TERMS OF M'KAY WILL

In view of the current discussion as to whether the best interests of higher technical education in and near Boston would be better served by an alliance of Harvard University with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or by the separate maintenance of the two institutions, the following extract from Mr. Gordon McKay's will is of interest as showing the liberal and thorough-going provision for technical education which the Harvard Corporation will be obliged to make, enjoying for that purpose an income possibly equal to one third of the present income from the entire invested funds of Harvard University:

"The net income of said endowment shall be used to promote applied science:

"First. By maintaining professorships, workshops, laboratories and collections for any or all of those scientific subjects, which have, or may hereafter have, applications useful to man, and

"Second. By aiding meritorious and needy students in pursuing those subjects.

"Inasmuch as a large part of my life has been devoted to the study and invention of machinery, I instruct the President and Fellows to take special care that the great subject of mechanical engineering in all its branches and in the most comprehensive sense, be thoroughly provided for from my endowment.

"I direct that the President and Fellows be free to provide from the endowment all grades of instruction in applied science, from the lowest to the highest, and that the instruction provided be kept accessible to pupils who have had no other opportunities of previous education than those which the free public schools afford.

"I direct that the salaries attached to the professorships maintained from the endowment be kept liberal, generation after generation, according to the standards of each successive generation, to the end that these professorships may always be attractive to able men, and that their effect may be to raise, in some judicious measure, the general scale of compensation for the teachers of the University.

"I direct that the professors supported from this endowment be provided with suitable assistance in their several departments, by the appoinment of instructors of lower grades, and of draughtsmen, foremen, mechanics, clerks or assistants, as occasion may require, my desire being that the professors be free to devote themselves to whatever part of the teaching requires the greatest skill and largest experience, and to the advancement of their several subjects.

"I direct that the President and Fellows be free to erect buildings for the purposes of this endowment, and to purchase sites for the same, but only from the income of the endowment.

"I direct that all the equipment required to illustrate teaching or to give students opportunity to practice, whether instruments, diagrams, tools, machines or apparatus, be always kept of the best design and quality, so that no antiquated, superseded, or unserviceable implement or machinery shall ever be retained in the lecture rooms, workshops or laboratories maintained from the endowment.

"Finally, I request that the name Gordon McKay be permanently attached to the professorships, buildings, and scholarships or other aids for needy students, which may be established, erected, or maintained from the income of this endowment.