8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



colleges have received more than 40,000,000Z. from this source alone; 

 private effort supplied nearly 7,000,000Z. in the years 1898-1900. 



Next consider the amount of state aid to universities afforded in 

 Germany. The buildings of the new University of Strassburg have 

 already cost nearly a million; that is, about as much as has yet been 

 found by private effort for buildings in Manchester, Liverpool, Bir- 

 mingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Sheffield. The government annual 

 endowment of the same German university is more than 49,000Z. 



This is what private endowment does for us in England, against 

 state endowment in Germany. 



But the state does really concede the principle ; its present contribu- 

 tion to our universities and colleges amounts to 155,600Z. a year; no 

 capital sum, however, is taken for buildings. The state endowment of 

 the University of Berlin in 1891-3 amounted to 168,777Z. 



When, then, we consider the large endowments of university educa- 

 tion both in the United States and Germany, it is obvious that state 

 aid only can make any valid competition possible with either. The 

 more we study the facts, the more statistics are gone into, the more 

 do we find that we, to a large extent, lack both of the sources of 

 endowment upon one or other or both of which other nations depend. 

 We are between two stools, and the prospect is hopeless without some 

 drastic changes. And first among these, if we intend to get out of 

 the present slough of despond, must be the giving up of the idea of 

 relying upon private effort. 



That we lose most where the state does least is known to Mr. 

 Chamberlain, for in his speech, to which I have referred, on the 

 University of Birmingham, he said: "As the importance of the aim 

 we are pursuing becomes more and more impressed upon the minds 

 of the people, we may find that we shall be more generously treated 

 by the state. ' ' 



Later still, on the occasion of a visit to University College School, 

 Mr. Chamberlain spoke as follows : 



"When we are spending, as we are, many millions — I think it is 

 13,000,000Z. — a year on primary education, it certainly seems as if 

 we might add a little more, even a few tens of thousands, to what we 

 give to university and secondary education" {Times, November 

 6, 1902). 



To compete on equal grounds with other nations we must have 

 more universities. But this is not all — we want a far better endow- 

 ment of all the existing ones, not forgetting better opportunities for 

 research on the part of both professors and students. Another crying 

 need is that of more professors and better pay. Another is the reduction 

 of fees; they should be reduced to the level in those coimtries which 

 are competing with us, to say, one fifth of their present rates, so as 



