USA > Pennsylvania > Progressive Pennsylvania; a record of the remarkable industrial development of the Keystone state, with some account of its early and its later transportation systems, its early settlers, and its prominent men > Part 29
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Mr. Carnegie's Round the World is in the form of a journal of his trip around the world, with one compan- ion, beginning in October, 1878, and ending in May of the following year. The trip commenced at Pittsburgh and encircled the globe by way of San Francisco, the Pacific ocean, China, Japan, India, Egypt, Italy, France, Eng- land, and the Atlantic ocean, and occupied eight months. The book records Mr. Carnegie's impressions of the coun- tries and the people he visited, and contains many de- scriptive and philosophic passages of great interest to those who are debarred the pleasure of going away from home "far countries for to see." Mr. Carnegie's vessel steamed up Tokio bay in November and landed at Yo- kohama, where his narrative really begins. He was im- pressed by the magnificent bay, the glorious sky over- head, and a sight of the great Japanese mountain, Fusi- yama, the whole forming a combination of scenic gran- deur that is seldom if ever equaled. He writes : " The sail up this bay is never to be forgotten. The sun set as we entered, and then came such a sky as Italy can not rival. Fusiyama itself shone forth under its rays, its very summit clear, more than 14,000 feet above us." In India Mr. Carnegie visited the Taj Mahal and other wonders, which he describes with enthusiasm. Wherever he went in the Orient his attention was particularly directed to the economic and social conditions of the people he vis- ited. The whole volume forms an entertaining and in- structive book of travels, for the most part among orien- tal people who were little understood at the time it was written, thirty years ago. Bayard Taylor has not written anything better in his books of foreign travel.
Triumphant Democracy is a philosophical discussion and a glowing eulogy of the political institutions of the United States, accompanied from beginning to end by a mass of historical and statistical information concerning the leading occupations of the people of the United States, the natural resources of the country, and such compre- hensive subjects as education, literature, art, music, rail- roads, foreign relations, pauperism and crime, etc. Much has been said in praise of James Bryce's American Com-
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monwealth, and justly so, but in Triumphant Democracy we have a work that deserves to rank with that of the great Englishman. The other books mentioned by Mr. Alderson, Our Coaching Trip, The Gospel of Wealth, and The Empire of Business, illustrate Mr. Carnegie's versatility, his love of nature, his shrewd business sense, his freedom from cant, and his charity in all things. The Gospel of Wealth comprises a series of essays and addresses which deal with some of the serious problems of life and were intended mainly for the benefit of young men. The Em- pire of Business was republished in German, French, and Italian, and was largely circulated.
Before taking up More Busy Days we turn to some of Mr. Carnegie's contributions to magazine literature which were published in The North American Review for 1898 and 1899, and were respectively entitled "The Part- ing of the Ways" and "Americanism versus Imperialism."
Before the Spanish war had come to an end in Au- gust, 1898, when a preliminary treaty of peace, or proto- col, was signed at Washington, the question arose what disposition was to be made of the Philippine Islands. The protocol was signed on Friday, August 12, and on Satur- day, August 13, Manila was bombarded and surrendered, word of the suspension of hostilities not having reached Admiral Dewey and General Merritt. The battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, in ignorance of the fact that a treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain had previously been signed at Ghent. So it was at Manila; Spain had already admitted defeat. Two parties were at once formed in this country, one the Administration party, which favored the acquisition of the Philippines, and the other, composed of both Republicans and Democrats, and known as the Anti-Imperialists, which opposed acquisition. Mr. Carnegie promptly identified himself with the latter party. In the end the Administra- tion policy prevailed and we annexed the islands, paying $20,000,000 for them to Spain. Some of Mr. Carnegie's arguments against annexation may well be reproduced, to illustrate his controversial style as well as to present his reasons for opposing the policy of the Administration.
