TEE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 181 



anomalous position. Yet it is evident that this unique phase of de- 

 velopment has not only kept the university in advance of popular 

 appreciation, but has also tended to maintain the stability of society. 

 At a time when large fortunes and monopolistic corporations are needed 

 for the material development of the country, the generous gifts of a 

 few men of great wealth have done much to allay popular clamor. It 

 seems likely, however, that in the end the people will control monopolies 

 and the universities supported by the profits of monopolies. There 

 is no more reason for depending on the generosity or caprice of 

 millionaires for our universities than for our ships of war. It has 

 always seemed to me a curious perversion that elementary education, 

 chiefly useful to the individual, should be free and supported by the 

 state, whereas higher education, chiefly for the benefit of the state, 

 should be a charge to the student and depend on private charity. I 

 believe that the state universities are more nearly in the line of evolu- 

 tion than the private corporations, but there is every reason to hope 

 that the latter will remain sufficiently plastic to adapt themselves to 

 conditions that are likely to prevail. Even at present I think it would 

 be desirable for our boards of trustees to be gradually increased in size, 

 until they become large corporations, consisting of those who are most 

 actively interested in the work of the university. 



However it may be to-day, it does not seem likely that the money 

 question will be the most troublesome one of the future. The people 

 of this country spend $200,000,000 annually for sugar. The same 

 quantity of sugar a hundred years ago would have cost five times as 

 much, $1,000,000,000 ; the reduction in cost has been due to the appli- 

 cations of science in chemistry, agriculture and transportation. The 

 saving on the cost of sugar for a single country in a year or two would 

 pay for all the higher education and scientific investigation from the 

 establishment of the University of Salerno to the present day. This 

 is a statement easily understood by every voter and legislator; when 

 it is once grasped the question for our universities will not be how to 

 get money, but how to spend it judiciously. I also believe that the 

 people of this country are not only good business men, but are ideal- 

 ists beyond others, and that patriotism and civic pride will lead them to 

 increase the wealth of their universities as rapidly as it can be wisely 

 used. 



With the passing of the money question, I look forward to the passing 

 of the president and the board of trustees. Democracy, as I understand 

 it, does not mean that we shall not have leaders, but that we shall 

 follow leaders because we recognize them as such. Our absentee and 

 quasi-hereditary boards of trustees, and our presidents, ranging from 

 King Log to King Stork, have on the whole administered their trusts 

 in accordance with common sense and the opinion of the well-informed. 



