THE  AMEEIOAH" 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
MARCH,  iqi8 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  DEBT  OF  AN  ALUMNUS. 
It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  our  professional  colleges  and 
technical  schools  carry  on  their  educational  work  at  a  cost  that 
greatly  exceeds  any  fees  that  it  would  be  possible  to  charge  their 
students.  Comparatively  few  students  seeking  such  education  have 
unlimited  means,  and  at  this  period  of  preparation  for  life's  work, 
most  of  them  are  more  or  less  dependent. 
It  is  evident  that  the  loss  thus  sustained  by  educational  insti- 
tutions in  conducting  their  beneficent  work,  which  is  so  essential 
to  the  vocations  whose  otherwise  depleted  ranks  they  are  filling 
and,  likewise,  important  as  a  factor  contributing  to  our  national 
progress,  must  somehow  be  provided  for.  Sooner  or  later,  this 
problem  becomes  an  imperative  duty  of  the  managers  or  trustees  of 
each  educational  institution  and  some  plan  of  sustenance  has  to  be 
evolved  suited  to  the  peculiar  needs  and  possibilities  of  the  indi- 
vidual school. 
In  many  states  the  professional  colleges  and  technical  schools 
are  considered  as  proper  objects  for  state  aid  and  the  legislatures 
apportion  a  percentage  of  the  taxes  collected  toward  the  mainte- 
nance of  these  educational  institutions.  Such  state  aid  is  usually 
sufficient  to  at  least  compensate  for  the  deficiency  arising  from  the 
scant  fees  of  students.  Institutions  of  learning  that  are  sustained 
either  wholly  or  in  part  by  state  aid  have  the  problem  of  financial 
management  minimized. 
With  the  development  of  the  enormous  resources  of  the  United 
States  and  the  phenomenal  national  prosperity  ensuing  therefrom 
there  has  coordinately  developed  a  public-spirited  benevolence  among 
many  of  those  who  have  been  fortunate  in  accumulating  an  abun- 
