Their  Relation  to  Higher  Educational  Finance

15

ciate  being  dealt  with  in  a  firm  manner,  if  the  firmness  is  of  a  high  type.
They  would  rather  be  looked  upon  as  young  men  who  have  a  business
to  transact  than  mere  boys  who  need  assistance.
Many  objections  will  be  raised  against  the  introduction  of  business
principles  into  Philanthropie  works.  To  refute  these  objections  it  is  possible
to  show  that  most  of  the  great  philanthropists  were  first  great  business
men.  It  is  difficult  to  decide  in  which  role  they  have  accomplished  the
greatest  social  good.  Constructive  philanthropy  of  the  highest  type
approaches  efficient  business  ideals.  They  approach,  at  times,  each  other
so  closely  that  they  are  often  indistinguishable. 5
The  value  to  society  of  good  business  is  so  great  and  philanthropy  so
surrounded  by  risks  that  one  should  hesitate  to  advise  the  successful  shoemaker
  who  is  constantly  striving  to  produce  a  better  pair  of  shoes  to  trade
places  with  the  man  who  is  endeavoring  to  give  away  large  sums  of  money
intelligently.  The  change  might  involve  too  many  possible  changes  of  disappointment,
  if  not  actual  failure. 6
Student  loans  cannot  be  divorced  from  the  business  of  higher  education.
  Higher  education  will  have  to  assume  a  new  form  of  administration
and  such  administration  will  have  to  approach  the  best  forms  of  business
ideals.  Our  universities  and  Colleges  are  now  taking  only  emergency
measures  and  accomplishment  is  lagging  far  behind  opportunity.  They
will  have  to  adopt  in  an  intelligent  and  earnest  fashion  more  business-like
methods  of  Organization  in  Order  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  rapidly  changing
  conditions  of  American  life.  Institutions  of  higher  learning  can  meet
these  demands  by  radical  reorganization. 7  The  faculty  must  be  faculty
and  the  business  officers  must  be  allowed  to  be  business  officers.  The
President  must  be  a  unique  individual.
America  has  a  different  problem  to  meet  in  higher  education  than
Europe.  Ours  is  a  young  and  rapidly  changing  society;  Europe  is  an  old
and  more  or  less  static  one.  Since  our  universities  and  Colleges  are  failing
to  keep  in  advance  of  changing  conditions,  they  must  either  take.  bold
and  rapid  steps  forward,  perish,  or  remain  a  remnant  of  the  past—a  haven
for  slumbering  scholars.
New  financial  policies  will  become  necessary.  The  individual,  at  the
time  he  receives  his  education,  will  be  called  upon  to  pay  a  larger  Proportion ­
  of  the  cost.  If  a  sufficient  amount  of  additional  funds  is  to  be  secured
to  carry  on  the  changed  Organization,  the  objectives  of  the  university  and
College  will  have  to  be  shown  to  be  useful,  commercially  sound,  returning
a  reasonable  rate  of  interest  or  some  combination  of  these  objectives.  These
values  are  not  necessarily  commercial  values  only,  for  usefulness  may  be
6  W.  E.  Harmon,  “Business  versus  Philanthropy”,  Harmon  Foundation  Bulletin,  Sept.,  1925
p.  4.
8  Ibid.,  p.  5.
7  Similar  Statements  have  been  attributed  to  Dr.  R.  Pound  and  Dr.  A.  Flexner  in  an
Editorial  in  the  New  York  World,  Oct.  4,  1925.