REMARKS BY MR. CARNEGIE ON PRESENTING HIS 



TRUST DEED. 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board of Trustees : 



I beg first to thank you for so promptly and so cordially coming 

 forward to aid me in this work by the acceptance of trusteeship. 

 The President of the United States writes me in a note of congratu- 

 lation " I congratulate you especially upon the character, the extra- 

 ordinarily high character, of the trustees. ' ' Those are his words. 

 I believe that that estimate has been generally approved throughout 

 the wide boundaries of our country. 



May I say to you that my first idea while I dwelt upon the subject 

 during the summer in Scotland was that it might be reserved for me 

 to fulfil one of Washington's dearest wishes — to establish a univer- 

 sity in Washington. I gave it careful study when I returned and 

 was forced to the conclusion that if he were with us here today his 

 ^finely balanced judgment would decide that such, under present 

 conditions, would not be the best use of wealth. It was a tempting 

 point suggested to me by the president of the women's George 

 Washington Memorial Association, that the George Washington 

 Memorial University, founded by Andrew Carnegie, would link my 

 name with Washington. Well, perhaps that might justify such 

 association with Washington, and perhaps it is reserved for some 

 other man in the future to win that unique place; because if we 

 continue to increase in population as we have done it is not an im- 

 probability that it may become a wise step to fulfil Washington's 

 wish. But while that may justify the association of any other name 

 with his, which is a matter of doubt, still I am very certain nothing 

 else would. A suggestion that this gift of mine, which has its own 

 field, which has nothing to do with the University, except as an aid 

 to one if it is established, which has a field of its own, that is entitled 

 to the great name of Washington, is one which I never for a moment 

 could consider. If the coming university under the control of the 

 Nation — as Washington suggested a national institution — is to be 

 established, as it may be in the future, I think the name of Wash- 

 ington should be reserved for that and for that alone. Be it our 

 opportunity in our day and generation to do what we can to extend 

 the boundaries of human knowledge by utilizing existing institu- 

 tions. 



(XV) 



