The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-02-20
The Truth About the


In the spring of 1910 the Union City
papers published the statement that Mr.,
Carnegie had given the town $40, 900 for
library. A short while after this, at
Mrs. Seid Waddell's invitation, joined
her. Mrs. MassengiIl and Mrs. Page in
visit to the public school on some w.
@. I. U. business. l did so readily, be-
cause wanted to ask Mr.. Mute (haying
been told he was the proper one to see)
about corner in the library for South
ern relics, having gotten the idea from
other cities and towns, notably Jack
son, Tenn. This town is justly proud
OF her collection and was reported to be
negotiating with DR.. E. B, Little for his
valuable war relics, be preferring to let
his home town have them if it could be
arranged. / also had most valuable
material entrusted to my care and was
anxious to secure a safe and suitable
place for them. When asked about
this corner, Mr.. Mute very readily gave
his consent and approval-not the slight
est intimation that he had not full au-
thority. When the house was COM
pleted strong committee was formed,
composed of Miss Mary Lawson, chair
man; Mrs. Irene Dahnke, treasurer;
Mrs. Lula Edwards, secretary; Mrs.
Waddell and Miss Mary Swiggart. At
the first and only meeting, in the Sum
day school room of the Methodist
Church, it was planned to give an en-
tertainment to make money with which
to buy books for our Southern corner.
Miss Lawson then saw Mr.. Mute about
the exact location in the building, when
he referred her to Mr.. Tisdale, who, he
said, was the proper person to apply to-.
as he had no authority in the matter.
At the appointed time Miss Lawson,
Mrs. Gibbs and met Mr.. Mute at Mr..
Tisdale's Office and we all went to the
building where we agreed on the corner
for Southern relics, provided we fur
nished first-class cases for them, which OF
course we expected to do. At the same
time we were given to understand that
we could not meet there, SO we stopped
right then and there-not another COM
mittee meeting, nothing. However, |
went 10 the Mayor and asked him many
questions, the first Of which was, Into
whose hands did the Carnegie money
pass?" Sometime later Parent Teacher
Association was organized here and Mrs.
Waddell was. asked by the chairman to
ask permission from the Mayor to be
allowed to meet in the Carnegie Library,
as part of the work was to be the story
hour for children, which, in most every
place owning one, is conducted in the
public library. She was refused. Hear
ing of this, went to the Mayor for an
explanation. He said: Mr.. Mute does
not want you to- which brought on
another pertinent question: What has
Mr.. Mute to do with it2" His answer
was, He got the library for Union
City. +"
We now began correspondence with
Mr.. Carnegie to find out just how and
for what purpose the library had been
given. In the meantime we had re-
ceived Nashyille's equivalent, also jack
sons and Hickman's. The library at
Hickman differed from the others in
this, that it was gotten by the school
board, elected by the people and ac-
countable to them. This school board
pledged 81, 900 year for the mantle
nance OF their library, to come out OF the
school tax. as they are empowered to
do. When finished, even to the steel
plate bearing the date and the donors