Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/335

 THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS BENEFACTORS 295 it, he never failed to respond affirmatively and liberally. Perhaps no man ever disliked to give under a sense of compulsion more than did Mr. Rockefeller, but he was, even under these circumstances, able to make a virtue of necessity, and not only to give munificently, but to do this graciously as well. When this was all long past, and he could give on his own initiative, without request or sug- gestion from President Judson or the Trustees, then it was that he made his greatest offering. And throughout the twenty-one and a half years of his giving to the University he gave with a princely liberality and in a princely spirit. In a recent publication, the Saturday Evening Post, of April 10, 1915, Mr. Rockefeller has said: The sole motive underlying the various foundations that I have established has been the desire to devote a portion of my fortune to the service of my fellow-men. The experience of the authorities of the University with him assures them of his absolute sincerity in making this statement. In the article from which the above statement is quoted he spoke thus of his contributions to the University: It has been a pleasure to me to make these contributions, but that pleasure has arisen out of the fact that the University is located in a great center of empire; that it has rooted itself in the affections and interest of the people among whom it is located ; that it is doing a great and needed work ; in fine, that it has been able to attract and to justify the contributions of its patrons, east and west. Toward the end of the year 1901 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., requested President Harper to submit to him estimates of the sum that would be required "for rounding out the work of the Uni- versity upon a satisfactory basis." The President prepared a statement containing thirty-eight separate items, but summarized as follows: 1. Capitalization of deficit $6,000,000 2. New land 2,310,000 3. New buildings 7,600,000 4. Equipment and Libraries 1,275,000 5. Endowment 7,450,000 6. University Press and Extension 1,000,000 7. Pension Endowment Fund 1,000,000 $26,635,000