422 
A  Counsel  of  Perfection. 
i  Am.  Jour.  Jfuarm. 
\  September,  1913. 
Such  an  example  and  that  of  twenty  other  States  all  point  to 
the  best  way  of  meeting  the  general  demand  for  a  more  regular 
and  thorough  public  provision  for  advanced  education,  not  through 
appeals  to  legislatures,  to  be  subject  to  all  the  risks  of  overtaxed 
public  bodies,  but  by  a  constitutional  provision  for  a  fixed,  though 
small,  percentage  of  the  income  of  the  State  to  be  set  apart  for 
higher  education  and  for  all  branches  of  education  that  ought  to  be 
maintained  at  the  public  expense,  to  be  expended  through  the  college 
and  university  council,  made  up  of  state  officials  and  representa- 
tives of  universities  and  colleges  and  institutions  of  advanced  scien- 
tific and  technical  education.  Established  by  law  in  1895,  it  only 
needs,  increased  powrer  to  do  its  best  work. 
Well  directed  public  bounty,  as  President  White  says,  stimulates 
private  bounty.  Generous  men  and  women,  seeing  that  the  cur- 
rent needs  of  such  institutions  were  provided  by  state  revenue, 
would  gladly  give  freely  and  largely  for  such  special  additions  as 
may  appeal  to  them.  The  alumni  of  universities  wTill  find  new  in- 
spiration for  their  activity  in  giving,  advising,  and  encouraging  the 
growth  and  prosperity  and  advancement  of  their  alma  mater. 
Thus,  nation,  state,  alumni  and  individual  grants  and  gifts  would 
be  united  to  strengthen  state  institutions  and  enable  them  to  give 
the  highest  literary,  scientific  and  industrial  instruction. 
The  same  trend  of  educated  opinion  is  found  in  other  publications 
of  the  highest  authority.  In  the  44th  annual  report  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  that  for  1889,  Professor  Herbert  B.  Adams's  paper 
on  the  state  and  higher  education  gives  the  strongest  facts  and 
arguments  in  support  of  state  aid.  He  points  out  that  in  colonial 
days  Maryland  began  her  educational  history  by  paying  a  tobacco 
tax  for  the  support  of  William  and  Mary  College  in  Virginia.  Ver- 
mont appropriated  a  township  of  land  for  Dartmouth  College  in 
New  Hampshire.  Xew  Haven  sent  corn  to  the  support  of  Harvard. 
In  later  times  Michigan  gave  to  the  university  one-twentieth  of  a 
mill  tax  on  even'  dollar  of  taxable  property  ;  Wisconsin  one-eighth 
of  a  mill;  Nebraska  three-eighths  of  a  mill ;  California  one-tenth  of 
a  mill ;  and  now  the  same  rule  holds  in  so  many  states  that  it  may  be 
described  as  the  normal  basis  for  state  aid  to  higher  education. 
In  the  proceedings  of  the  National  Education  Association  there 
are  abundant  evidences  that  the  leading  and  recognized  authorities 
on  education  in  this  country  take  the  same  view. 
In  the  report  for  1900,  President  Swain,  then  of  Indiana  Univer- 
