TWILIGTH OF THE DONORS

A new note in the general discussion which has flared up noticeably in the last year or two concerning the perplexing question as to the distribution of the cost of education, was sounded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. at the Commencement luncheon at Brown University. The question till now has been largely in the minds of educators who have been concerned with the probler of increasing the income already established through gifts and endowments. These contributions in their present or even an increasing ratio have been taken for granted. Now comes the prophetic warning from the head of a family whose contributions to general education lead all the rest that there is an end to all good things. He foresees a day, much too imminent, when gifts of the present scale will be exceptional and the universities and privately endowed colleges will have to stand on their own feet.

The prospect viewed in the light of the present system of endowed education is decidedly gloomy. But whether or not Mr. Rockefeller has accurately forecast the trend in the relationship between wealth and education, the problem remains one for the educators to solve both as a safeguard against such a situation and as an extreme important problem in itself.

There seems to be only one solution which will adequately take care of the situation. Setting tuition fees to correspond to the actual and complete cost of education is the answer. It is in no sense a new idea but too often it is suggested without its equally necessary corollary. If the tuition is to be raised to cover the expense of instruction, then student loan funds must be established to provide the equality in opportunity for intellectual development now made possible through endowed education or through the wide distribution of expense as in the case of state universities. This is the suggestion made by Mr. Rockefeller, as it has been offered by others as the natural consequences of higher tuition.

At Harvard there is a student loan fund of a sort, though obsecure and difficult of access to the uninitiated. The tuition at Harvard is already high enough in comparison with state financed universities and many smaller privately endowed colleges, to make such a fund indispensable to the man characterized by Dean Jervey of Columbia as "the man with brains and character but without means". The tremendous increase in the number of young people desirous of a university education makes admission requirements a necessity, but a high tuition covering expenses should not be included among such restrictions. Tuition fees should gradually be raised to cover the cost of instruction. A loan fund could then be established with the endowment funds now used to cover the difference between the cost of education and the tuition income. To the man with means it would mean abolishing a system of philanthropy which is neither added nor wanted. To the man who could not afford such a charge at the time it would offer a self respecting means of obtaning an education without inflctng useless hardships.