The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-11
Vanderbilt University

l Now that Vanderbilt university, lo- teated at Nashville, has practically passed 1 from the control of the Methodist Episco- pal church, south, and is to be in future classed among the undenomnational in- stitutions. few facts about its history will be of interest,"" said professional 1 man.
 "The charter of the university was l taken out in 1872 with the name of Cen | tral university. In 1873 Cornelius Wander l hilt--the old 'commodore,' whose second wife was Mrs. Crawford of Mobile-made | donation of $500000 to the institution, | and the name was then changed to Van derblt university. MT. Vanderbilt in- l creased his donation to s1. .OooAo0. The uni versity began work in 1875 with four de- l rartments-law, medicine, theology and arts As Chancellor Kirkland tells us, the growth of the institution was made
 possible by continued gifts from various
 members of the Vanderbilt family.
 William II. Vanderbilt, son of the com modore, gave for buildings and endow-
 ments something like s500,000. Cornelius 1 Vanderbilt, grandson of the founder, al- | though an active member of the Episcopal | church, made donations amounting to l S10O000. William K. Vanderbilt erected | a handsome dormatory accommodating l 200 students, and named it Nissan hall | in honor of his mothvr, who was Maria I Louise Nissan Vanderbilt. Other philan- | thropists have made liberal dona tions in recent years
 1 "Bishop H. NJ. McTyeire was the first president of the board of trustees, and as such was chief executive officer of | the university until his death in 1889. 1 After his death the chancellor succeeded l to most of his duties and responsibilities. | The first chancellor was Dr. Landon C.. l Garland. who was succeeded in 1893 by Dr.
 j. II. Kirkland. The university has a 1 library of 00o0 volumes. The student
 body numbers 1l5. In the number Of
 students it ranks. believe. third or
 fourth in the list of southern universities. The University of Alabama has a student l body of 1250, and Tulane has nearly 2o00. l The south and It's Resources l Richard H. Edmonds, editor of the Bal
 timore Manufacturers Record made an Illuminating address few nights ago at the annual banquet of the Richmond chap I ter of the American Institute of Banking, | his theme being The South. the Worlds
 Greatest Bank" He began by saving that nature had given to the south a bank with a larger capital and larger deposits than any bank ever created by man. The capi- | tai and deposits of this bank, he said. are available for the enlargement of busi- urlf enrich not simply an empire, but world. After discussing in detail some of the l south's great natural resources-minerals,
 timber. agriculture and rivers, which are
 being harnessed for the production of hydro-electric power. MT. Edmonds closed thus eloquently: 1 If the south's rate of progress as meas
 ured by percentage of growth during the
 next third of a century shall be no great
 CT than the rate of growth in the United States during the last third of century.
 and It is moving much more rapidly in percentage of growth with the momentum
 of modern times. then 90 years from now this section will be producing N4000. 600, ,OO0
 worth of agriculture, as against 5000, ,000,
 GOO for the United States at present Under
 the same percentage of growth it will
 have s2s,0oo OOo,0O0 capital invested in man.
 ufactures as compared with about $2O.
 600, GOO for the United States at present. and it's national banks will have resources
 of $11. .0O0 O00. .O00 or just about the aggre- gate resources of all the national banks oi the United States in 1912. At that time.
 based on this average percentage of growth the individual deposits in all the
 souths financial institutions would be SIS. GOO, ,000,00O
 Fortunate indeed are the people who. whether by choice or by the accident of birth, are dwellers in a region so fav- |ored by nature. They are stockholders in the worlds greatest bank. As they
 draw on its limitless deposits of soil
 climate, minerals. timbers and water pow
 CTS, their stock will be ever enhancing in
 value and millions yet unborn will grow rich out of this bank of southern re- rsources."
 TIME FOR BUSINESS OPTIMISM
 From the New York Times.
 In the opinion of The Sun the country has been gloomy long enough about Amer ~z~-