REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1919. 11 



added, ''maybe I don't understand it?" The opportunity thus 

 gracefully extended was speedily utilized and Mr. Carnegie was 

 readily convinced that the project in question was not one 

 merely of an enthusiastic dreamer, but one based on the care- 

 fully verified calculations and plans of competent engineers. 



It should be understood, however, that Mr. Carnegie's special 

 interest in and confidence in the larger projects of the Institution 

 did not depend to any great extent on explanations, on argu- 

 ments, or on the results of the elaborate preliminary studies 

 that have preceded all these developments. His sympathy 

 and faith rested rather on the general induction from experience 

 that discoveries and advances require boldness in concepts sup- 

 plemented by untiring patience and persistence as well as by 

 ample financial means. These projects appealed to his imagina- 

 tion in the same way that similar departures from precedent 

 had appealed to him in the steel industry several decades earlier. 

 In this latter connection he used to relate with great good humor 

 how he was roused by an inquiry addressed to him by James B. 

 Eads (about 1870) when the first great steel bridge across the 

 Mississippi River, at St. Louis, was projected. Eads desired 

 to learn whether Mr. Carnegie's company would undertake to 

 supply steel bars having a much higher "modulus of elasticity" 

 than had been previously attained. Mr. Carnegie promptly 

 replied that an order for such steel would be accepted, and 

 production speedily followed. In recounting this incident (in 

 1911) Mr. Carnegie explained that while he did not hold a very 

 clear notion of the meaning of the term "modulus of elasticity," 

 he was confident that one of his partners, who was a professional 

 engineer and a pupil of the distinguished Rankine of the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, would know all the technicalities, and hence 

 that it would be practicable for his company to fill the order if 

 it could be filled at all. 



Throughout the history of the Institution Mr. Carnegie has 

 been deeply solicitous for its financial stability and continuity. 

 Thus, in 1907, when accumulated and current income was 

 approaching absorption in the rapidly expanding work under- 

 taken, he recognized the need of additional funds and increased 

 the Institution's endowment by $2,000,000. But in doing so 

 he administered a rational caution against the dangers of such 



