s
day. Luton is a manufacturing town of
from 25,0OO to 10000 inhabitants, the
chief centre OF the straw goods industry
in Great Britain. and with the excep-
ton Of Bedford the largest town in Bed
fordshire.
The Ambassadors speech was a reve-
iatlon Of the resources of American
philanthropy. He disclosed the magni-
tude of Mr.. Carnegie's gifts for the pro-
motion of human welfare when he de-
clared that although f1OOOO.OOO had
been bestowed in the form of Libraries
in America and Europe, it was barely
third of his entire benefactions, which
have exceeded E30,OOO,OO0
Mr.. Carnegie, who is enjoying the am
bassador's hospitality at Wrest Park
over Sunday. was present at the open
ing Of the library and received the free
dom OF the town in recognition of his
public services, making a short speech
of thanks fer the honor conferred
The speech follows:
You do we'll 10 mark this occasion with
some rejoicing and official festivity. Per-
haps you even do well to mark il with
an indulgence in that passion for speech
making at every opportunity which you
are apt 70 describe as American, but
which / call you all 10 witness has been
originally and distinctly English. and
British-since long before the settlement
of America. One can only regret that
YOU have not now found for il a speaker
to the manor born.
But the day certainly deserves at your
hands the recognition you are giving it,
for il is a day on which you gain
notable public building and notable
new citizen. I shall have to say some
thing presently about the new build
ing, since you have imposed upon me the
duty of formally opening it-an honor
which l owe. no doubt, TO the privilege
I have enjoyed of being your near neigh
Dor for now six summeTs-suCh IS they
are. and if you count the late one as
summer at all
But first, perhaps I might say some
thing about your new citizen, since ne
= a
known him rather well, and a long time,
without ever knowing much 70 his dis
credit, excepting that in spite OF his Tx
ing for libraries his spelling is d5plOr-
able. Naturally, my attention was ar
rested by 9 reference 10 him which l
happened to hear the other day, as l
passed that point Of high thinking, or at
least nigh speaking, the corner OF HYDE
Park. near the Marble Arch One some
times hears that locality spoken OF as
the safety valve Of London. on the
theory. apparently that sUperheated
social or political steam is there safely
blown off. Ny own limited obSerVaIlons
have led me to think Of II as occasionally
less safety valve for hot clean steam
than defect in the drainage, from
which is escaping a teptd and pestilen-
tiai flow of sewer gas Let that pass,
however, as the hasty impression Of q
casual listener
But what 1 heard the other day set me
TO thinking. The orator was dlSCoufSlns :
about the plUlderers of honest Toll, anu
he pictured YOUR new citizen. not TOO N
distinctly, as one of the worst OF them'
q man who had amassed d great fortune
out of profits that righttully belonged
10 the workingmen he employed and
cheated. and who was now doing out a
little of it, in trivial and useless ways,
merely to gain a cheap reputation Tor
all I 1Fg51r IN 1nf1T-E
Mr. Carnegie had always paid good
wages, and found new employment Tor
many men. I also remembered that ne
had been something OF WorklnSnlaI!
himself that he began as q weaver lad
in a cotton factory. was next meSSeh-
ger bov In a telegraph office, and pront-
ing bv that opportunity picked up the
art himself that he thus worked his way
into a railroad office, and so up TIL ne
became a railway superintendent. next
2 successful manufacturer OF railway
iron. and that he then had the tarseelng
saEacftv. courage and uutlTlng persist
enCe to introduce the Bessemer steer
making process in America Recalling
all this. l could see better where the
fortune came from than Where lhe pun
der came in.
Then | took another look at the orator
who had pronounced that surprising in
dictment He didn't look or talk like a
man who had much claim to speak Tor
decent workingmen. or had often done
an honest days work himself IN fact
he looked like what the hard-headed
but irreverent wOrkingman of my native
land is apt TO call a .'jawSmith, ana
he was then apparently plying the trade
nv which ne earned his unclean wage.
Going home l chanced 10 find this
parnUhIet. containing a late official re-
port of the trustees charged with carry
ing out one Of Mr. Carnegle's scheneS
for cheap reputation, and looked
through il. in order to see what trivial
or useless thing the bad man was doing
now with his plunder. Well, he seemed
10 have put a great deal OF money at
the disposal of these trustees. and they
had been industrious and versatile IN
expending il. / found details OF nearly
four hundred different things they had
done with il. Let me read you Ie"
samples almost at random;
one of the first was TO find a coal
miner named Daniel Davis, out at
SherrodsviUe, in Ohio This young man
Of twenty-three and his mate were over
taken in the mine by the black damp.
Roth fled Davis got outside and was
safe. Finding that his mate had fallen'
he instantly went back to try to help
him. was himself Frustrated. and both
died The agents of this plunderer OF
worlingmen hunted up the poor wlIe,
Thus left a widow. They gave her first
8 record Of her husbands deed on q
silver medal TO be handed on to her two
cbi1dren as a souvenir Of their dead
father. and then gave her two nundreQ
mounds to help bring them up When
read that I couldn't help wondering
whether the glib orator of the Marble
Arcb bad eyer given two hundred half