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In "The Parting of the Ways," published in August, 1898, Mr. Carnegie begins his argument as follows : " Twice only have the American people been called upon to de- cide a question of such vital import as that now before them. Is the Republic, the apostle of triumphant de- mocracy, of the rule of the people, to abandon her po- litical creed and endeavor to establish in other lands the rule of the foreigner over the people-triumphant des- potism ? Is the Republic to remain one homogeneous whole, one united people, or to become a scattered and disjointed aggregate of widely separated and alien races ? Is she to continue the task of developing her vast conti- nent until it holds a population as great as that of Eu- rope, all Americans, or to abandon that destiny to an- nex, and to attempt to govern, other far distant parts of the world as outlying possessions which can never be in- tegral parts of the Republic ? Is she to exchange internal growth and advancement for the development of external possessions which can never be really hers in any fuller sense than India is British or Cochin-China is French ?"
All these questions Mr. Carnegie proceeded to answer with an array of facts and deductions that should have carried conviction to the minds of those who were then in control of the Government at Washington, but the an- nexation spirit prevailed, as already stated. Early in 1899 Mr. Carnegie continued his protest against annexation in two installments in the Review. In the course of his ar- gument he said :
"I write upon the eve of the birthday of the greatest public man of the century, perhaps of all the centuries if his strange history be considered-Abraham Lincoln. Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson may have become back numbers, as we have been often told, for, as men of the past century, they could not know our destiny; but here is a man of our own time whom many of us were privileged to know. Are his teachings to be discarded for those of any now living who were his cotemporaries ? Listen to him: 'No man is good enough to govern an- other without that man's consent. I say this is the lead- ing principle, the sheet-anchor, of American republican-
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ism.' It is not fashionable for the hour to urge that the 'consent of the governed' is all-important; but it will be fashionable again one of these days. It seems as if Lin- coln were inspired to say the needful word for this hour of strange subversion of all we have hitherto held dear in our political life. Our 'duty' to bear the 'white man's burden' is to-day's refrain, but Lincoln tells us : 'When the white man governs himself that is self-government ; but when he governs himself and also governs another man that is more than self-government, that is despot- ism.' Lincoln knew nothing of the new 'duty' and new 'destiny,' or whether it is 'duty' which makes 'destiny' or 'destiny' which makes 'duty ;' but he knew the old doctrines of republicanism well.
" One other lesson from the Great American : 'Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God can not long retain it.' Are these broad, liberty-loving, and noble liberty-giving principles of Americanism, as proclaimed by President Lincoln, to be discarded for the narrow, liberty-denying, race-subject- ing, Imperialism of President Mckinley when the next appeal is made to the American people ? We have never for one moment doubted the answer, for they have never failed to decide great issues wisely nor to uphold Ameri- can ideals. Never had this nation greater cause to extol Abraham Lincoln than upon this the ninetieth anniver- sary of his birth, and never till to-day had it cause to lament that a successor to the Presidential chair should attempt to subvert his teachings."
This severe criticism of President Mckinley was de- served. It will be the judgment of calm and dispassion- ate history that a strong man in the Presidential office at that time-a man like Thomas B. Reed-would have heeded the patriotic and wise advice of Mr. Carnegie and others and permitted the people of the Philippines to work out their own destiny. Without hunting for trouble in dealing with an alien Asiatic race, six thousand miles
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from our Pacific coast, we had at home trouble enough of our own with ten millions of negroes. Our "duty" to these negroes we were sadly neglecting then and are neg- lecting to-day. We are now paying the price of Philip- pine annexation in the great cost of governing the Fili- pinos, including the lives of our soldiers lost in subduing them and in keeping them subdued. We now maintain an army of about 15,000 soldiers in the Philippines. The injustice and folly of attempting at the point of the bay- onet to coerce the people of the Philippine Islands to accept our standards of civilization Mr. Carnegie forcibly illustrates in the following additional extracts from his articles in The North American Review, appearing in 1899.
