Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/336

 296 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The total seems enough to stagger any giver, though it was not expected that it would be necessary for any one man to give it all. It included provision, in the way of endowment, buildings and equipment, for Technology, Medicine, Music, and Art, for which it was estimated that seven million, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars would be needed. Up to the close of the first quarter- century nothing had been done in these departments, except some preliminary work in Medicine. With these departments left out the amount required, according to President Harper's estimate, was a little over nineteen million dollars. After the date of the estimate the gifts of Mr. Rockefeller alone aggregated, in the following nine years, more than twenty-five and a half million dollars, lacking only a million of the entire amount the President had estimated would be required for " round- ing out the work of the University upon a satisfactory basis." Such was the munificence of Mr. Rockefeller. But it can never be forgotten that, through all the years of stress and strain, the sheet anchor of the University was, not the munificence only, but also the magnanimity of the Founder. In its first quarter-century the University passed through periods of extraordinary difficulty and of no little peril. It some- times tried the patience and tested the loyalty of its benefactors. But it did not find them wanting. They stood by it in its periods of trial, they carried it triumphantly through all its difficulties, and brought it out "into a wide place," with a great future assured