Lynch, Frederick
. Personal Recollections of Andrew Carnegie / by Frederick Lynch
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Chapter 10
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AT THE BANQUET TABLE
WHILE Mr. Carnegie welcomed suggestions as to wise ways of using money -- and I suppose he received several thousand a year -- he was a very shrewd man and could easily detect anything in the nature of what to-day we would call camouflage. He was always being invited to be one of the speakers at a dinner or luncheon where the real aim was to put some cause before him and get him to subscribe the necessary funds. Thus I remember so well one occasion when he was persuaded to attend a luncheon at the City Club where a certain cause was to be considered. The man who had been instrumental in arranging the luncheon took the opportunity, when he made the opening speech, to lay before the assembled company every need of the cause even to one more stenographer in the office. The whole address was so self-evidently made for Mr.
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Carnegie's benefit that most of those present were really a little vexed over it. The speaker had Mr. Carnegie in a trap and was not going to let the opportunity go by. We all wondered how Mr. Carnegie would take it. As usual he took it as a good joke. He saw through the ruse at once and made a very tantalizing speech. He dwelt on the fact that the story of the struggles of the organization had greatly impressed him, that struggle was a good thing for either a man or an organization -- it developed strength -- and he hoped they would go right on struggling and no one could be more interested in the outcome than he; that often he was appealed to for subscriptions that would lift organizations beyond all need of struggle, but he had not felt it wise generally to do this (here our friend's countenance began to fall), though he would, of course, be glad always to do his part in any worthy cause that interested him. He really got a good deal of fun out of this occasion and it was perfectly evident that he saw through the whole scheme. He went away, not the least bit angry, and the next day sent for me to come to the house. He said "That whole speech of -- -- 's was so
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self-evident yesterday, wasn't it? He had me where I couldn't escape, but he's a very able man and really has done pioneer work in the greatest cause in the world. I rather think I'll make his Society an allowance of a few thousand dollars a years. What do you think of it?" I told him it would be a good thing, and he did so. He had not taken the slightest offence at the ill-timed appeal. The work merited support and he contributed to it. It was very difficult for ardent supporters of some cause to resist making an indirect appeal when they happened to be speaking at some banquet where he was also a speaker. The banquet might have been given by a society devoted to forestry, but if a temperance worker, or a secretary of a society for children's welfare, or the head of an organization for the reform of prisons happened to be present, he would often take the occasion to relate the subject of forestry to his hobby and then let himself go upon it, putting all the facts he could into a twenty minute address. It highly amused Mr. Carnegie, who immediately caught on to the whole thing, and he would often comment on it
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afterwards; but he never referred to it in his own speech so far as I can remember. He rather enjoyed a banquet if a congenial company was present and there was good speaking. He could be the wittiest of them all if he got into the mood. Who, of those present, will ever forget his speech at the Annual Dinner of the Men's Bible Class of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, of which Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was then President. He presided this night. At Mr. Carnegie's side sat an old-time friend, a clergyman who had begun his career about the same time as Mr. Carnegie, and had won much reputation as well as success. Mr. Carnegie greatly admired him, and when his turn to speak came, referred to his old friend in these words: "We both followed the prophets, only I used the simplified spelling." Of course everybody roared and it was a long time before the laughter subsided sufficiently for Mr. Carnegie to go on. Such spontaneous wit was always bubbling from him, and I could give many instances.
He never liked smoking and was pretty strict in his opinions about it. I think it was a considerable effort for him to countenance
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anyone smoking in the presence of others who did not smoke. He was particularly averse to men smoking at banquets where women were present. At a dinner where he was presiding -- I think it was a banquet of the National Civic Federation -- some one near the speakers' table said, "Mr. Carnegie, is it permissible for gentlemen to smoke in the presence of the ladies?" Mr. Carnegie immediately responded, "Gentlemen don't want to smoke where ladies are present" -- that settled the question. He enjoyed a good story on himself even when it was directed at some principle which was deep-rooted in his nature. Mr. Carnegie was a great believer in stimulating others to give, and once said to me that he thought he had raised as many million dollars for various institutions as he had himself given. Consequently he was all the time saying to various men or organizations asking for money: "You raise half the sum you need and I will give the other half." At a banquet at the Lotus Club one night, at which Mr. Carnegie was a guest of honor, one of the speakers, an intimate friend of Mr. Carnegie's, when he began to speak, went on
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something after this fashion: "I had a dream the other night and dreamed that Mr. Carnegie suddenly presented himself before St. Peter at the gates of Heaven and asked if he might go in. St. Peter looked him over, asked him who he was, consulted his records, and after a while said the balance sheet was all right, but suddenly demanded: `Have you got your crown?' `No,' answered Mr. Carnegie, `I supposed you furnished the crown.' 'Well,' responded St. Peter, `I'll furnish half if you'll raise the other half.'" Nobody enjoyed the story more than did Mr. Carnegie himself. There was a group of men, with my father-in-law, Professor Samuel T. Dutton, at the head, who were intent on having a great international building erected in New York. Their thought was that it should be a structure imposing enough to stand out among the finer buildings of the city as a striking monument to the cause and should at the same time house all the international groups -- the peace societies, the Japan-American Society, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Pan-American Society and all the rest. Professor Dutton also wanted a Club handsomely fitted up on one floor, with suites of rooms,
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where distinguished visitors from other countries might be entertained. There was also to be a large hall for all international functions, and lectures, and the whole thing crowned by a great library on internationalism. He had broached the subject to Mr. Carnegie from time to time, and at last interested him in the idea. But Mr. Carnegie was always cautious about committing himself to a project until he had thought it all through very carefully and pretty thoroughly visualized it in his own mind. Finally Professor Dutton arranged a little luncheon of about thirty mutual friends of Mr. Carnegie and himself at the Yale Club to get exchanges of opinion on the subject. Mr. Carnegie was much interested in the discussion. I recall that Mr. Walter Page, who had not then been appointed American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, was present and made a most felicitous address. Mr. Carnegie asked many questions and finally made a short address. It was a purely spontaneous address, because before the luncheon no one had been asked to speak. It was one of his best utterances on the oneness of the human race. In the course of it he told us how he had been
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for years an admirer of Confucius, and the more he read of his sayings the more impressed he was with their similarity to the teachings of Christ. Sometimes they used almost the same language. It was a revelation to him of the oneness of all great souls. Two or three of the speakers had dwelt upon the necessity of strengthening the unity of the British and American peoples, and on this theme he foreshadowed some of those utterances that have been everywhere current since the close of the war. I remember especially his saying how, if all the English speaking peoples of the world could stand together for the newer ideals of justice, brotherhood and good-will, they together could keep the peace of the world. He thought that it would be a splendid thing if our Congress would invite a great delegation of the British Parliament to be its guests for a month or two, and the British Parliament would invite a similar delegation from America. It would work wonders in the way of promoting such unity. "They might even hold some joint sessions," he said with a smile, "to discuss our common problems and tasks. One of the great causes of friction between nations," he
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continued, "is that people of one country do not know the people of another and consequently cannot understand them. Acquaintance always precedes comprehension of other peoples." I do not know what might have come of this project for the international building had the war not broken out.
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