i 9 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



But whatever the status of our country in art and literature, it will 

 be said, there is one matter in which we are particularly strong, namely 

 in education. Our common schools are the boast of every patriotic 

 American, many of whom believe that such schools are unknown in 

 other lands; our colleges and universities are in number more than 

 those of any other country, and for our education we pay a greater sum 

 than any other country does or could afford. Education is the one 

 thing of whose value all Americans are convinced, and for which most 

 of them are willing to make sacrifices. Not only do we have the 

 greatest millionaires, as I have remarked, but they give away more 

 money than any others, and education obtains a large share of their 

 benefactions. No other country possesses privately endowed institu- 

 tions comparable with our great universities, and in none is the gen- 

 erosity of rich men developed to so high a degree, when measured in 

 numbers. It has recently been announced that Mr. Eockefeller has 

 just brought the total of his gifts to the University of Chicago up to 

 the sum of twenty million dollars, while Mr. Carnegie has given the 

 same sum to two institutions of very recent foundation, both bearing 

 his name, and it is to be remembered that in both these cases the sums 

 named constitute but a fraction of the amounts contributed by these 

 great givers to educational purposes. These are but two of the great 

 number of generous contributors to education in our day, and they 

 have been preceded by a long line of others whom we remember with 

 gratitude. 



The question now lies near, what are the results of this grand 

 investment in education, in which not only the fathers, but we of to-day, 

 take such an interest? No sensible man to-day asks the question, 

 " Does education pay ? " The great question that interests the engi- 

 neer or the physicist in connection with any apparatus, machine or 

 transformation of energy, is its efficiency, that is, the ratio of what 

 comes out to what is put in. If I may be pardoned for introducing 

 a well-worn anecdote, I will remind you of the reply given by the 

 Hebrew capitalist to his wife, interested in family matters, " Isaac, 

 have you noticed how much interest young Mr. Loewenstein is taking 

 in our Eebecca ? " " Interest," says Isaac, looking up from his stock 

 report, " Interest — what per cent. ? " It is precisely this query to 

 which I wish to call your attention to-day — how great is the efficiency 

 of our educational plant, or, in commercial language, what per cent, 

 of dividend does the investment pay? An answer to this may be of 

 interest to future givers, unless indeed they are so permeated by the 

 prodigality of the times that they will give their money in any case, and 

 take their chances of its doing any good. Let us then take a brief sur- 

 vey of the state of learning in the United States. What is the attitude 

 of the public toward learning, and toward the universities and colleges 



