The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-18
THIRTY YEAPS OF PROGRESS.


THIRTY YEAPS OF PROGRESS.
The present commencement season,
completing the thirtieth year of Presi-
dent Eliot's administration at Harvard,
has called forth several retrospects,
showing the progress of education in
the college and in the United States
within that period President Eliot
himself has been written up in the
magazines both as an administrator
and a radical reformer in educational
methods. But to the average reader
nothing is so enlightening as concrete
facts for demonstrating growth, Wheth-
er it be of factory, a city, a political
party or college. The growth of
Harvard, rapid as it has been, is only
typical of the advance of the whole
country, and, therefore, comparison of
the present with the past is instructive.
Thirty years ago the college had 1913
students in all departments This year
it has 1901. aside from Radcliffe College
(411) and the 759 summer students
Then there were 60 teachers in the uni
versity; now, All. Where there once
was q teacher for every Is students,
there is now one for every H. Within
thirty years, moreover twenty-seven
buildings have been added to the col
.lege property, not to mention various
engagements and such decorative fea-
lures as the Johnston and Meyer gates.
In 1869 the college funds amounted to
81, 2579S9. Last July these funds were
appraised at $40, 23O, $50. Meanwhile
the annual income has risen from $212,-
3SS to $1,241, S99. Gifts and requests for
all purposes from 1869 to 1899 have
amounted to $10,15O,OOO, an average of
$S4O 900 a year.
Thirty years ago ten professors re-
ceived salaries of $4,000 each, and that
was the highest figure, except in the
case of Louis Agassiz and two or three
others who received $3.50. Even James
Russell Lowell had only $4,000 year.
Now a professors maximum salary is
S5000 an assistant professors $4,000.
while instructors and tutors get from
$500 to $1,000 a year. The number of
books in the main library has increased
from 121, 900 volumes to $500, besides
as many pamphlets, while the depart
ment libraries raise the total number
of volumes to- 524, 700.
There has been a no less remarkable
change as regards the students. In
1859 about $4,000 was paid out in scho-
larships to deserving students. Now
the annual disbursement for that pur-
pose foots up more than $71,0O0 and
last year 352 students received the ben
eft of the funds. The development
has been scarcely less striking in So
cial life and in athletics. The athletic
association takes in annually about
$4,000 at the gate, while the student
with polo ponies, dog cart, dachshund
and $4,000 a year in pocket money is a
manifestation of flush times such as
was undreampt of thirty years ago
Some of these matters are of trivial
Importance in themselves, while the
significance of others calls for no ex-
PLANTATION. Taken together, meagre as
this enumeration of changes NAV. seem
the statistics show not only the Won
derfuI increase of the university in
wealth and students, but also give
some hint of the diversi1cation of in
terests that has come about in the life
n or Mt Of h.
Not long before Charles William Eli
OF was chosen president, he was select
ed by certain shrewd business. men in
Boston as superintendent or local agent
for the largest and oldest Of the cotton
mills in Lowell. A skilful administra-
tor was what they wanted The SALARY,
was three times as large as was then
paid to the president of Harvard and
far greater than the young man could
reasonably expect to earn in any pro-
fessorship. Eliot was then only a
years of age, and the offer was tenon+
ing. but he resolved to stick to his rro-
fession, and soon he became q nrofee-
scr of chemistry in the newly organized
Institute of Technology. -Four or five
years later, when the presidents chair
at Harvard became vacant. the same
Lowell mill directors were members Of
the Harvard corporation. Believing
that the greatest need Of the college
was an able administrator and an adn-
cationaf refofmer, such as Eliot's mac
azine articles had proclaimed him 10
be, they pressed him for the office. and
after some effort succeeded in electing
him. The history Of the past thirty
years is the best proof of the wisdom
Of the selection.