Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/365

 FURTHER EXPANSION 321 tially educational value. It was understood that, in many cases, these books, whose intrinsic value made their publication desirable, would never yield a profit. A committee was formed whose duty it was to examine works offered for publication. If they were found to be of little educational and scientific value they were refused. If, on the other hand, they were distinctly worthy they were recommended to the Trustees for publication. And in such cases the fact that they might not pay the expense of publishing did not shut them out from favorable consideration. It is not to be understood that the books published by the University Press were never financially profitable. Large numbers of books were issued at the expense of the authors. Very many were profitable ventures. But they were not always paying ventures and were not always expected to be. They were books worth printing and were a part of the educational service of the University to the world. The books published during the first quarter-century numbered above eight hundred and fifty, of which seven hundred or more were still in print at the end of that period. By the scholars of the University the establishment of the journals and the pub- lishing work of the Press were regarded as a stroke of genius on President Harper's part. It is certainly true that the example of the University was widely followed by other institutions. The University began to grow during its first year. The number of its students increased rapidly. With this increase of students the number of instructors naturally and, indeed, neces- sarily increased. This natural growth is not here treated as expansion. It cannot be divided into distinct steps. It was con- tinuous, natural, and, under the circumstances, inevitable. It was one of the results of those successive steps in expansion which are here presented and which were so marked a characteristic of the early history of the University. Among these steps none were more pronounced than the establishment of new depart- ments of instruction. The addition of a department was in every sense of the word a new step in expansion. Not less so was the division of a single department into two or more. This did not always look like expansion at the moment. It looked rather like a simple and more natural rearrangement of departments. No very