A PLEA FOR PURE SCIENCE 601 







palace. I have taken the productive funds of the institution as the 

 basis of estimate. I find: 



234 have below $500,000. 



8 have between $500,000 and $1,000,000. 

 8 have over $1,000,000. 



There is no fact more firmly established, all over the world, than that 

 the higher education can never be made to pay for itself. Usually the 

 cost to a college, of educating a young man, very much exceeds what 

 he pays for it, and is often three or four times as much. The higher 

 the education, the greater this proportion will be; and a university of 

 the highest class should anticipate only a small accession to its income 

 from the fees of students. Hence the test I have applied must give a 

 true representation of the possibilities in every case. According to the 

 figures, only sixteen colleges and universities have $500,000 or over of 

 invested funds, and only one-half of these have $1,000,000 and over. 

 Now, even the latter sum is a very small endowment for a college; and 

 to call any institution a university which has less than $1,000,000 is to 

 render it absurd in the face of the world. And yet more than 100 of 

 our institutions, many of them very respectable colleges, have abused 

 the word "university" in this manner. It is to be hoped that the 

 endowment of the more respectable of these institutions may be in- 

 creased, as many of them deserve it; and their unfortunate appellation 

 has probably been repented of long since. 



But what shall we think of a community that gives the charter of 

 a university to an institution with a total of $20,000 endowment, two 

 so-called professors, and eighteen students! or another with three 

 professors, twelve students, and a total of $27,000 endowment, mostly 

 invested in buildings! And yet there are very many similar institu- 

 tions; there being sixteen with three professors or less, and very many 

 indeed with only four or five. 



Such facts as these could only exist in a democratic country, where 

 pride is taken in reducing everything to a level. And I may also say. 

 that it can only exist in the early days of such a democracy; for an 

 intelligent public will soon perceive that calling a thing by a wrong 

 name does not change its character, and that truth, above all things, 

 should be taught to the youth of the nation. 



It may be urged, that all these institutions are doing good work in 

 education; and that many young men are thus taught, who could not 

 afford to go to a true college or university. But I do not object to the 



