SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 167 



can't expect public servants who know how to use money wisely 

 and honestly when we as a people use our money wastefully and 

 selfishly. In short, we Americans have overtrained the facul- 

 ties which produce wealth; we have sadly undertrained the 

 faculties which use it. 



But we are beginning to recognize this national weakness. 

 We are beginning to pay less honor to the mere "captain of 

 industry." We inquire not how much cash a man has, but how 

 he made it, and how he is using it. Every day we are looking 

 more sharply to the "swollen fortune," and demanding that the 

 possessor of it give an account of himself to the public. Rocke- 

 feller and Harriman have become, in spite of their wealth, the 

 most execrated of our citizens. We even hear discussion as to 

 whether or not a community should accept a library given by 

 Carnegie, or whether a college can safely take Rockefeller's 

 so-called "tainted money." When we come to think of it, does 

 not that show a most remarkable change in public sentiment ? 

 In other words, the proper use of money, as well as the produc- 

 tion of it, is being more widely discussed. 



So unusual is the capacity today for knowing how to spend 

 money wisely that the man who possesses it cannot only obtain 

 all the money he wants, but is in a fair way to become famous. 

 You all know the story of the unknown New York reporter, who 

 had a plan for spending millions of dollars in playgrounds and 

 parks for the East Side poor. It appeared to be a scheme of 

 impossible magnitude, but Jacob A. Riis not only succeeded in 

 getting the money, but won a country-wide fame because he 

 knew how to spend it. A negro boy who had been a slave 

 Booker T. Washington has asked for $2,000,000 to build a 

 school and has got it, because he had a wise way to use it. 

 After the San Francisco earthquake the country poured out 

 millions of dollars to help the sufferers. It was no trouble to 

 get money; but when I was in San Francisco last September, I 

 saw what a gigantic task it was to use it properly. Much of it 



