Herbert Spencer heard, while with us in Pittsburgh, some account of the rejection of my first offer of a library to Pittsburgh.  When the second offer was made, he wrote me that he did not understand how I could renew it; he never could have done so; they did not deserve it.  I wrote the philosopher that if I had made the first offer to Pittsburgh that I might receive her thanks and gratitude, I deserved the personal arrows shot at me and the accusations made that only my own glorification and a monument to my memory were sought.  I should then probably have felt as he did.  But, as it was the good of the people of Pittsburgh I had in view, among whom I had made my fortune, the unfounded suspicions of some natures only quickened my desire to work their good by planting in their midst a potent influence for higher things.  This the Institute, thank the kind fates, has done.  Pittsburgh has played her part nobly.

CHAPTER XXVII

WASHINGTON DIPLOMACY

President Harrison had been a soldier and as President was a little disposed to fight.  His attitude gave some of his friends concern.  He was opposed to arbitrating the Behring Sea question when Lord Salisbury, at the dictation of Canada, had to repudiate the Blaine agreement for its settlement, and was disposed to proceed to extreme measures.  But calmer counsels prevailed.  He was determined also to uphold the Force Bill against the South.

When the quarrel arose with Chili, there was a time when it seemed almost impossible to keep the President from taking action which would have resulted in war.  He had great personal provocation because the Chilian authorities had been most indiscreet in their statements in regard to his action.  I went to Washington to see whether I could not do something toward reconciling the belligerents, because, having been a member of the first Pan-American Conference, I had become acquainted with the representatives from our southern sister-republics and was on good terms with them.

As luck would have it, I was just entering the Shoreham Hotel when I saw Senator Henderson of Missouri, who had been my fellow-delegate to the Conference.  He stopped and greeted me, and looking across the street he said: 

“There’s the President beckoning to you.”

I crossed the street.

“Hello, Carnegie, when did you arrive?”

“Just arrived, Mr. President; I was entering the hotel.”

“What are you here for?”

“To have a talk with you.”

“Well, come along and talk as we walk.”

The President took my arm and we promenaded the streets of Washington in the dusk for more than an hour, during which time the discussion was lively.  I told him that he had appointed me a delegate to the Pan-American Conference, that he had assured the South-American delegates when they parted that he had given a military review in their honor to show them, not that we had an army, but rather that we had none and needed none, that we were the big brother in the family of republics, and that all disputes, if any arose, would be settled by peaceful arbitration.  I was therefore surprised and grieved to find that he was now apparently taking a different course, threatening to resort to war in a paltry dispute with little Chili.