Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/362

 318 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO twenty- three thousand, five hundred dollars. This, of course, was only the beginning. The development of the department, with its great telescope, its splendid Observatory, its staff of astronomers, was inevitable. It would have been a palpable absurdity to have provided so wonderful an equipment and made no adequate use of it. Such use was made of it. Distinguished astronomers were engaged. The young Director, Mr. Hale, quickly made a great name for himself, and in 1905 was called away to take charge of the great observatory on Mount Wilson, California. Houses were built at Lake Geneva for the astronomers. The work of the Observa- tory increased, and its services to the science of astronomy were conspicuous. The University could not withhold the necessary facili- ties. The inevitable result was that expenditures increased from year to year till they approximated forty thousand dollars annually. The great contribution of Mr. Yerkes, therefore, so honorable to him, and so acceptable to the University, occasioned an expansion of its work requiring an endowment of nearly or quite a million dollars to carry it on, all of which came in due time. This was the first of the further steps in expansion. The second step was the inauguration of the policy of publish- ing departmental journals. President Harper held very strong views as to the desirability of this step. It is not too much to say that he regarded the establishment of such journals as an essen- tial feature of a true University. He had determined to make it a prominent feature of the University of Chicago. His ideal of a university professor was that he should be much more than a teacher of students. He made it understood that this ideal pro- fessor would also be an investigator and a producer. Instruction, research, production, all these were essential. At the March, 1894, Convocation he said: The University has organized its staff in two divisions. One division gives instruction in the University; the other gives instruction away from the University. Of members of both divisions production is expected. The amount of instruction required by the statutes of the University is compara- tively small. It has been made small in order that men might have time to do a kind of work, the influence of which will be felt abroad as well as at home. It is the duty of every officer to consider carefully whether his individual work is arranged in such a manner as that he shall be able to perform his full