UNIVERSITY CONTROL 3«7 



placing technical schools alongside of those for law and medicine. 

 This work of expansion was placed in charge of the president, who, 

 under pressure of the new responsibilities, soon ceased to be teacher 

 and became merely administrative officer. The splendid results of 

 this policy are visible everywhere in all departments of our universi- 

 ties. Instead of simple factory-like buildings, imposing fireproof 

 buildings surround the campus, which, in its turn, is no longer a 

 grass plot, mowed two or three times a year, but a beautiful park; the 

 library building is a credit to the architect and the shelves are well 

 filled; the gymnasium is usually a noble building, a proof of anxiety 

 for the physical well-being of students; the laboratories are equipped 

 elegantly and abundantly; the museums are impressive; the mechan- 

 ical workshops are marvels of completeness; students, in the old as 

 well as in the new courses, formerly counted by scores are counted now 

 by hundreds, and the number of instructors has increased proportion- 

 ately; in material resources, the unit is no longer tens of thousands, 

 but hundreds of thousands of dollars; the gifts to educational institu- 

 tions during the last forty years make a sum so vast as to be almost 

 incredible. The history of college growth in material resources during 

 the last four decades is like a leaf from the Arabian Nights and Alad- 

 din's lamp seems no longer a fairy tale. This history tells, too, of 

 devotion and suffering on the part of some college presidents as noble 

 as that of the early martyrs, and deserving a measure of honor which 

 will never be given, as theirs was the day of ' small things.' 



Disadvantages of the American Plan 



But all this is only one side of the picture, that which presents 

 itself to a merely casual observer ; it is the purely material side. There 

 is another side, not so patent in some of its aspects, yet so apparent 

 in others that even the newspaper humorist, that most casual of ob- 

 servers, has not failed to detect and to utilize it. The thoughtful 

 observer, familiar in some degree with matters of education, is led 

 soon to doubt if, in this great development, the interests of education 

 have been regarded as paramount. He asks respecting endowments, 

 and learns, not altogether to his amazement, that in the rush they have 

 been overlooked; and he may learn too that by the acquisition of 

 buildings, the available resources of the college have been lessened, as 

 both giver and receiver failed to provide for maintenance; he may dis- 

 cover also that in carrying out plans of one sort or another, obligations 

 were assumed before means were secured to meet them. It is wise to 

 examine the other side somewhat minutely. 



Effect on the Trustees. — On one hand, the growth of financial 

 interests has made compulsory the appointment of successful business 



