26
A Study of Student Loans and
for higher education during the last year by three inviduals and does not
include the many other gifts and commitments which will be found to
amount to several million. If the amounts donated for research and the
advancement of knowledge to institutes and foundations, other than uni-
versities and Colleges (and such research should be classed as part of
higher education), were added, the gifts and bequests in the United States
in the year 1924-25 may be well over $150,000,000.
Reliability of Philanthropie Sources in the Future
In speaking on this subject, Lord Bryce said that the people of
England who usually endow Colleges can no longer give in the generous
sums to which they have been accustomed; that the taxation of incomes
and inheritances is taking half the property of the rieh; that the same
conditions prevail in America where income taxes and other forms of
taxation are lessening the available income of many people by one-half;
and that only the possessors of very great fortunes can still give in large
amounts. 14 As against this, Dr. C. F. Thwing, President Emeritus of
Western Reserve University, maintains that the fear among certain College
people in America that the race of rieh men will die out and so be unable
to give in large sums is not well founded, because new sources of revenue
are continually being discovered.
It is difficult to reconcile these two views. The facts in the case
support neither one as stated. An increasing amount of money has been
set aside each year by philanthropy for higher education, but while these
amounts received from private sources have increased, and there is no
reason to suppose that they will not continue to do so for some time, still
the needs have outrun the sources by leaps and bounds and accomplish-
ment seems to be lagging far behind opportunity. 15 It is not a question
of how much is nerw being received and is to be received, in an absolute
way, but what proportion the receipts bear to the expenditures necessary
to move forward at a pace commensurate with opportunity and need for
the development of higher learning. This Situation demands more than
just increased endowments or appropriations. It is doubtful if it
could be met in this way. Although more money is essential, alone
and unaided by farseeing management, it will scarcely serve to meet pres
ent and future needs. 10 What is necessary in higher education is a proper
financial as well as an educational program. Such a program must not
only budget the income available, but should budget according to the
14 Quoted by C. F. Thwing in “Support of Higher Education,” School and Society, March
19, 1921, p. 356.
15 Editorial, “Cost of Higher Education,” Educational Review, Sept. 1920, p. 173.
10 Ibid., p. 173.