TEN MILLION DOLLARS

In this optimistic era of increased industry and large earnings the number and amounts of gifts have been in proper proportion to the remarkable prosperity of this country. Never before have wealthy Americans, who have accumulated many times an ordinary fortune during the last two years, made such liberal donations to educational and charitable institutions. Columbia University shocked the public when President Butler asked for the modest sum of thirty million dollars. Already nearly two thirds of this amount has been promised and the remainder is practically assured. Other colleges and universities all over the country are asking for gifts to satisfy their respective needs. Now Harvard has appointed a Harvard Endowment Fund Committee to raise ten million dollars. There is little question that both the College proper and the Graduate Schools are in need of additional income. At present the laboratory facilities are far from ideal for best instructing the large classes in physics and chemistry. Enough has been written already about the glaring deficiencies of the Hemenway Gymnasium. Although there are numerous new buildings that are needed at once, the scientific equipment for use in many of the graduate courses is not sufficiently modern to admit the best results in research work.

Modern buildings, proper lecture rooms and comfortable dormitories are all necessary, but they are unimportant compared to the character and standard of the University's teaching staff. The most humble and unpretentious of colleges enjoys a world-wide reputation if its faculty is composed of the best educational minds the country can boast of. Harvard has for years been noted for the great teachers and scholars which are numbered among her professors. During the last decade many of her most renowned and valuable professors have been lost for unavoidable reasons. Harvard must fill the vacancies made by the loss of these men with the foremost teachers and professors of the literary and scientific worlds. How is this to be done? The standard of the Harvard Faculty can only be maintained by increasing the salaries of its members to a living scale and one that is proportionate to the increased earning powers of other professions and trades. Although Columbia is asking for thirty millions more, one of Columbia's most valuable professors at the present time is receiving $12,000 a year. Professors as well as ordinary men must regard the question of how to make two ends meet, and the university which offers a living salary will obtain the valuable man instead of the university which depends merely on its reputation to attract well-known scholars.

With a committee of fifteen prominent graduates representing all sections of the country the task of collecting this large fund ought not to be difficult. The plan of reaching every Harvard graduate of the last forty years will in itself lend great strength to the universal character of the appeal.

The ten million dollars undoubtedly will be given. May a large portion of the future income go to increasing the salaries of the University's professors.