"One of the great satisfactions in traveling around the world is in learning that God has made all people happy in their own homes. We find no people in any part of the world desirous of exchanging their lot with any other. Upon our journey to the North Cape we stopped in the Arctic Circle to visit a camp of Laplanders in the interior. A guide is provided with instructions to keep in the rear of the hindmost of the party going and re- turning, to guard against any being left behind. Return- ing from the camp I walked with this guide, who spoke English and had traveled the world round in his earlier years as a sailor, and was proud to speak of his know- ing New York, Boston, New Orleans, and other ports of ours. Reaching the edge of the fjord, and looking down upon it, we saw a hamlet upon the opposite side and one two-story house under construction, with a grass-plot sur- rounding it, a house so much larger than any of the ad- jacent huts that it betokened great wealth. Our guide explained that a man had made a great fortune. He was their 'multi-millionaire,' and his fortune was reported to reach no less a figure than 30,000 kroner, ($7,500,) and he had returned to his native place of Tromso to build this 'palace' and spend his days there. Strange prefer- ence for a night six months long ! But it was home. I asked the guide which place in all the world he would select if ever he made such a fortune-with a lingering hope that he would name some place in our own favored
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land. How could he help it! But his face beamed with pleasure at the idea of ever being rich, and he said finally : 'Ah, there is no place like Tromso !'
" Traveling in Southern India one day I was taken into the country to see tapioca roots gathered and ground for use. Our guide explained to these people that we were from a country so far away, and so different from theirs, that the waters were sometimes made solid by the extreme cold and we could walk upon them; that some- times it was so intensely cold that the rain was frozen into particles and lay on the earth so deep that people could not walk through it; and that three and four layers of heavy clothes had to be worn. This happy people, as our guide told us, wondered why we stayed there, why we did not come and enjoy life in their favored clime.
"It is just so with the Philippines to-day. It is as- tonishing how much all human beings the world round are alike in their essentials. These people love their homes and their country, their wives and children, as we do, and they have their pleasures."
More Busy Days is the last of a series of three pub- lications which have been compiled to preserve the lead- ing incidents attending the presentation by Mr. Carnegie of libraries to Scotch, Irish, and English communities, or to commemorate other public functions in Great Britain in which he has participated. These publications were compiled from reports in the daily newspapers. The first, A Busy Week, appeared in 1899, the second, Three Busy Weeks, in 1902, and the third, More Busy Days, in 1903, the series covering twenty-one functions. At many places Mr. Carnegie was received with princely honors. More Busy Days contains reports of ceremonies in which Mr. Carnegie participated at Dingwall, Tain, Kilmarnock, and Govan, in Scotland ; at Waterford, Limerick, and Cork, in Ireland ; and at Barrow, in England. At Govan, at Mrs. John Elder's request, Mr. Carnegie formally opened the Elder free library, which was presented to the people of that place by Mrs. Elder as a memorial to her hus- band, the late eminent shipbuilder of Govan. At Tain he was received in its town hall, which he had helped to
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improve, and at which place a free library was then in course of erection at his expense. At Barrow he pre- sided over the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute. At the other places mentioned he presented libraries.
At Dingwall Mr. Carnegie's well-known optimism was expressed in these words : "Amid all the ills of life, the poverty and want, the wars which devastate, men still killing each other like wild beasts, as I stand here to- day in old Dingwall the proof comes that humanity has within itself a power or instinct which leads it slowly but surely upward to more improved conditions-that man moves upward and looks upward as the sunflower turns its face to the sun. The masses of the people read books which were before beyond their reach. They have comforts which, to-day the necessaries of life, were once the luxuries of the noble; sectarian bitterness-the wars of one religious sect with another, the most cruel in all history we might almost say, have passed away."
The mission of the free library is set forth by Mr. Car- negie in his address at Tain, and in this address he also praises an adjunct of the free library which should espe- cially be found in connection with it in country towns and small cities. He said : "I have become deeply inter- ested in the question of a small hall connected with the library in districts which are not supplied with an inde- pendent hall like this. These halls are proving of the greatest service in a direction which I think highly bene- ficial. My experience is that there is in every community a great fund of latent talent which only needs the right touch from the right man or woman to blossom into fruit. I wish there were in every village or town of Scot- land a dramatic club, and, of course, instrumental and choral societies, which would give performances at suitable times for the benefit of the people at nominal prices."
