Address by President Eliot before the Harvard Finance Club.

On Tuesday evening President Eliot addressed a large audience of the members of the Harvard Finance Club on the finances of the university. He began his remarks by calling attention to the fact that the accounts of the college are regularly published, although the law does not require this. Among other advantages, it tends to encourage large bequests to the college. Mr. Bussey left a certain amount of real estate to the college with the provision that it should never be sold. It amounts to about half a million of dollars. It is an advantage as a rule for a benefactor of the college not to prescribe any definite investment for his gift, since the value of it may depreciate. Sometimes there has been a considerable deficit in the accounts of the college, but this is not to be feared in the case of an institution which is growing as rapidly as ours. In fact, Harvard is the only college in New England which has attained any great increase in size during the past ten years. Sometimes, although not often, there is a deficit for one year, as the result of some unusual outlay.

For the year 1883-84 the Law School had a deficit of $412.86. In such cases the college advances the necessary funds for the temporary support of the department. This was the case with the Observatory, which did not repay the outlay made upon it at first, although this has since been made up by handsome endowments, especially the endowment made by Uriah Boyden.

No gift to the university has ever been lost, although sometimes a gift has remained "buried" for a long time. It is unfortunate that donations made for immediate and temporary use do not leave behind them a perpetual memory. Mr. Henry Lee left the sum of $7,500 to the college to pay the salary of a Professor of Political Economy for five years. This was a useful gift, but it will out of recollections with the generation which enjoyed it.

The amount of money disbursed by the college in the payment of salaries and the general expenses immediately connected with the students, was about $200,000 during the year 1884-85, while the amount received from term-bills was only a little over $185,000. Formerly mortgages were an excellent form of investment for the university, but at present reliable mortgages yield scarcely 4 per cent. A considerable portion of the college funds in invested in railroad bonds. A small amount is invested in manufacturing stocks, but this is not so good a form of investment, as it yields a variable income.

There are some institutions in the United States which have no tuition fees, as Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Others have very small fees. At the Institute of Technology the charges are $200 per annum. At Harvard the tuition fee is universal, while at Tufts College not more than five per cent. of the students are required to pay it. When a scholarship has the effort of bringing to the college persons who would not otherwise come, the institution is the gainer by the amount of his tuition fee.

The college at the present time has no department which is a drag upon it financially, with the exception of the Dental and Veterinary Schools.

The State of Massachusetts is our most extensive benefactor, since all taxation is remitted except that on the investments of the college in real estate.