Peter van den Dungen extols the beneficence of the Scottish-American tycoon which today’s super-rich could imitate. Plus letters from Mark de Brunner and Tom Scanlon
Rich people who are considering giving money away to good causes (Six tips for budding centibillionaires, (No 1: come from a very wealthy family)6 April) could do worse than consult the 160‑page prospectus that William Thomas Stead issued in 1900 titled Mr Carnegie’s Conundrum: £40,000,000. What shall I do with it?
The title page featured Andrew Carnegie’s dictum: “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” The Scottish-American tycoon, who was a great believer in education, financed the construction of 2,500 libraries in the English-speaking world. Detesting war, he financed the construction of the Peace Palace in The Hague (today the seat of the UN’s international court of justice) and the Pan American Union building in Washington DC (today the seat of the Organization of American States) to provide a home for new international organisations that aimed to reduce the incidence of war through arbitration, international law and international organisation.
