THE STATE AND lIKIUKJt EDITCATION.* 



By HEKiiEKT In Adams, Pii. D. 



This is an era of educational endowiiient npou a generous scale. A 

 recently i)ul)lishe(l re[)ort of Col. N. 11. U.Dawson, Conitnissioner of 

 Education, sliows that the sum total of noteworthy educational gifts 

 during the year 18SG-'87, was nearly 8o,00(),()0(). More than two thirds 

 of the entire amount were distributed among nine institutions, four of 

 them collegiate, one acadeunc, three i)rofessional, and one technical. 

 The institution most highly favored was Harvard University, which 

 received from individual sources nearly $1,00(),()()0. From one man 

 caiiie a legacy of $030,000. Ila verford College, supported by the Society 

 of Friends, received $700,000 in one bequest. Of the two hundred and 

 nine gifts recorded by the Commissioner of Education, twenty five 

 represent $50,000 or more; seventy tw^o were sums betwe<'h $5,000 and 

 $49,000 ; and one hundred and twelve were sums less than $5,000. The 

 most striking fact in all this record of i)hilanthr()py is that such a large 

 proportion of the entire amount, fully two-thirds, was given to higher 

 education. The year ]8S8 is richer than 1887 in iiulividual bounty to 

 institutions of learning. Nearly ten millions were given by three per- 

 sons for the encouragement of Tiianual training, but there are rumors 

 of even larger benefactions for university endowment. The collective 

 returns for 1888 are not yet i)ul)lished, but it is certain tiiat the i)ast 

 year will surpass any hitherto recorded in the annals of Ameiican edu 

 cation. 



Whatever forms modern jjhilanthropy may take, one thing is certain, 

 universities are not likely to be forgotten. At the foumlingof thene\v 

 Catholic University in Washington, IJishoj) Spalding said that a univer- 

 sity ''is an institution which, better than anything else, synd)olizes the 

 aim and tendencies of modern life." Will not broad-minded people 

 recognize the truth of this statement and strcjigtheu existing founda- 

 tions! Senator Hoar, at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Clark 

 University, said, "The university is the bright consummate liower of 

 <lemocracy." Will not American patriots cultivate endowments made 



' An addnws delivered before tii<^ DopartiiKsnt of Suix'rititeiKhMice of tlie N;ition:il 

 Educa'iioual Associatiou, in the National Museum, Waaliington, D. C, March 8, 1889. 



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