CHAPTER VII.
THE BENEVOLENT TRUST--THE VALUE OF THE COOePERATIVE PRINCIPLE IN GIVING Going a step farther in the plan of making benefactions increasingly effective which I took up in the last chapter under the title of "The Difficult Art of Giving," I am tempted to take the opportunity to dwell a little upon the subject of combination in charitable work, which has been something of a hobby with me for many years.
If a combination to do business is effective in saving waste and in getting better results, why is not combination far more important in philanthropic work?
The general idea of cooeperation in giving for education, I have felt, scored a real step in advance when Mr.Andrew Carnegie consented to become a member of the General Education Board.
For in accepting a position in this directorate he has, it seems to me, stamped with his approval this vital principle of cooeperation in aiding the educational institutions of our country.
I rejoice, as everybody must, in Mr.Carnegie's enthusiasm for using his wealth for the benefit of his less fortunate fellows and I think his devotion to his adopted land's welfare has set a striking example for all time.
The General Education Board, of which Mr.Carnegie has now become a member, is interesting as an example of an organization formed for the purpose of working out, in an orderly and rather scientific way, the problem of helping to stimulate and improve education in all parts of our country.

What this organization may eventually accomplish, of course, no one can tell, but surely, under its present board of directors, it will go very far.

Here, again, I feel that I may speak frankly and express my personal faith in its success, since I am not a member of the board, and have never attended a meeting, and the work is all done by others.
There are some other and larger plans thought out on careful and broad lines, which I have been studying for many years, and we can see that they are growing into definite shape.

It is good to know that there are always unselfish men, of the best calibre, to help in every large philanthropic enterprise.

One of the most satisfactory and stimulating pieces of good fortune that has come to me is the evidence that so many busy people are willing to turn aside from their work in pressing fields of labour and to give their best thoughts and energies without compensation to the work of human uplift.