12 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



extravagances as result only in buildings whose value is chiefly 

 architectural. This was a critical period, since opinion was still 

 somewhat divided on the very practical question whether the 

 Institution should conduct its work directly, or indirectly by 

 acting mainly as a disbursing office for other agencies. Counsels 

 were even more divided on the equally practical question whether 

 the Institution should have a specially designed home for its 

 administrative staff and storage-room for its publications, or 

 whether it should continue to rent such quarters as could be 

 found. While Mr. Carnegie did not take sides strongly in these 

 controversial matters, he departed from his usual custom to the 

 extent of addressing a letter to the President calhng attention 

 especially to the protests of those who thought it unessential to 

 construct the Administration Building in Washington. But this 

 letter is closed by the following sentence: "As an antidote to 

 this I inclose a note, and with sincere congratulations on the 

 success already achieved by you, I am always very truly yours." 

 The "note" was the following letter:* 



New York, December 4> 1907. 



Dear Sir: I have watched the progress of the Institution under your 

 charge and am dehghted to tell you that it has been such as to lead me to add 

 two millions of dollars more to its endowment. 



It has borne good fruit and the Trustees are to be highly congratulated. 

 In their hands and yours I am perfectly satisfied it is going to realize not only 

 our expectations, but our fondest hopes, and I take this opportunity to thank 

 one and all who have so zealously labored from its inception. 

 Very truly yours, 



Andrew Carnegie. 

 Dr. R. S. Woodward, 



President, Carnegie Institution, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Again, in November 1910, when called to consult with him 

 about another subject, he announced that as soon as he could 

 arrange the preliminaries he would increase the endowment 

 of the Institution by $10,000,000. He added that the main 

 reason which led him to this decision was that the Institution had 

 proved capacity to live within income. Formal tender of this 

 gift was made in his letter to the Trustees of January 19, 1911, 

 published in full in the Year Book of that year. An important 

 stipulation in this remarkable letter required setting apart 



* Hitherto unpublished so far as the writer is aware. 



