JOHN WANAMAKEB 495 oral a distribution of his means cannot be measured by any known standards. It is simply beyond computation. He has been greatly interested in the cause of education. He founded the Bethany Industrial College, which has as its object the provision of an education for yotmg people whose early education has been limited. He has been trustee of the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades from the founding of that institution. He has made valuable contribu- tions to the archaeological collections in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, of which he is vice-president. He has collected many valuable art trophies for the art gal- lery in his department store. In 1888, having obtained the famous Munkaczy painting, ^ ^ Christ Before Pilate, ' ' in which all of the figures were life-size, he sent it around the country to be exhibited to the people, as a means of doing good. In even an incomplete review of the life of John Wana- maker, it is easy to see the many sides of his nature. He must needs bring a broader outlook to those whom he en- cotmters. The economic, social, ethical, and esthetic needs of the individual and of groups of individuals are all subjects of interest to him. Mr. Wanamaker has built up the reputa- tion for generosity which he deserves. With a capacity for acquiring wealth, his ambition for its possession has ever been coupled with philanthropic motives. He has held his talent as a trust and has developed it, not as a means of add- ing luster to his own name, but as a means of strengthening the brotherhood of man. His name will go down not as that of a man who has amassed a great fortune and in old age or by will has made provision for its distribution, but as that of one who has added to his fortune for the sake of and by the very fact of his free use of it for the help of humanity. Charles S. Gleed in an article in the Cosmopolitan^^ applies to Mr. Wanamaker the statement which Peter Cooper made about himself: ** While I have always recognized that the object of business is to make money in an honorable manner, I have endeavored to remember that the object of life is to do good. Hence I have been ready to engage in all new enter- ^CagmopoUtan 83:88.
Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/518
This page needs to be proofread.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Famous_Living_Americans%2C_with_Portraits.djvu/page518-1024px-Famous_Living_Americans%2C_with_Portraits.djvu.jpg)