Tiieir Relation to Higher Educational Finance 
99 
reason can be found for making $100 the limit in 48 institutions, other 
than a lack of funds. In spite of the fact that only two institutions extend 
loans to the amount of $1,000 to one Student, this would seem a sound 
practice. A student who is worth helping at all should be “seen through” 
and it is not conceivable that anything below $500 would be of much 
assistance to him during his four years of College life unless it be for 
emergency purposes. To know how much money should be loaned a 
Student in accordance with the principles of commercial lending, it would 
be necessary to ascertain the cash value of his training and what Propor 
tion of such cash value would come to him during the immediate successive 
years after leaving College. The amount of the loan should also be 
adjusted to the cost of living and the cost of education in the community. 
For instance, it will be necessary for the loans to be larger at Columbia 
University in New York City than at Oberlin College in Ohio. No reliable 
figures on the cash value of an education are available, but it should be 
possible to compile them. Such figures, however, could serve as a guide 
only because they would be averages and the individual cases would 
still have to be estimated in the light of past experiences and costs in the 
individual communities. At any rate, it may be said with certainty that 
if a Student is loaned money at all, the amount should be sufficient to 
relieve him of his financial burdens to such an extent that he may do 
justice to his academic work without impairing his health. Two thousand 
dollars should not be too much of a loan to extend to a Student who has 
good health, is reliable and ambitious, and shows signs of a promising 
future. One institution now has plans under way to do this. Other 
institutions should be able gradually to raise the amount of money loaned 
to one Student as they become more skilled in the selection of the 
risk and as experience with their funds proves that additional money can 
be profitably used for this purpose. Funds will always be forthcoming 
when it can be demonstrated that a useful purpose is being served and 
that the money can be used over and over, thus perpetuating an enter- 
prise which is socially profitable. More funds have not been made avail 
able for student loans because funds in hand have not been administered 
so as to show that they served a useful and specific purpose. The only 
argument therefore which prevents the granting of larger loans to worthy 
students is the lack of funds and this argument has been met. As has 
been said, if loans are properly administered, sufficient funds can be 
obtained eventually and once a student has been granted a loan, he should 
be “seen through“ to the extent of $1,000 to $2,000 unless it is discovered 
in the meantime that the estimate made of him at the time of granting 
former loans is no longer justified.