At Limerick Mr. Carnegie again dwelt upon the mis- sion of the free library. He said : "There are librarians and librarians. My experience has revealed this to me most clearly. In one city the free library is a tremen- dous power for good, reaches all classes, and is the last institution the city would lose. In another its success
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is moderate; it exists and does its part, but without soul ; it is not a living force and power for good in the one as in the other, and this is owing to the different kind of librarian. I trust you have a librarian here whose heart is in his work, and who does not think that his task is fulfilled as long as there is a poor family in Limerick which is not using the library more or less, and who not only gives out the books asked for but sug- gests the books his readers should take." At Cork Mr. Carnegie returned to the work of the librarian. He said : " The whole duty of the librarian is not performed when he sees that the applicants receive the books they ask for. There is a much higher task than this that he can perform. He can lead the people to read the books they ought to read."
In his addresses in Protestant Scotland and Catholic Ireland Mr. Carnegie did not hesitate to express his views on religious subjects. At Dingwall he said : " Your Prov- ost has kindly asked me to say just one word, which I have great pleasure in doing. I speak this word under the influence of the Hundredth Psalm, impressively sung, which takes me back to other days as it can take no one who has not been brought up to hear it when a child. I speak a word in sympathy with the spirit of the prayer, in which you were told truly that the Christian religion is founded upon sacrifice. Therefore, when we lay the cor- ner-stone of a free library, I say what Luther said when he nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of Augsburg Cathedral : 'If this thing be of men it will fail, but if it be of God it must stand.'" At Dingwall he also said : "More and more men are drawn to realize that it is not what a man believes, for who can help his beliefs ? but what a man does ; not what brand of theology he adopts, but what his religion is as translated into life." At Kil- marnock he said: "I would rather take good deeds, an honorable life, and the esteem of friends as my passport to heaven than I would take any doctrines or dogmas in the world." At Limerick he said : "One of the surest proofs of progress in the world is the increased friendli- ness between the various sects of the one great religion,
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Christianity. In the United States this has progressed so far that one scarcely inquires what sect another belongs to, or what views another has upon theology."
Mr. Carnegie's admiration of the character of the Scotch Reformer, John Knox, he freely expressed at Kil- marnock. It is a fine tribute from one who is not a Presbyterian. He said : " No one that reads the history of Scotland will ever, or could ever, underrate the tremen- dous service which John Knox has rendered to Scotland. He helped us to establish the most precious of the rights and privileges, of the religious ideas, by which men can be moved-the right of private judgment. But the in- valuable services of John Knox were not confined to that domain, vital as it is. He declared that he would not rest until there was a public school for the education of the people in every parish in Scotland. Now, the man who did that work, who labored for that end, could never be aught but one of the commanding figures in the first rank of Scotland's benefactors. But John Knox did not stop at schools. When he had established the right of private judgment there came from it the Presbyterian Church, and the greatest tribute I can pay to the Pres- byterian Church-and I am not one who believes in any particular kind of theology but a great deal in religion -the greatest tribute I can pay to the Presbyterian Church is that it has remained the church of the people, as democratic as Scotland itself, and has made Scotland what it is."
At Cork Mr. Carnegie laid the memorial-stone of a public library which he was helping to build. At an im- posing ceremonial the freedom of the city was conferred upon him. In replying to a complimentary address by the Lord Mayor Mr. Carnegie spoke at some length, and in his remarks he used a Shakespearian quotation which, while conveying the most delicate of compliments, showed not only his ability to think clearly on the spur of the moment but also his familiarity with classical literature. He said : "How shall I find words, my Lord Mayor, to thank you and your people of Cork for the great honor they have just conferred ? I shall not attempt it. You
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remember when Hamlet says, 'Good, my lord, will you see the players well bestowed ?' and Polonius replies, 'My lord, I will use them according to their desert.' Hamlet then says, 'Odd's bodikins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert and who shall 'scape whipping ? Use them after your own honor and dignity.' Cork has not treated me after my deserts, but after her own honor and dignity."
