The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-11

or possibly the first step in the direction of the notifications or changes which ulti-
 mately may lead to the creation of een- tral institution of issue and federated
 thanking system
 As the board was unanimous in deciding
 upon these changes it was regarded here as certain that already this central au-
 thority is feeling it's way toward a higher
 and better development of the system
 The ablest bankers of this city. as well as
 those Of St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis and in the south, are now persuaded that
 the federal reserve system was not born
 perfect, but that perfection will come only
 after lessons of experience are learned.
 There is one feature of this action spoken Of with qualification in this financial dis
 trict. for it is said that the federal reserve
 board at Washington has from the begin
 ming. and is now directing the system
 without any thought of political advan- tage, but with the sole purpose of making the system adequate for the country's s needs
 A Ten Million Dollar Institution
 Trustees of some of the larger universi-
 ties have within the past 10 years observed that the disposition of men of wealth to
 contribute handsomely to funds for the endowment of medical schools or for pro-
 fessicnal chairs in these schools has be- come very marked. Harvard recently re-
 ceved from James Stillman large sum
 of money for the use of it's medical school.
 Oliver Payne is understood to have con-
 tributed handsomely to the medical school of Cornell university. The Vanderbilt family has in one way or another made Inunificent gifts to medical schools. The presumption is that the trustes of Colum- bia university were not moving in the dark or inspired simply by hope when they decided to undertake the establish ment in New York of the largest medical school in the world. Not less than S7,5o0. 900 will be needed and it is fair inference that the trustees have knowledge of some men of wealth who will within five years make it possible to secure this sum. Prob ably as much as $l0,0000OO will be needed before the institution realizes the high plans of Columbia university trustees. Great as this amount is it is more than matched by the contributions John D. Rockefeller has made and presumably is to continue to make to the institution identified by his name in which research i in medical fields is carried on. Already the achievements of the men of science who have carried on research work in this 1 instittuion-for instance. pr. Carrell, Dr. Flexner and others--have fully justified, i in MT. Rockefeller's opinion. not only from | philanthropic. but from an economic point of view, the great endowment which
 made the institution possible For the medical application of the discoveries of Flexner Carrel and others is likely to do as much not only for the cure, but for the prevention of disease as some of the his l toric discoveries have already done. That means from the economic point of view a great deal to the nation and, in fact, to 1, the world.
 | Very likely the Columbia Medical school
 when enlarged will be directed in full CO., operation with the Rockefeller institution, although of course the management of the ] two will be entirely independent. The CO., l operation will be in the form of utilizing results and opportunities for observation and study.