Carnegie's Money, the City's Tax Levy: Walla Walla Hunts for a Library Site
Andrew Carnegie will build a library if Walla Walla buys the ground and doubles its library budget. Business men are all for it; the Woman's Reading Club has already raised $2,500 as a fallback.
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In order that the city council may have some data to work upon, a number of the prime movers in the library question have been investigating the probable cost of certain pieces of property that may be available for a site for the building. Several desirable locations have been suggested and if the prices of any of them are right it is thought that the council will be willing to agree to the terms asked for by Andrew Carnegie. The property owned by J. S. Barrett, at the corner of First and Alder streets, is one of the sites proposed. This is considered the most central point in the city for the library and it would make an ideal location. Mrs. M. B. Ward has offered to sell her property at the corner of Palouse and Alder at a nominal figure, and many people seem to favor that place as the best location. Several other lots will be submitted to the council for consideration.
A large number of the business men who have been approached concerning the propriety of the city's purchasing a site and increasing the expense of conducting the library from $1600 to $2500 a year are heartily in favor of it. "At the present valuation of the property as shown by the city assessment rolls," said a prominent business man this morning, "the council would have to make a levy of only three quarters of a mill, and that would be so small an increase in the taxes of each individual taxpayer in the city that it would hardly be noticeable. The city cannot afford to let Mr. Carnegie's generous offer go by. It is the only opportunity that we will ever have to secure such a gift."
The Woman's Reading Club, it is understood, when the matter of raising funds was placed in their hands, succeeded in getting about $2500 pledged by subscriptions among the citizens of Walla Walla. In the event the council does not see fit to appropriate sufficient money to purchase a site, it has been suggested that the money raised by the women could be used in this manner.
Several of the councilmen are said to be favorable to the city's taking hold of the proposition and complying with the request of Mr. Carnegie. The committee from the Commercial Club will bring the matter to the attention of the council when it meets next month.
“The city cannot afford to let Mr. Carnegie's generous offer go by. It is the only opportunity that we will ever have to secure such a gift.”
Carnegie's library gifts were never free: the steel magnate paid for the building and left the town to find the land and the annual upkeep, and Walla Walla's council was being asked to raise its library levy from $1,600 to $2,500 a year to close the deal. The maneuver on display — private pledges raised by a women's club, business men lobbying council over a three-quarters-mill levy — is the same shape as every modern public-private civic project. Cities still argue over whether a philanthropist's gift is an opportunity or a bill that arrives later.
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