XXIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 



fund was over $600,000, or more than twice that of Yale. Now President Hadley 

 tells me that the invested funds of Yale are about five and one-quarter million 

 dollars. The Smithsonian fund is nearly what it was; that is, except for the Hodg- 

 kins legacy; it is about one-sixth that of Yale; which is saying that the Smithsonian 

 fund has relatively decreased in the proportion of 12 to 1. 



Not to found this comparison on the solitary case of Yale, I have inquired in this 

 way of the Presidents of seven of our leading colleges and universities, and I have 

 answers from five: Harvard, Y^ale, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of 

 Pennsylvania. 



Columbia reports an income of 111,000 in 18.50, but no endowment. Harvard is 

 the only college or university which fifty years ago had a fund as large as that of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The average fund of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Penn- 

 sylvania in 1850 I find to be about $450,000. The average fund of each of those 

 same four institutions to-day, as their presidents and treasurers report to me, is 

 about $8,600,000 (an average increase of nearly 2,000 per cent). 



If some of the newer universities, as Stanford, and Chicago, whose funds are 

 believed to be collectively $25,000,000, are brought into this estimate, the result is 

 that while at the time of its organization the Smithsonian Institution, with one 

 exception, was very much wealthier than any university or college in the United 

 States, to-day it has about one-twelfth of tlie average property of those to which it 

 was formerly superior. 



If there is any object that lies near my heart, it is that the Institution should 

 become so known throughout the country that gifts and devises which would 

 increase that part of its funds under the absolute control of the Regents should be 

 stimulated and increased. I am convinced that it is l)ut necessary that the whole 

 of the American people who have money to devise or give shall only know what 

 the Institution has done in the past and what it guarantees under the rule of the 

 Regents in the expenditure of funds in the future, to bring in such gifts in increas- 

 ing number. I will do anything I can personally to aid this, and while it is not 

 becoming that the Institution should wear the appearance of soliciting anything of 

 the kind, I should be very glad for any counsel from the Regents as to the means of 

 aiding it. 



The Regents informally discussed the matters suggested 1)y the 

 Secretary, but, time preventing, took no action; and, on motion, the 

 Board adjourned. 



