The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-30
Col. o. II. Payne, Noted for
MOdesty, Has Given This
Amount to Cornell
OTHER BENEFACTIONS
ON ENORMOUS SCALE
Falling Off in Orders by Railroad
Companies in Striking Contrast
to Situation in Other Lines
of Industry
ny HOLLAND

ny HOLLAND
New York, October 29.-fSpecial)- THE
reported gift Of 100000 for the addi-
tional endowment of Cornell University
Medical college in New York city by Col.
Oliver II. Payne is sure to revive many
incidents relative to Colonel Payne's phi
lanthropics as well as his more private
henefactions. He is presumed to be one
of the wealthiest citizens of New York,
although he may still retain his legal resi-
dents in Cleveland, o. All sorts of guesses
as to his aggregate fortune measured in
dollars are frequently made. Almost all
of them place him in the rank of men
whose wealth is larger than s50.OOO, 900.
Whatever his estate may be at the
end of any one year it must be materially
increased by his millions of income in
the next year. He lives, relatively speak
ing. modestly. AS he has never married
he has no very extensive family obliga-
tions. He is fond of catching, but he
is personally about as inconspicuous a
man as lives in New York If he passes
up and down Wall street. very few recog-
nize him. IL he enters the offices of the
Standard Oil company, of which he is a
very large stockhoder, few Of those who
gather in that building identity him as
Colonel Payne.
Those who have some familiarity with
Colonel Payne's life say that his private
benefactions each year are very large.
Partly from modesty and partly, no doubt,
from a desire to protect himself against
appeals for aid he tries to conceal
from the public his identity with these
been factions He would have been glad
had it remained a secret that he was the
giver of the fund of $780, 000 to the Cornell
Medical college when 1t was first estab-
lished in New York city.
One of the persistent reports which has
been, now for several years. in circulation
asserts that Colonel Payne gave outright
to a favorite nephew some years ago sew
eral million dollars. One of the reports
fixes the amount as high as $4,000 900.
And none of the reports estimate the gift
as less than s5.000,000.
Colonel Payne's devotion to his sister,
who was the first wife of the late Will
, liam C. Whitney, was ideal. really idyllic.
There is no doubt of the accuracy of the
reports which attributed to Colonel Payne
a gift outright of $1,O00,000 as a birthday
or some other anniversary present to his
sister. He has always been greatly at
tached TO one of the sons of William c.
w
acterizes- their mutual relations, could
not be stronger If one were the father
and the other the son.
A Great Medical College
James Stillman's gift to Harvard Medical
college several years ago has always been
regarded as an especially fortunate bene-
faction. The late j. p Morgan's endow-
ment of 81 100000. by means of which it
was possible to establish a maternity
hospital in this city, was of inconceiv-
ably great benefit to this community
There have been large gifts to the College
of Physicians and Surgeons which is now
associated with Columbia university. The
Vanderbilt family has always been es-
pecially interested in this institution.
But so far as hasty examination makes
| 1t possible to learn. Colonel Payne's BEN
efaction of s4,000000. supplementing as it
does his earlier benefaction of S500,O00,
constitutes the largest single endowment
ever made to an American medical col
lege. John d. Rockefeller's contributions
to the Rockefeller Institute of Research
may exceed this amount. The Rockefeller
institute, however, is solely occupied with
the work of research. Mr.. Rockefeller is
quoted by his friends as having said
that already the achievements of the brill
liant men who have been engaged In re-
search work in that institution far more
tnan JUSTLY, even from lne
point of view, the investment which he
| made in endowing the institute. The
names of Dr. Simon Flexner and DR..
Alexis Carrel of themselves tell a part
of the story of the returns Mr.. Rockefeller
has received from this investment.
The Colonel Payne endowment will make
| 1t possible for the Cornell Medical col
| lege to maintain the highest equipment
and to obtain the ablest professional SER
vices. Colonel Payne's gift to Cornell
| is all the more romantic from the fact
that he had no student association with
the university. In fact, 1t was not in ex-
istence in his student days. His own as
sociations are with Yale, of which he is
a graduate and all of those, who are near
to him by blood or marriage were also
graduated from Yale.
IA auuition to these outright gifts 1t
has been the common understanding here
| that Colonel Payne has each year made
up the deficiency between the cost of
maintaining the medical college and the
income received from tuition fees or other
sources. In this respect his method Is