Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1920-01-27
The Science of Giving
From the New York Times.

BY an interesting coincidence, Jacob G.
Schmidlapp's bequest of q single million and
the Rockefeller gift of $loo,ooo'o9o were re-
ported in neighborng columns. 1t was only
few decades ago that the world looked upon
fortune Of million-to say nothing OF its be-
quest to charity-with something akin to awe;
but today it appears a modest estate. In either
comparison, such gifts as the ordinary citizen
is able to make seem small. 1t takees second
thought to perceive that they ARE very far from
being negligible. A statistical naturalist once
computed that if all the ants in the would could
be assembled they would many times outweigh
all the elephants The united gifts OF all the
mere millionaires would cut very presentable
Carnegie, Prick and Rockefeller. With the
addition of the humber doles of less eminently
solvent citizens the relationship of ant to elc-
plant would doubtless be duplicated, and more
than duplicated.
1t is for better reason than their size that
the Rockefeller gifts, and others of their kind,
are memorable. They are memorable as mark
ing an epoch in the science of giving. The
genius for organization and management which
made possible the accumulation of so much
wealth has been applied in its distribution tor
the benefit of mankind. The Rockefeller Foun-
dation and the General Education Board-be-
tween which the new gift of $l00,O00,000 is di-
vlded-represent an effort to organize benefac-
ton as industry has been organized-to make
1t alive, progressive and adaptable to the new
HSCuS VI CdCH SUCCESSIVE Se1lCIdlOL.
The Rockefeller Institute is not merely one
OF the most amply equipped and ably manned
of all the worlds outposts against disease; it
is an organization fashioned to insure, as far
as is humanely possible, such permanence of
health and vital tradition as has been achieved,
for example, by the leading universities The
General Education Board which is designed as
corrective to malnutriton among universities,
is likewise capable of organic growth. Thanks
to the Rockefeller. gifts, the health Of the ma
ton, both physical and intellectual, should be-
come the object OF continuous and intelligent
benefaction. The suggestions accompanying the
present gift indicate the scope of its usefulness.
By increasing the pay of college teachers able
young men will be enabled to devote their lives
to education. while professors of tried ability
will be saved the necessity of abandoning their
nigh calling. The passage. referring to the
needs of the medical schools of Canada is of
special interest. The Education Board is lin
tied by its charter to activities within the United
States; but this limitation is now set aside. The
welfare of the neighboring people is accepted
as part and parcel of Our own welfare. No bet
ter instance could be given of the growth of an
institution in harmony with the progress of the
world
The example of benefaction in the manner
of Carnegie and Rockefeller is already making
itself widely felt. Mr.. Schmidlapp acknowledges
his debt to Carnegie. In the closing decades of
his life he himself superintended the bestowal
of the major part of his fortune. The single
million which remained was only what he re-
CURED for his own living and for projects of
charity in hand. Like many others, including
Mr.. 'Frick he left it to be administered by
trust company The time may come when such
estates, both large and small, will be bequeathed
to organizations like the General Education
Board-as they are now bequeathed to indiyid-
ual universities