Mr. Carnegie's loyalty to his friends is a well-known characteristic. Edwin M. Stanton was one of his early friends. Afterwards Mr. Carnegie bore official relations to Mr. Stanton. At Gambier, Ohio, on April 26, 1906, Colo- nel John J. McCook, of New York, presented to Kenyon College an oil portrait of Mr. Stanton, who had been a student at this college. Mr. Carnegie was present and de- livered a eulogy upon the life and character of Mr. Stan- ton, at the same time making formal announcement of his creation of an endowment of the Edwin M. Stanton chair of political economy at Kenyon College. In his eulogy, which was an elaborate review of Mr. Stanton's career, Mr. Carnegie dwelt particularly upon the patriotic service which his distinguished subject had rendered to his country in the days of its supreme peril. Mr. Car- negie said of his early acquaintance with Mr. Stanton, who was a native of Steubenville, that " he removed to Pittsburgh in 1847, and it was there in his early prime that I, as telegraph messenger boy, had the pleasure of seeing him frequently, proud to get his nod of recognition as I sometimes stopped him on the street or entered his office to deliver a message."
In the course of his tribute to his early friend Mr. Carnegie says : "On the 13th of January, 1862, without consultation with Mr. Stanton, Lincoln nominated him as Secretary of War." Mr. Carnegie bears this testimony to Mr. Stanton's business methods and to his heart quali- ties : "Much was said of Stanton's rude treatment of those having business with him. I witnessed his recep- tion of the committee from New York City, which, fear- ing consequences, visited Washington to urge a postpone- ment of the draft. That was delightfully short. No time
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lost. If there was to be rebellion in New York the sooner the Government met and crushed it the better. 'No postponement' was Stanton's reply. His inherent kind- ness may be judged by his first act. It was to send a commission to Richmond to look after prisoners at the expense of the Government. Ten days later came his or- der that prisoners of war should receive their usual pay."
Further along in his narrative of Stanton's inesti- mable services to his country Mr. Carnegie says : "It was not long before Grant was called to Washington by Secretary Stanton and placed at the head of the army. He dined with me at Pittsburgh when he passed west- ward, and told me that he was to become Lieutenant . General with his headquarters at Washington. General Thomas being then the popular idol I said to him: 'I suppose you will place Thomas in command of the West.' 'No,' he said, 'Sherman is the man for chief command. Thomas would be the first man to say so.' Sherman did, indeed, prove that Grant knew his man. " Concerning President Johnson's intention to remove Stanton from his position as Secretary of War Mr. Carnegie quotes this sentence from General Grant's letter to the President : "In conclusion, allow me to say, as a friend, desiring peace and quiet, the welfare of the whole country, North and South, that it is, in my opinion, more than the loyal people of this country will quietly submit to, to see the very man of all others in whom they have expressed confidence removed." Stanton refused to resign at that time but after a long controversy he retired.
Mr. Carnegie continues as follows : "Soon afterwards he was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court by Presi- dent Grant. Resolutions of thanks were passed by both houses and many were the tributes offered to this re- markable man who had given six years of his life and undermined his health in his country's service. Before entering the Cabinet he had amassed considerable means by his profession, but this was exhausted. Beyond his modest residence in Washington he left nothing. Dis- pensing hundreds of millions yearly he lived without os- tentation and he died poor. Offers of gifts and private
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subscriptions by those who knew his wants were uni- formly rejected. On the morning of the 24th of Decem- ber, 1869, he breathed his last." We may add that the Senate confirmed Stanton's appointment to the Supreme Court, but he never took his seat, dying four days after his nomination was confirmed. The great War Secretary was literally worn out. He had given his life for his coun- try. He was born at Steubenville on December 19, 1814.
We have quoted sufficiently from Mr. Carnegie's writings and public addresses to show the literary bent of his mind and his facility in the use of good English words and phrases. Up to this time he has established over seventeen hundred libraries, mainly because he be- lieves in the elevating influence of good books and stately library buildings, but partly also because he is himself a lover of books and has found time in an otherwise busy career to indulge his own literary tastes. He will con- tinue to establish many libraries every year. Mr. Carnegie will be regarded by historians as one of the most dis- tinguished of all Americans, and this distinction he has earned partly because he is conspicuously a man of letters as well as a many-sided man of affairs.
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