The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-07-04
HIGHER EDUCATION.
Our College EndoWments Double Nea
Every Twenty Years.

Our College Endowments Double Nearly
Every Twenty Years.
The universities, colleges, profession
al schools and other institutions sharing
in the work of higher education in
this country are summed up statistical
ly by Prof. Francis Newton Thorpe, in
an article in the Manufacturer. The
figures are all taken from the last report
of the Bureau of Education, although
this is not mentioned in the article.
The United States, in 1888, had 9Ss
schools giving higher instruction, with
II, 400 instructors, and las, 446 students,
of whom AZ, 663 were women. As the col
leges and seminaries exclusively for
women had but 25.31s students, IL, 345
women were gaining an education with
men, or Al per cent. of the whole num-
Der. The 9SS institutions have "a
plant" of S97, 665, 664. OF this, SS7, 677,-
$40 is in productive funds, which yield
an income of 81 $40, 500, and the students
pay in during the year 81. 43S, $40. Be-
sides these sums 81, ola, 574 was contrib
uted by taxation in 1883, and SIS, 947, 221
added to the endowments. Accepting
the estimate given by Mr.. Thorpe of
the expenses of students. the total cost
of maintaining these institutions is
placed at a per capita cost of 1898, an
absurdly high estimate, even when it is
increased by the interest charge on the
endowment 1t is based on per capita
expenditure of $3.50 per student for
books, board and lodging, an estimate
far larger than the facts warrant There
are hosts of colleges at which the aver
age for their charges is not over $3.50.
If all these institutions really gave
higher education of the first order,
these figures would place the United
States far in advance of other countries
The universities and colleges of the arts
and sciences in 1883 had rs, 1888 students;
scientific schools, 16, los; professional
schools, %, 693, and women's colleges,
25,31S Germany, in 1888, with two
thirds of our population, had &c, 945
students at 20 of its universities, bat,
relative to population, this was probably
fivefold more students than were study
ing subjects of an equal grade in this
country. A statement made a short
time earlier gave the % universities in
Germany 25, 442 students; Austria, 10
universities and 1875 students; En-
gland, universities and colleges,
with 1870 students; France, in its SO
university faculties, Is, 526 students,
three-fourths in Paris; and Italy, 81
universities and 11,72s students This
country has, in it's institutions for high
er education, IL, 900 teachers, almost
to every 10 students. This is far above
the proportion in most European coun-
tries, Germany reaching our average in
its universities But then teachers are
multiplied there by the great range of
instruction, and here by the multitude
of small colleges, which starve their
professors with small salaries and their
pupils with inadequate equipment.
Our college endowments double nearly
every twenty years which is one-half
faster than the growth of population.
Our students do not multiply in this
proportion Prof. Turnan. H. Stafford,
in a paper read before the New England
Association of Colleges and Preparatory
Schools, showed that the ratio of yearly
increase in college attendance is but
five-eighths as fast as that of the in
crease in population Mr.. Andrew Car
negie recently gave great comfort to
half-baked thinkers by saying that he
was unable to see that college men had
any influence in affairs Probably Mr..
Carnegie does not look on the business
of governing the country as an affair of
any importance. In 1888 Senator Ingalls,
pointed out that 80 out of 20 Senators
had received classical education, and
los out of ssS Representatives and Dele
gates In other words, about 200. 600
men out of Sc, O00, 600 furnished the men
who filed third of the House and half
of the Senate of the Nation--Philadel-
phia Press