Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/98

 72 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO the following day. With much to encourage, there were the inevitable discouragements which always attend efforts of this nature. It was Mr. Gates's task to hold his associate up to the work in spite of these discouragements, to keep him steadily at it day after day, and, rain or shine, to keep him going every day to the last minute of the afternoon. From twenty to thirty calls were often made in a single day. Perhaps one man in three would be found. Of these some would give encouragement and permission to call again. Some would promise subscriptions, but ask for time to make up their minds as to just what they would do. Thus much of the ground had to be gone over from three to six times. The resolution adopted, at the outset, by the meeting which appointed the College Committee, "that a concerted effort be made to raise four hundred thousand dollars during the next sixty days in Chicago and the West," was proposed and passed, not because it was believed that this would be done, but with the thought, that, possibly, the public interest was such that a widespread, volunteer movement might carry the undertaking far on toward success. It was at least worth trying. It would reveal a good many things. And this it did. It was not a success. But it was very far from being a failure. It led many givers to immediate decision and gave the movement a most promising beginning. But it also assured the workers that they had a long and laborious campaign before them. It revealed a deep and widespread interest, but it also demonstrated that success was not to be hoped for through volunteer efforts, but was to be achieved only through a year-long struggle on the part of the two secretaries, by hard days' work continued to the very end of the year's time granted them, and chiefly by hand-to-hand and face-to-face work in the personal solicitation of as many hundreds of individuals as the time given would enable them to see. This work was begun at the very outset and pushed vigorously for two months. There was no hesitation as to where the first appeal must be made, or from whom the larger part of the money to be raised must come. The new institution was to be located in Chicago. It was to be founded under Baptist auspices. It was to be, as far as possible, the contribution of that denomination to the cause of