The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-23
PEN MOUTHS AND CLOSED EYES
TO THE GIFTS OF THE RICH.
BY T. b. KINGSBURY.

The able British Review" confines
it's own line of thought to the abound
ing endowment of the rich, and COM
plains of results. 1t thinks it sees
much to censure, for it says with. en-
phasis and clarity that strained ac-
tivity of academic machinery, waste
full competition in volume of intellec-
tual output, and a marked subordina-
ton of the slower, finer, less demon
strable processes of disintereSted Gull
ture to the quicker, cruder, more
SNOWY forms of unitarian achieve
| ment, are plain effects of higher edu-
cation which reflects the valuations of
| the nouveaux riches who supply the
funds" 1t thinks that there is really
| peril hanging over the educational
methods and the influx of money. OF
| course it is not always and everywhere
| evil that is produced by the great be-
| StoWments of the very rich, for good
comes in many instances from 1T, but
| it holds that these instances are posi-
| bly, rare, and so says but only when
the acquisitive aptitude is conJoined
with some higher tastes and FAR
| sighted discrimination of values" But
| the far more numerous cases are not
of this kind but are found where
pride of patronage, pressure of public
! opinion indulgence of fad, loose SEN
timentalism, are the dominant mo-
| tives,'' and it is then that I'VE shall
| come nearer to recognition OF the
peril of higher education directed by
| milliOnaireS.
| The thoughtful critic does not over
| look the ways in which great estates
are made. He sees that it has come
to pass that there is shutting of eyes
and an opening Of mouths in view or
the offerings of the rich. l must
trench on my space once more TO re-
produce what is said on this line or
thought-accepting gifts and being
blind to the way the fortunes were &C
cumulated. Hear the English writer:
! What matter how the money comes
if we have the spending OF it? repre-
sents the 'common-sense view which
/, is prevalent. If We adopt this com
nonsense view refusing to enter
| into origins or motives, and accepting
donations from all sources, we are
bound TO defend the position thai
| origins and motives can exercise nc
appreciably injurious influence on
uses Now is it a true or a reason
able proposition that dependence upon
the large benefactions of contempora-
ries has no tendency to injure the eff
ficiency of a university, and in particu-
lar to impair it's liberty of teaching
! On these important questions recent
American experience is closely rele-
i want.
The influence of millionaireism in
Eeducation is subtle, for as the critic
truly says. giving a common saying
that "he who pays the piper calls the
tune" and it can apply to educational
4 as to other matters, politics as well
Rich givers do not try to publicly
regulate the plans of the institutions
favored by them. 1t is not that fol
l there may never be any such "explici,
conditions" but influences may never
theless be exerted. The British writer
who visited the United States says thai
sin well-informed academic circles IL
:. America / heard many instances of les
4 open and direct interference will
liberty of teaching, indicating that mu
nificent donors were not Indifferent u
the uses to which their donations Wer'
put" ,aa,ono