The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-08
PROPOSED SALB OF LAND TO THE
UNIVERSITY.

UNIVERSITY.
WE regret very much that disposition has
been manifested in Select Council to oppose
the proposition to sell q portion of the Aims
house grounds to the Pennsylvania Univer-
sity. Viewed simply as business transac-
ton, if no other object than the improvement
OF the city finances was involved, the project
deserves favorable consideration Eight thou
sand dollars per acre (includng streets) is no
bad price for nineteen acres of land, which is
now unproductive, especially when the uses
to which this land is to be appropriated are of
such character as to add to the prospective
value of the remaining one hundred and
eighty acres of the Almshouse tract and when
the removal of the University from its pre-
sent location will probably increase the taxa
ton on the block on Ninth street, between
Chestnut and Market, about ten thousand dol
lars year The City Fathers are thus offered,
for what now produces nothing, $3.50, 600
down, with prospect of enhancing the value
of an important portion of the municipal
estate, and with the probable addition of
$4,000 to the current income derivable from
taxation. Few sagacious business men would
reject such an opportunity for promoting
their pecuniary interests, and Councils would
benefit taxpayers by creating the proposed
new revenue of nearly twenty thousand dol
lars per annum, even if the University were
regarded as an institution not specially worthy
of incidental assistance.
But the argument in favor of the proposed
sale is greatly strengthened by the fact that
the city can do a creditable, useful, and inn
portant thing, by an act that brings money
into her treasury instead Of requiring an APP
preparation. In our zeal to promote popular
education, we should not ignore the import
ance and advantage of ample provision for
broad and thorough culture. If we were com
PEELED to choose between the finished educa-
ton of the few and the stolid ignorance of the
many, we should unhesitatingly decide for the
general diffusion of knowledge. But the de-
mand of the age is for both-for free schools
for every child, and higher schools, academies,
and universities for those who desire to
drink deep at the Pierian spring" The
warmest advocates and the best friends of the
common school system warmly recommend
such an alliance between it and the higher
schools as will place superior facilities for
education within the easy reach of all ambi-
hous scholars, and it is for the common bene-
fit of all the inhabitants of every great COM
munity that at least few of their number
should receive all the polish and all the prof.
cheney that university can give. Philadel-
phia has provided literally for popular educa-
ton, but her educational system will never
reach the perfection it should attain until
school of the very highest rank in all depart
ments shall be permanently established here
one which shall become beacon-ight in the
world of literature, and one to which her
citizens can point with as much pride as Eng
land points to Oxford, or Massachusetts to
Harvard, or Connecticut to Yale.
The true Philadelphian naturally desires
that his children may be educated here, and
all citizens should feel well assured that every
desirable facility for instruction offered in
other towns, States, or nations can also be
obtained at home. Pennsylvania has suffered
much by her systematic neglect of the colleges
of the State. This error is being repaired in
various portions Of the Commonwealth by the
generosity of private citizens; and while La
fayette College is rising from her ruins at
Easton, while the benefcence of Judge Packer
is being exhibited in the splendid new insti-
tute at Bethlehem, and while similar advance
steps are being made in other quarters Phila-
delphia should prove that she is no laggard in
the march of progress, but that she is capable
of advancement commensurate with her
wealth and intelligence. An energetic
movement has been made for the liberal
endowment of the University. It's age and
usefulness in past times, the high character of
many of its graduates, and it's prospects, all
tend to single it out as especially worthy of
encouragement; and when Councils are asked
so slight thing as to give it helping hand
in way that at the same time helps tax
payers, it is ungracious impolitic, and absurd
to refuse to grant such a reasonable and meri-
tOrious request.
THE TOBACC TRADE OF PHLLA-
DELPHI1