LEWIS A. KALBACH, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, D. C.

T

HE institutions for higher education in the United States may be divided into three general classes: state, denominational, and non-denominational. Many of the institutions now classed as non-denominational were established originally by some one religious denomination or by men belonging to such denomination. Some of them being controlled by self-perpetuating boards of trustees, without charter restriction as to the selection of successors, have gradually passed from the control of persons belonging to any one religious denomination and have thus become, in fact, non-denominational in control. Others have become non-sectarian in control through changes in their charters.

Nearly all of the colleges have had a continuous struggle to secure the funds necessary to carry on their work. The source of the support of the institutions varies largely according to the agency by which they were established. All of the older institutions owe their origin to private initiative and continue to derive their main support, outside of what is contributed by students in the form of tuition fees, to the liberality of their alumni and of other philanthropic persons. It is a well-known fact that in the institutions for higher education, taken as a whole, students' fees amount to only about one third of the total income, the balance required to meet the expenses being derived from endowment funds, state appropriations, collections, etc.

In the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1904, there are included six hundred and seven institutions in the chapter devoted to universities, colleges, and technological schools. The institutions vary greatly in the grade and scope of the instruction given, in the class of students admitted, in the number enrolled in the faculties, in their material equipment, and in their endowment. We find there institutions like Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, and others, with endowment funds of millions of dollars; we find some institutions with magnificent buildings but no interest-bearing funds; state institutions

with very small or no invested funds of their own, but with all of the taxable property in the state to furnish funds for their maintenance; there is also a class of institutions which depend for support almost wholly upon tuition fees and the profit realized from the boarding departments.

Notwithstanding the millions of dollars that are flowing annually into the treasuries of the institutions for higher education, the reports of the presidents of such institutions emphasize annually the great need for more funds to avoid recurring deficits caused by a constantly decreasing rate of interest on invested funds, by great extension and specialization in certain branches of work, by the inauguration of new lines of work to meet the needs of an ever-expanding civilization, by the large increase in the number of students in attendance upon the institutions, and by the necessary increase in the salaries of teachers. The large amount of instruction in pure and applied science demanded by the students at the present time renders necessary special buildings equipped with costly machinery and apparatus for illustrative purposes.

The total value of property possessed by institutions for higher education amounts to over $500,000,000, the invested or incomeproducing funds being about $235,000,000, an increase of fortyone per cent in five years. The great bulk of these large sums has been contributed by private individuals, although in late years considerable sums have been furnished annually by the several state governments to the institutions under their control.

The Federal government, also, has been an important factor in the development of higher education. While the military and naval academies and its other service schools are the only higher institutions that it controls, the policy of the Federal government has been to assist in the establishment and maintenance of such institutions by the several states. This policy had its origin in, and dates from, the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory by which two townships of land were granted for the support of a literary institution. After the year 1800 each state admitted into the Union, with the exception of Maine, Texas, and West Virginia, received not less than two townships (46,080 acres) of land for the establishment of a

university. In pursuance of this policy, twenty-nine states and territories have received 1,774,080 acres of land from the general government.

The next important step taken by the Federal government in aid of higher education was the passage of the act of July 2, 1862, granting to each state 30,000 acres of land for each representative to which it was entitled in Congress for the establishment of one or more institutions where the leading object should be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, "to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." Under this act there have been allotted to, the several states 10,320,843 acres of land. The smallest amount to which any one state was entitled was 90,000 acres, and the greatest amount was 990,000 acres received by the state of New York.

This was a most munificent grant, and, if properly managed, would have created a large endowment fund in each state, as under the terms of the act the income only of the funds derived from the sale of the lands could be expended, excepting only that not exceeding ten per cent of the amount received could be expended in the purchase of land for sites or experimental farms. It was provided also that no part of the funds or of the income therefrom could be used for the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any buildings. While a few of the states like California, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, and Minnesota managed the sale of their lands so as to obtain a fair price for them, and, in consequence, a considerable endowment fund, the great majority of the states realized very small sums. Rhode Island, for instance, sold its land scrip for less than fifty cents per acre, realizing but $50,000 from scrip for 120,000 acres, while California, which received 150,000 acres, has thus far received $732,083 with 4,074 acres still to be sold. The total amount of the 1862 land-grant fund reported in 1904 was $11,334,760, with 878,870 acres remaining unsold.

Each state and territory in the Union has at least one institution endowed by the 1862 grant. In the early history of the institutions comparatively little attention was given to instruction in agriculture for the reason, undoubtedly, that there was

little demand for it, and because there were few persons at that time fitted to give such instruction. The funds arising from the grant, therefore, were expended largely to reinforce the oldtime instruction given in the classics and for the establishment of courses of study in engineering which have had a remarkable growth since the establishment of those institutions.

Still another grant made by the general government was for the more complete endowment and support of the institutions established under the act of July 2, 1862. This grant was authorized by an act of Congress approved August 30, 1890, and appropriated to each state and territory $15,000 for the year ending June 30, 1890, and an annual increase of the amount of such appropriation thereafter for ten years by an additional sum of $1,000 over the amount for the preceding year, by which time the annual payments reached $25,000, which was to be the amount to be paid to each state and territory annually thereafter.

Under this act there has been appropriated to these institutions from the passage of the act to the present time, $18,802,000. The sum paid annually now amounts to $1,200,000. These funds cannot be expended for instruction in all branches of study, but must be used solely for instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic science, and for the facilities for such instruction. This endowment, together with the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in the several states and territories, for which latter purpose the general government will in a few years be paying $30,000 annually to each state and territory, has had a very good effect on the instruction provided by the institutions. While twenty or twenty-five years ago practically all of the agricultural instruction in any one of these institutions was given by one person, there are now several institutions in which the time of more than twenty persons is given to such work. The courses of study are becoming more specialized, fitting men and women for specific branches of agricultural work. Similar expansion may be noted in the case of engineering and other technical courses.

During the recent session of Congress, provision was made for an increase in the annual appropriation made under the act of August 30, 1890. For the year ending June 30, 1908, the appropriation to each state and territory will be $30,000, with an annual increase of $5,000 until the appropriation reaches $50,000 per annum, which is the equivalent of an endowment fund of $1,250,000 bearing interest at four per cent per annum. While the grants mentioned above were of great assistance to the several states in the establishment of universities and colleges, the funds derived therefrom are not sufficient for the proper maintenance and equipment of such institutions, and in most cases the means provided by the general government have been supplemented generously from the several state treasuries. The most acceptable form in which such aid can be granted is by means of a fixed rate of taxation on the taxable property of the state. Where this system prevails the institutions are relieved from the necessity of importuning each successive legislature for the funds required to carry on its work and are not liable ordinarily to any considerable fluctuations in the amount to be received annually. Also, in such cases, as the value of property increases the amount of the tax to be received by the institutions increases, and thus enables them to provide instruction for the larger number of students that naturally come to them. The states that have adopted the tax levy system for their higher institutions with the rate on each dollar of the assessed value of taxable property in the state are as follows: Arizona, three-fifths mill for the University of Arizona; California, one-fifth mill for the University of California; Colorado, two-fifths mill for the University of Colorado, one-fifth mill for the School of Mines, and one-fifth mill for the State Agricultural College; Indiana, one-tenth mill for Indiana University and one-tenth mill for Purdue University; Kentucky, one-twentieth mill on the property of white people for the State College and $15,000 annually in addition; Michigan, one-fourth mill for the University of Michigan and onetenth mill for the State Agricultural College; Minnesota, twenty-three one-hundredths mill for the University of Minnesota; Nebraska, one mill for the University of Nebraska;