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How Would I Spend a Million Dollars as a Philanthropist?

(From the "New York Recorder.")

A correspondent of the above paper submitted the following question: "How would you give away $1,000,000, if you were a rich philanthropist and had it to spare?"

Answer: "Candidly, I don't know. I have thought about the best methods of spending money for the poor a great deal, and have not been able to arrive at any conclusion. To spend it at once would, of course, give temporary relief, and make a few people happy for the moment, but then it is gone. On the other hand, to arrange it so that it will be in the nature of a permanent fund, the increment of which shall be used for the relief of human suffering, means that there must be a board of managers, or a superintendent or matron, or some official of that kind, and it will not be long until it will be managed so that the official having it in charge will get not only the cream but the larger share of the sour milk, and the objects of charity for whom it was intended will be treated simply as a kind of convenience, whose existence is necessary in order to make the office of matron or superintendent or manager needful.