TABLE 1.-Statistics of institutions for educating the colored race, showing grade of students, during 1892-93-Continued. TABLE 1.—Statistics of institutions for educating the colored race, showing grade of students, during 1892-93-Continued. TABLE 2.-Statistics of institutions for educating the colored race which failed to report grade of students, 1892–93. CHAPTER V. PECUNIARY AID FOR STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. It is a well-known fact that students in universities and colleges contribute but a very small proportion of the funds necessary to carry on these institutions. The comparatively low rates of tuition demanded by them are rendered possible by the large permanent endowment funds obtained from various sources, and by the annual appropriations made by the several States and by the United States Government. The endowment funds are frequently given for certain specified purposes, such as the endowment of professorships, fellowships, scholarships, or some particular department of an institution, while in other cases the disposition of the funds is left to the discretion of the institutions receiving them. In 1892-93 the income from the productive funds of universities and colleges reported to this Bureau was $5,099,859, or 34.9 per cent of the total income for the year. The amount received from the tuition fees of students was $5,466,810, or 37.4 per cent of the total amount. The balance of the income was made up from State or United States appropriations, and from miscellaneous sources. Nearly all of the appropriations are given to State universities, and, as a rule, tuition in these institutions is free, at least to students from the respective States. Aid to students is given in various forms-by means of fellowships, scholarships, remission of tuition fees, and by loans and prizes. Both in this country and in Europe fellowships are given to students who have already obtained at least a baccalaureate degree, or can show that they have received an education corresponding to that indicated by the possession of such degree. In the United States and in France fellowships are given to students who desire to pursue advanced courses of instruction, and as a rule the beneficiaries must study at the institutions furnishing the aid. In France the aid is given by the State, and the recipients must, with few exceptions, pursue their studies at one of the faculties. Some of the fellowships are, however, for use as traveling fellowships; particulars are given in connection with the several institutions on the following pages. The number of fellowships in the United States is increasing rapidly, at present numbering about 265. An examination of the catalogues of universities and colleges shows that probably the oldest fellowship, founded as such, in the United States is the Harris fellowship at Harvard University, which was founded in 1868 by William Minot, jr., as executor of Henry Harris, with an original endowment of $10,000. The first traveling fellowship at Harvard was founded by the Hon. George Bancroft in 1871. It may be of interest to note that Mr. Bancroft was the first Harvard graduate that was sent to Germany for study by the university. He went to Göttingen in 1818 and pursued his studies in Europe for three years. In his letter of July 4, 1871, to President Eliot, of Harvard, apprising him of his desire and intention of founding a fellowship, Mr. Bancroft says: A little more than fifty three years ago Edward Everett, then Eliot professor of Greek literature, in one of his letters to President Kirkland developed the idea that it would be well to send some young graduate of Harvard to study for a while at a German university with a view to his being called to a place on the college board. The president approved his suggestion, and his choice for this traveling scholarship fell upon me. Accordingly, in the early summer of 1818, being then in my eighteenth year, I proceeded to Göttingen. After remaining more than three years in Europe returned to Cambridge, where I held the office of tutor for one year. There being no opening for a permanent connection with the university, I devoted a few years to an attempt to introduce among us some parts of the German system of education, so as to divide more exactly preliminary studies from the higher scientific courses and thus facilitate the transformation of our colleges into universities after the plan everywhere adopted in Germany. But it is not easy to change an organization that has its roots in the habits of the country, and the experiment could not succeed, for it was impossible to introduce the German usage which permits students to pass freely from a private place of instruction to a public one, without the exaction of payments for instruction elsewhere received. I then applied through the late Judge Charles Jackson, a member of the corporation and a friend of mine, for leave to read lectures on history in the university. At Göttengen or at Berlin I had the right, after a few preliminary formalities, to deliver such a course. It was the only time in my life that I applied for an office for myself, and this time it was not so much an office as a permission that I desired. My request was declined by my own alma mater; so that I had not the opportunity of manifesting my affection for her by personal services; and my life has had, in consequence, unexpected variety and independence. But wherever my lot has been thrown I have always preserved in freshness and strength the love which I bore to Harvard College in my youth; and now, in my old age, I still gladly seek an opportunity of proving that attachment. I wish, therefore, to found a scholarship on the idea of President Kirkland, that the incumbent should have leave to repair to a foreign country for instruction. Merit must be the condition of the election to the scholarship; no one is to be elected who has not shown uncommon ability, and uncommon disposition to learn. Of course the choice should fall on someone who needs the subsidy. You, sir, as the successor of Dr. Kirkland, may know the funds out of which came the modest but sufficient stipend which I received; and if so, I leave it to you and the corporation to impose any limitations that you think right. Otherwise, residence at the university, but not for more than three years, may be required. But the residence should have reference to any of the schools of divinity, law, or medicine, or of mines, or of science, or of any other school that is or may be founded, not less han to the classes of the undergraduates. I think, in an exceptional case, there ould be authority to name the scholar from any place, without any previous resnce at Cambridge; and if you and the corporation approve, I wish it to be so blished. he scholarship should be held by no one for more than three years, and during time should be renewed from year to year; but only on evidence that the scholar is fulfilling the purpose of the endowment. I leave to you and to the corporation to circumscribe, if, from the considerations already referred to, you think best, the objects of study to which the incumbent should devote himself. But, for my own part, I am willing the scholarship should be given to any young person likely to distinguish himself in either of the learned professions, or in any branch of science, or in architecture, sculpture, painting, music, or letters. * One word more. The incumbents of the scholarship may perhaps be afterwards drawn into the corps of professors at the university. Should they render no such service, and should they be prospered in life, I wish each of them so prospered to be reminded, and, excepting always those permanently connected with the university as instructors and those whose moderate wants press upon their means, I thus in advance charge them to imitate my example in rendering aid, through Harvard College, to the cause of arts and letters, of science and learning. In his book entitled American Colleges, Dr. Charles F. Thwing, now president of Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, says: The purposes which the fellowship system, as it is now being established in American colleges, is intended to serve are the advancement of scholarship and the promotion of original thought and investigation. A fellowship in an American college is not, as often it is in the English universities, a sinecure. It is not simply the reward for success in passing a series of examinations; it is not merely the ladder by which the student is to climb to distinction, but it is a privilege by the fit use of which he can advance the higher learning and enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge. The fellowship allows the young graduate possessing genius for a certain line of investigation but not possessing the pecuniary means for his support to pursue studies the result of which shall honor not only him but also scholarship. It |