The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-08-05
RAILROADS AND UNIVERSITIES.

IL dh1 VI oiiC VI CnG
United States are contemplating the en-
dowplent CT educational institutions by
way of requests in their wills and we
hope there are many such-they will
doubtless give serious attention to disas-
ters that have happened to Lehigh Uni
versity and Johns Hopkins University,
founded respectively by Asa Packer and
Johns Hopkins
Stock in the Lehigh Valley railroad
constituted the bulk of acker's magnif-
cent gift It was gilt-edged stock and he
was shrewd financier. He believed the
road would continue to pay steadily in
creasng dividends, so that the university
would be assured of means for the grad
ual enlargement of it's sphere OF useful
ness. The institution prospered greatly
for time, having all the income that it's
managers desired. 1t is said they actu-
ally declined gift of $100,000; but if
that be true, there was probably some
other reason than plethora of cash.
Disagreeable conditions are sometimes
attached to gifts, and that may have
been the reason for this alleged rejection.
at all events, however, the university
went for years under the most favorable
auspices, and it's hosts o; friends had no
apprehensions as to it's future But,
like the father of ''the proud Miss Nc.
Bride" who on zone fatal day became
the unresisting prey for fortunes under
takers, " he whose ''foundered bark when
high and dry among the brokers and
breakers, Lehigh University was hit by
an almost blasting stroke of fate. Three
years ago the Lehigh'' Valley railroad
stopped paying dividends and has not yet
resumed. It stopped Short" like
"grandfather's clock" but whether it
stopped 'never to 20 again" time alone
can tell Since that sad time the univer-
sity has eked out -vretched existence,
living cat poor, dying rate" and has
just been rescued from despair by an APP
preparation of 100000 from the State
treasury. The Baltimore American says
that
when John Hopkins left very con-
siderable part of his endowment for the
university that bears his name in the
stock OF the Baltimore and Ohio railroad,
he was confident that it was as safe as
government bonds. He had absolute
confluence in the solvency and perma-
nency of the property, and with all his
financial knowledge and acumcp he be.
lieved that the value of it would increase.
That great financicrs can make great
mistakes has been illustrated in this
case, as well rs in others. but it has been
Il .,-t,, Al. -.
cause it has clipped it's wings just as 1t
was best prepared to soar If the public
spirited gentlemen who met at the Mel
chants Cluband contributed five years
fund to tide over the misfortunes of the
institution had not raised the S34D, 900,
the work could not have gone on another
year. AS it is, Baltimoreans must be
looking to new sources of income for the
university, il they expect it to measure
up to its higher destiny"
The objection to government bonds as
an endowment for any permanent insti-
tuition is that in few years they mature
and are called in, requiring reinvest-
ment of funds. a man who proposes to
found an institution that IL to last for all
time. naturally desires that the securities
on which it Is to rest shall be permanent
If Johns Hopkins had sold his railroad
stocks and put the money realized there
from into government bonds the income
would have been reduced fully 40 per
cent. by refunding operations ten or tif.
teen years after his death. a permanent
national debt is not desired by the people
OF the United States. They have made
great sacrifices in order to pay off the war
debt, and they hope that before many
years the last bond will be Cancelled But
it cannot be denied that permanent
debt, like that of England, for example,