New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-18
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
TO THE SMALL COLLEGES.
Where Part of the Rockefeller Gift
Should Go.
Tn the Editor of The Tribune.

predictions and city preJCdices, and they ignore
the great work that the country colleges are do
ing in their localities in creating as we'll sup
plying demand for education. Not only are they
giving an education 10 youths who are country
born but they helping the cities by sending
20 them strong educated men, of virile strength,
clean lives and high ideals. The successful men
of cities. not a few. born in country
homes and educated in country schools and col
leges while a large proportion. if not majority,
Of the distinguished statesmen and men of af-
fairs who have shaped national and civic
life received their diplomas from the country
colleges. which are regarded by the Rockefeller
trustees with almost Contemptuous indifference.
Granted that there is much I'm the life of cities
(which IS intellectually stimulating, the city is Il
place Of distractions and Is not conducive to a
scholars meditations There be only little
Of what Is called the college atmosphere while
the commerciaism which saturates city life
lowers the students ideals and raises false
standards Of life. Not all the great universities
arc IN great cities. oxford. Cambridge. Heidel-
berg are not IN great cities. BowdoIn is in a
email town. but no college has a more distin-
c7,ishod alumni Hamilton IS I'm a little village.
but its graduates are Of large celebrity. Will
fans has no superior among American colleges,
sud vet II IS located among the hills. Amherst
IS in q small town, and Columbia, with all its
riches and its honorable fame. does not in its
mast or present student clientage approximate
Dartmouth, situated in little New Hampshire
town. The trustees have given catalogue Of
the cities where their fund should establish COL
leges. Buffalo and Brooklyn are cities. Are
these cities OF immense wealth so poor either IN
money or civic pride that they need TO be pau
oerized by this trust fund? They are located in
centres Of wealth. There IS no city in the
country where there is larger local pride than
Chicago It's millionaires made the great White
City, destined for single seasons life Was IL
mot able 10 build and maintain its own uni
versity without foreign help? Yale and Har-
ward have received sums sufficient TO double the
efficiency Of half the country colleges, OF Lne
country and yet they have countless nllloIlaILeS
among their alumni have immense Teeouloes
end are located IN great centres or Wea!lh anu
among people whose zeal for learning anu l'S III
stltutions is proverbial.
What about the country colleges 1hen en-
dowlnents pitiaby smal-less man IIle gls
rual income of many of the city universities
They have as high standards as the city COL
ieges Their I'll paid professors are men o.
sbility industry and conservation IhelF sL ~
yates in competition with city graduates se !i
are unsuccessful. while their students IN haIuiaI
and acquired gifts at least the peers OF CITY
horn and CITY educated men.
The country colleges are located IN agrl-
cultural regions. There is no wealth there
Wealth comes from commerce. manufactures
snd +ba exchanges with their combinations
They cannot be endowed by their local client.
age. And yet these colleges are in the nlost Oh
80
hut they nurture hardy sors' they have heaItn
and the blessed inheritance OF poverty; they
cannot 20 far away for an education; they must
coin the sweat Of the burrows into learning anu
that which they win by sacrifice they prize
The desire Of learning and the suggestion 81 II
are made by the college which is in their midst
rThev cannot go 70 the distant cities for their
college course; distance and expense are pro-
nibitive The cost of a full college course in a
country college IS hardly more than the ex-
penses Of a single year in city college. Inc
statement Of the trustees or the iuhd that 1heIe
,r n-~r iF,p
that do not exist in the country Is tallacious:
Every college course assumes the full tme OF
the student. Every hour diverted by outslde
tasks is at the expense Of the work for when
he goes TO college. and robs his course or It's
value and efficiency.
The congesting Of population in cities! Is II de-
sirable to drain from the country us aspiring
and ambitious youth and give them the fever OF
city life. with its distractions, dlsslpallons ana
The cities can make and care for their own
institutions The wealth OF the nation IS there.
Men most easily give 10 the institutions with
which they familiar and which they see,
The hospitals are munihcently cared for by local
pride. and Buffalo and Brooklyn and every one
Of the one hundred cities which the trustees
think should have colleges are able TO nulId lheT
own colleges and VIII 90 so Nheh 'ht.E WiSli
them without the humiliation % their PRIDE ana
destruction OF their civic spirit, without any doIe
Of charity from the Rockefeller fund Let the
local yrfIIionair who are unaCuuanted with the
poor country colleges and seldom give to them
care for their own, and let this fund go where u
be most helped by it, ] am associated with a
small country college II is the most northern col
iege in the state. It Is the only college bet"eeh
the Central Railway and Montreal ana peINeeH
the St Lawrence River and the Green NOUN
tains II IS in a territory larger than many 81
our states There IS not one large city IN an
this great empire. The region IS agricultural
and consequently without wealth. The popu!a-
zion IS almost entirely a native stock
The endowment Of this college Is pitfuHy
rneaRre but II has nearly a thousand graz
yates more than one hundred Of them In New
York CITY They honorable men ana women
some of them Of large distinction. but TOO young
ss vet 70 have acquired wealth. It has with
great sacrifice made for itself n good plant.
and II contracts no debts. One hundred thou
sand dollars would enrich II and S2o0OOO would
double its efficiency. But II cannot he secured
from the locality 1t IS not here and the hard
conditions Of the Rockefeller Fund, which re-
quires that any gift made must be matched by
three times the amount from It's friends, is i'm
possible. and colleges which can meet such con
6tions do not need the gift and ought not 70
receive g. The avowed policy Of the trustees
N enrich 2 few favored colleges with large
gifts in the hone that they Will XII off the
weaker colleges. IS not simply an unwise policy
y IS crime against the best educational inter
ests Of the country. The survival 0f the largest
IS not a survival Of the httest, and a policy Of
deliberate destruction Of colleges whose only Of
fence Is their poverty viii make TINS lund
curse and not a blessing 10 the country.
There is no institution where money can be so
wisely invested in the small colleges. A col
leEs seldom dies It grows strong. not weak
They are forever preserved. They educate those
who are TO make the future, and a sum Of money
which in great college would simply add an
other frill 70 already over decorated course
would double the resources and enrich a small
college whose work is in no wise inferior 10 the
great institutions Without dtsparaging the
great universities and acknowledging the merits
Of the public spirited gentlemen who are adrnln-
istering this fund. and the splendid munif1cence
% Mr. Rock efeIler put in my plea for the small
colleges, Of which there are many deserving ones