Condemnation of Wealthy Donations
The bestowal of large donations upon municipalities here and there will not long be recognized on the part of the common people as compensation for the wholesale extortions that have made such donations possible by single individuals. Laboring men and the "common people" generally feel that these gifts to great schools and municipal libraries have been made at their expense. The sentiment of laudation that has prevailed to a great extent in the recent past is being changed to an expression of condemnation, even by some men of influence in the world. In a recent address in Chautauqua, N. Y., District Attorney Jerome, of New York City, voiced this growing sentiment in very plain terms. A press report says: Mr. Jerome declared that conditions of political and social unrest are fast approaching a crisis in this country. He referred to the building of Carnegie libraries in New York, which he said are not used, and never can be. "Better forget," he said, "the name of Carnegie, and leave that money with the men who earned it, and make their homes happy. I believe in law and order, but if I lived in one of those miserable hovels in the iron and steel district, and needed money for a loved one, I should not view the founding of these libraries with complacency."