Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/83

Rh we find state neglect; we are in a region where it is nobody's business to see that anything is done.

We in Great Britain have thirteen universities competing with 134 state and privately endowed in the United States and 22 state endowed in Germany. I leave other countries out of consideration for lack of time, and I omit all reference to higher institutions for technical training, of which Germany alone possesses nine of university rank, because they are less important; they instruct rather than educate, and our want is education. The German State gives to one university more than the British Government allows to all the universities and university colleges in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales put together. These are the conditions which regulate the production of brain-power in the United States, Germany and Britain respectively, and the excuse of the government is that this is a matter for private effort. Do not our Ministers of State know that other civilized countries grant efficient state aid, and further, that private effort has provided in Great Britain less than 10 per cent, of the sum thus furnished in the United States in addition to state aid? Are they content that we should go under in the great struggle of the modern world because the ministers of other states are wiser, and because the individual citizens of another country are more generous, than our own?

If we grant that there was some excuse for the state's neglect so long as the higher teaching dealt only with words, and books alone had to be provided (for the streets of London and Paris have been used as class rooms at a pinch), it must not be forgotten that during the last hundred years not only has knowledge been enormously increased, but things have replaced words, and fully equipped laboratories must take the place of books and class rooms if university training worthy of the name is to be provided. There is much more difference in size and kind between an old and a new university than there is between the old caravel and a modern battleship, and the endowments must follow suit.

What are the facts relating to private endowment in this country? In spite of the munificence displayed by a small number of individuals in some localities, the truth must be spoken. In depending in our country upon this form of endowment, we are trusting to a broken reed. If we take the twelve English university colleges, the forerunners of universities unless we are to perish from lack of knowledge, we find that private effort during sixty years has found less than 4,000,000l., that is, 2,000,000l. for buildings and 40,000l a year income. This gives us an average of 166,000l. for buildings and 3,300l. for yearly income.

What is the scale of private effort we have to compete with in regard to the American universities?

In the United States, during the last few years, universities and