Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/322

 282 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The information was despatched and the following answer came back without delay: NEW YORK March 31, 1900 President W. R. Harper, University of Chicago: I have secured valid pledges from friends of University sufficient to cover whatever may be found on examination to be the actual shortage in the amount necessary to entitle the University to the full amount of Mr. Rockefeller's pledge of October 30, 1895, and you can therefore announce the success of the movement. F. T. GATES Thus was the greatest financial campaign of the first quarter- century brought to a triumphant issue. The University never inquired who the "friends" referred to in the foregoing letter were. Mr. Rockefeller considered their subscriptions "valid," and as they were paid and duplicated by him the University was more than satisfied. As a result of the great subscription of October 30, 1895, five million dollars came into the treasury of the University. It would naturally be supposed that with this immense addition to its resources the institution would now escape deficits. It would be supposed that most of this great sum must have been added to the endowment. As a matter of fact almost the only part that went into the endowment was one million five hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Rockefeller and a part of Miss Culver's contribution. The greater part of the two millions given by others went into additions to the site, equipment, books, supplies, collections, and new buildings. Three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of Miss Culver's gift was expended on the four Hull Biological Laboratories, and the fund was then withdrawn from use for about sixteen years and allowed to accumulate, the interest being annually added to the princi- pal, so that when it was finally released in 1914, the fund had so increased that it yielded in the neighborhood of forty thousand dollars a year toward the annual expenses of the Biological departments. But for all the period indicated it added nothing to the productive endowment. Of the two millions contributed by Mr. Rockefeller in duplicating the gifts of others, some thirteen hundred thousand dollars went to pay accumulated