The age-herald., 1902-04-27
CECIL RHoDEs' REQUESTS.
An Examination of Their Value By
 Prof. Goldwin Smith.

To the Editor of the Philadelphia Press:
 Sir-Any friend of human independence and of the rights of small communities who accepts with rapture the bequests of Cecil Rhodes must, apparently, be act ing on the principle of the utilitarian Elm peror who thought that the scent of gain, from whatever source it came, was al ways sweet. For there can be no doubt that Cecil Rhodes was the prime author of the conspiracy against the lives of the two South African republics. Were I now engaged in administering the affairs of Oxford University I might find myself somewhat in a moral dilemma.
 Are we not altogether rather too gush- ing in our glorification of testamentary benefactors? They give what they can no longer enjoy, while they gain the satisfac- tion of posthumous honor. and of having a part of the fruits of human labor per- petually devoted to the fulillment of their intentions. sometimes. perhaps. of their whims. When their designs are wise and good. they are benefactors of society, but as they sacrifice nothing except possibly, the expectations of their heirs, they can hardly be called munifcent.
 MT. Rhodes paramount design seems plainly to be palitical. His educational policy is subsidiary to his policy of paint
 
 himself as the hero by his directions for his unspeakable tomb. He aims at draw ing Great Britain and the United States into league for the purpose of imposing peace. as 1t Is phrased, upon the world; which, as the world does not want to have anything imposed upon it by any league Is not unlikely in the end to lead to an Armageddon.
 The direct effect however, of MT. Rhodes legacies will be to estrange more or less number of promising American youths from their country. My opinion has been sometimes asked as to the ex- pediency of sending young Americans or Canadians to be educated in England. I have always given it in the negative, holding to be best for youth to be brought up and to have his iedas and sympathies formed in the social and political elements in which his life is to be spent. My opinion would be the same even if I believed that the educa- tion now given at Oxford or Cambridge were superior to that which Is given at a flrst-class American university. But this I do not believe. I believe that the first-class American universities, though differing somewhat in their system and curriculum from Oxford and Cambridge, give, practically, as good an education as we'll as one more suited to American re- quirements. The passion for athletics
 
 in Oxford and Cambridge, the universi- ties of a wealthy and leisure class. while here 1t Is an imitation. Its relation to the proper objects of a university is the same in all cases.
 Oxford and Cambridge have been great ly impoverished by the reduction of agri- cultural rents, and MT. Rhodes millions might have been well bestowed In restor- ing them to abetter financial footing It might have been well bestowed in en- abling earnest students of special sub jtsts to resort to foreign sources of in- struction or to undertake expensive in vestigations. I hardly see what good is to be done by educating certain num- Der of American youths away from their own country.
 I was once as member of a commits sion of inquiry in England engaged in examining into the workings of chari- table foundations. The result was an impression on my part that 1t would be better for each generation. so for as pos sible, to do its own charity. Full of warning were the instances of failure, perversion and abuse when the founder was dead and gone. The British Parlia- ment has now practically adopted the principle that fifty years shall be the limit of invioability for founders will, and that after the expiration of that
 
 of the foundation.
 Oxford and Cambridge founders of col leges indulged their partalities by limit ing their foundations to persons in or ders, natives of favored localities. youths from favored schools or their own kin. It was largely owing to these fancies, which their authors deemed harmless. that Oxford. especially, was doomed to decrepitude for several generations. She would have been far better without the gifts. In our somewhat estetic thanksgiving for the bounty of multi-millionaires who give of their immense superfuities, or part with that which they can no longer keep, we seem to need sometimes to be reminded of the widow and her mite. l heard the other day of domestic serv- ant who had given half her years wages for the relief of a sufferer who was per- .sonally unknown to her, but the tale of whose misery had touched he heart.
 GOLDWIN SMITH Atlantic Citv April TO- 1902