New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-20
ROCKEFELLER FUND
POLICY ANNOUNCED
Board Plans Systematic
Cooperation with De-
nOminational Schools.
URGES IMPORTANCE
OF ENDOWMENTS
Directors Plan to Give Prefer.
ence to Centres of Wealth
and Population.

Three main features which govern
the policy of the General Education
Board, founded by John d. Rockefeller,
in making gifts TO colleges and univer-
sites, are discussed at length in the
second instalment of the report made
public yesterday. They are:
Preference for centres of wealth and
population as the pivots of the system.
Systematic and helpful cooperation
with religious denominations. .Concen-
tration of gifts in the form Of endow-
ment.
q Much stress is placed on the matter
of endowment, and the report states
that of the,hundreds on educational in
.stitutions in existence when the board
was established, thirty-four, privately
founded, had endowments of 100000 or
more. OF these, twenty-three were IN
cities and growing towns and had ST.
100000 and $4,000 students. The other
eleven had Sl3,000,000- and less than
5000 students. The other 400 or more
with smaller endowments were nearly
all situated in rural communities,
where the struggle for means and
students was a hard one.
Moved, therefore, by the fore going
facts and considerations" the .eport
goes on to say, "the General Education
Board has by preference selected for
assistance institutions situated within
field where students could easily be
procured, where the fostering care of a
prosperous community could be counted
on and where an appetite for knowl-
edge and culture could be readily
stimulated and gratified. At the same
time it has not passed by other instr
tutions, otherwise located"
While religious bodies have unwisely
overmultiplied colleges, thus scattering
students and resources, the board gives
them credit for having organized and
sustained most of the really substan-
tial private foundations. This loyalty
has as a rule not ceased when the de-
nominational relationship ended. These
instances are cited:
"Ysle, founded and long controlled by
ConFregationalists, is still their pride,
even though in scope and ideal il has
little in common with the small college
to provide an educated min
istry for the denomination. Princeton
owes as much to Presbyterianism
Brown to the Baptists. Of the newer
colleges and universities out of which
the future Harvards, Yales, Princetons
and Browns must come, most of them
are Of UNCONVENTIONAL origin, and most
are still the objects of UNCONVENTIONAL
care
Hence, the report states, the develop
ment of a system Of higher education
in the United States requires constant
and sympathetic cooperation with de-
organizations. Only thus
can certain promising institutions be
aided.
On this matter Of endowment the
board feels that an efficient college
should enjoy an income covering from
40 to 90 per cent of its annual eXpen-
diture. 1t was therefore decided that
the gifts of the General Education
Board should be made to endowment,
and on such terms as were calculated
to draw further funds and to arouse
other interests in the selected institu-
tons. 1t was felt, also, that buildings,
grounds, apparatus and scholarships
could all be more readily obtained
through gifts. than could the endow-
ment necessary to meet the expenditure
they entailed.