“Yes.” Captain Murray did not seem to be unduly enthusiastic, and Mr. Barriscale continued:
“I will have my lawyer put the offer in correct written form, setting forth the purpose and conditions of the foundation, so that you will have a concrete proposition to present to your superiors in office. I will burden the gift with but one unalterable condition, and that is that the prize shall be known as ‘The Barriscale Prize for Military Excellence.’”
“A very proper and appropriate name for it, I am sure. I will take the matter up immediately upon receiving your written offer. In the meantime permit me to express to you my deep personal gratitude for your interest in my men.”
There were a few minutes more of courteous conversation, and then Mr. Barriscale hurried to the street, entered his car, and was driven to his office at the mills, leaving Captain Murray uncertain, perplexed, and apprehensive of trouble in the matter of the millionaire’s proposed gift.
Nor was Mr. Barriscale entirely satisfied with the result of his interview. As he thought the matter over later, in his office, it occurred to him that his proposal should have been accepted at once by the company commander. To refer the offer to the enlisted men for their approval might imply that there was a question about the acceptability of his gift, and this was not a pleasing thought to him. It was inconceivable that a public donation from Benjamin Barriscale should be looked at askance by the donees. But the situation annoyed him to such an extent that he was on the point of calling up Captain Murray by telephone and withdrawing his offer, and doubtless he would have done so had he not been at that moment interrupted by a business call of importance. Later in the day, however, when his mind returned to the topic, his resolution had stiffened, and he decided to see the matter through, regardless of the manner of reception of his offer. He had made the proposition, he would stand by his guns. It was not long, therefore, before he sent to Captain Murray the written plan for his proposed prize donation. The captain sent it up to regimental headquarters and asked for instructions. In due time he was advised that there was nothing in the regulations to prevent the acceptance of the gift, and that so long as it proceeded from an individual, and not from a firm or corporation employing workmen, there would appear to be nothing in military ethics adverse to the idea of acceptance. In short, it was a matter for the discretion of the company commander, or for the decision of his enlisted men if he chose to refer the question to them.
Captain Murray was in a quandary. He feared to throw the question of acceptance open to his men lest the proposed prize should become an apple of discord. He hesitated to decide the matter himself, lest he should be considered too autocratic. Moreover, while he felt that the company could not afford to reject a gift offered by a man of Mr. Barriscale’s prominence and peculiarity, he well knew that the spirit in which the offer had been made was not an entirely disinterested one, and that if the gift were accepted the public would draw its own conclusions. Many times he heartily wished that the fertile brain of the millionaire manufacturer had never conceived the idea.
Not so Mr. Barriscale. Having recovered from the slight shock which Captain Murray’s hesitancy had given him, the more he thought about his proposition the more pleased he was with his altruistic plan. He mentioned the matter to his friends and sought their approval, which he readily obtained; and before the company commander had heard from headquarters, the subject of the proposed gift had become a town topic.
In the next issue of Donatello’s weekly journal, The Disinherited, there appeared a brief but biting editorial headed: “Is it an Attempt to Bribe the Military?”
It ran as follows:
“It is reported, credibly, that a citizen millionaire of Fairweather has made the offer to the company of state soldiery in this city that he pay $100 for each of the years to one member of the company who shall be found to be most excellent in the military drill. So open-faced a scheme is not necessary to further the capitalistic advantage. The soldiery of the State know already whom they serve. Should it be that the workers of the city make a similar offer, it would be hailed immediately as bribery. We are informed that the members of the company will vote whether they will accept this millionaire’s offer. It will be interesting to watch, to see how many of the uniformed servants of capitalism will by this vote proclaim their allegiance to those their masters.”