affectionately,
john
* * *
26 broadway
new york
february 11, 1919
dear father:
once more my breath is taken by the receipt of your letter of february 5th announcing the stupendous gift of new jersey stock which you are making to me. i need not tell you how deeply i realize the great responsibility which each of these gifts bring, for every day of my life i realize more fully the peculiar obligations which rest upon those of large means. a sense of the burden of the responsibility which, through your great generosity has come so rapidly to me during the passing years, would be almost crushing were it not off-set by the vision of the wonderful opportunity for useful service which comes with responsibility.
i appreciate more and more each day what your wisdom and intelligence and broad vision in giving has meant to the world. i realize increasingly the tremendous value that attaches to your endorsement of an enterprise, business or philanthropic, and i need not assure you that it will be my great pride, as well as my solemn duty, to endeavor, while emulating your unparalleled generosity, to live up to the high standards of intelligent giving which you have set. whenever i am discouraged because of the littleness and the meanness and the petty jealousy of men i find renewed courage as i contemplate your patience, your bigness of heart, your christian tolerance. whenever i am oppressed with the feeling that one man can do so little even when he is doing his utmost, i only have to review the marvelous accomplishments of your extraordinary life in order to be heartened for the task which lies before me.