Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-14
INDUSTRIES STAKE
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Interest Big Business in
What IL Is Doing

What Il Is Doing
CONSIDERATION of the Importance of
~ providing a proper honorarium for
Provost Smith, of the University of
Pennsylvania when he retires next June
should occupy the minds of the friends
of the institution along with many
larger questions cf future policy to be
carried out by his successor.
Provost Smith should be taken care of
by the University He has devoted his
life to the work of one of the poorest paid
professions in the country. The value of
the services that he has rendered to the
world cannot be measured by dollars.
We say the world because the Univer-
sity is not merely a local institution. 1t
has attracted to it between two and three
hundred students every year from for
eign countries as well as other hundreds
from other states than Pennsylvania.
The man who has directed its scho-
lastic functions and grown old in the
harness must not be cast aside like a
worn-out machine. The remaining years
of the life of Provost Smith-and every
one hopes that they may be many-can
be made pleasant for him and profitable
to the community if the trustees pay to
him dividends on that which he has con-
tributed to its maintenance in the way of
devoted service during more than a
generation. 1t is unthinkable that they
will not do this.
But the trustees must keep their eyes
on the future and prepare for the work
that is to be done. An example of one
way by which they can serve the Uni
versity now and qualify themselves to
give better service to it in the coming
years is afforded by what happened at
Brown University yesterday.
This prosperous Rhode Island college
is doing its best to increase its endow-
ment by $3,000,000. In order to get the
benefit of the advice of the leading men
of the state or the best way to increase
the usefulness of the institution to its
constituency dinner was given yester-
day to $50 distinguished men living
within its territory. Formal speeches
were made by three of them and there
was an informal discussion afterward.
1t is certain that the trustees and faculty
know more today about the attitude of
these men toward higher education than
they knew yesterday, for they have taken
the college out of its clustered seclusion
and brought it into contact with the cur
rents of contemporary thinking.
The University of Pennsylvania, in
spite of its magnificent work and in spite
of its great growth in the last twenty
five years, has been handicapped because
of the failure to make a concerted and
deliberate effort to interest in it all the
men controlling the great industries in
this commonwealth. Its endowment is
inadequate. 1t has to look to the state
treasury every two years for an appro-
priation to assist it in meeting its annual
deficit.
There is wealth enough here to free
the University from the need of appeal
ing to politicians who control the Legis-
lature biennially and to epdow it so
amply that the threat of cutting off its
income can never be made. And there
are other than political reasons for an
adequate endowment. The money is
needed to enable the University to carry
on its work in all departments, whether
they be affected by a relation to politics,
to art or science or literature.
The first step toward articulating the
life of the University with the life of the
commonwealth would be taken if meet
ing of professional and industrial leaders
connected with its business life should be
invited to a dinner in one of the buildings
on the campus to discuss its future in
connection with the selection of a new
provost.
Governor Sproul and Mayor Moore
should be among the guests. Others
should be men like John Wanamaker and
Ellis Gimbel, E. T. Stotesbury and John
Mason, L. L. Rue and Charles S. Calwell,
merchants and bankers; Samuel Vau-
CLAIM, of Baldwin's; Joseph Mccall, of
the Philadelphia Electric Company; Sam
uel T. Bodine, of the United Gas I'm
provement Company; j. Howell Cum
mngs, of the John B. Stetson Company;
Samuel Rea, of the Pennsylvania Rail
road, are others whose names will occur
to any one making out list of the kind
of guests to be invited. Then Charles NJ
Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Com
pany, and f. H. Gary, Percival Rob-
erts, Jr., and Thomas Morrison, of the
United States Steel Corporation, who
have increased their wealth because Of
the productivity of Pennsylvania, ought
to be included. And the committee in
charge should not forget men like T.
De Witt Cuyler, S. D. Warriner, A. C.
Dinkey and w. W. Atterbury.
1t is not necessary to particularize
further. This column could be filled with
the names of men who, whether they
know it or not, are vitally interested in
the unshackling of the University and in
equipping it so that it can expand to
meet the growing needs of the future.
On the merely technical side it would be
a good investment for these men to pro-
vide for the training of experts needed
in their business. In science, for exam
pie, a representative Of the du Points
told congressional committee the other
day that it was impossible to get chem
lists enough to do the work which they
wanted done. The war has demonstrated