Page:North Dakota Law Review Vol. 1 No. 4 (1924).pdf/8

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A gift of $15,000,000, recently made by George Eastman, makes a total of $40,000,000 contributed by him towards education, charity and institutions established for some sort of public service. His comment, at the time of the last gift, was: “I am now upward of seventy years old and I feel that I would like to see results from this money, within my remaining years.”

Mr. Eastman’s life is representative of many in this country. He began work as an office boy, at the age of fourteen, (please note), to assist in supporting his widowed mother. His first wages were $3 a week. At twenty he secured a position in a bank, and at twenty-five he started in business for himself as a manufacturer of dry plates for cameras. Today his business is worth $90,000,000 to $100,000,000, and is known as the Eastman Kodak Company.

For years the world knew little or nothing of his benefactions, which included donations to Tuskegee and Hampton for the education of negroes, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rochester University, Stevens Institute and Mechanics’ Institute for Industrial Education, the General Hospital, Homeopathic and Hanehann Hospitals of Rochester, New York, the Friendly Home for Children and the Shelter of Children Society, the New York State and Municipal Bureau of Research, the Red Cross, War Relief, War Chest and many other organizations. In the meantime, Mr. Eastman also made possible the owning of about one-half of the Eastman Company stock by the employees, the plans for that being his own. Following the plan of Lincoln, quoted last month, he gradually accumulated, through his initiative, industry and thrift, a considerable fortune, part of which he again contributed in the furtherance of the public interest, supplying educational and other advantages to thousands who might not, otherwise, been able to obtain them.