CONDENSED AND COMBINED EXPENSE STATEMENT

Salaries

$424,971 95 $ 138,700 58 $ 22,853 15 $

40,635 16 $

627,160 84

Departments

127,225 58

26,036 41

4,288 56

56,764 41

214,314 96

General Expenses

85,675.60

15,183 04

1,578 71

14,549 42

116,986 77

Fellowships, Scholarships

$920,876 51 $186,872 74 $ 28,720 42 $111,948 99 $1,248,418 66

While these tables are easily intelligible, a few items may call for special explanation. The "Unusual Items" of income amounting to $52, 202.28 were made up of $13,278.47 of insurance received for the loss by fire in Sibley College, $25,000 accumulated interest from the Fiske estate, $10,000 taken from the premium and discount account and applied on the award against the city of Ithaca for the water works, and a number of smaller items. In the statement of expenses the item of $60,599. 18 appropriated for "New Buildings" is made up of $50,000.00 spent on Goldwin Smith Hall and $10,599.18 spent on Rockefeller Hall in addition to the gift of $250,000.00 from Mr. Rockefeller and interest thereupon. The figures for "Extraordinary Repairs''-$54,884.53—are large of this amount $20,132.34 was expended for repairs on Franklin, White, Lincoln, and Morrill Halls, $15.555.34 on the extension of the heating plant, $4,791.25 towards the reconstruction of the basement in the library, $2,114.35 on the enlargement of the gymnasium plunge bath, $2,915 on changes in the hydraulic laboratory, besides a number of smaller items. The item of $10,489.31 appearing in the statement of income as derived from "Special Invested Funds' is balanced by the same amount appearing in the statement of expenses as "Income Transferred to Principal." The "Miscellaneous" expenditures of $16,551.13 were for a great variety of objects, of which the most important were the following: Fire alarm installation $1,752.76, Annuities under the will of Willard Fiske $5,763.63, Ezra Cornell Centennial $2,318.10.

It appears from the foregoing table that the deficit for the year was $10,748.26. There was, however, a deficit of $13,351.30 for the year ending August 1st, 1906. The actual cash shortage on August 1st, 1907, was, therefore, $24,099.56. But in addition to this shortage the income of

the University owes to certain funds $41,485.79, and to complete contracts already made further appropriations of $20,718.02 will be necessary. The total deficit, therefore, on August 1st, 1907, was $86, 303.37. Of this amount $72,645.08 is an inheritance from the disastrous epidemic year of 1903.

The income and expenditures of the State Colleges at Cornell University are also shown in the preceding tables. There is, however, no item which calls for any special exexplanation.

Reference has been made in recent Reports to the bequest of the late Willard Fiske to establish another endowment fund for the library. Since August 1st, 1906, the University has received from the executors of the estate $488,531.00. During the same period $105,000.00 has been received from the executors of the F. W. Guiteau estate to increase the F. W. Guiteau Student Loan Fund. Mrs. Dean Sage has continued her annual gifts by adding another $15,000.00 to the endowment of the preachership in Sage Chapel established by her husband. A timely and most helpful gift was received from Dr. Charles H. Roberts of Oakes, Ulster County, New York, for the promotion of agricultural education. Dr. Roberts turned over to the University $30,000.00, the income of which is to be used for the support of five equal annual scholarships in the College of Agriculture to be known as the "Charles H. Roberts Scholarships', numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The splendid generosity of the Founder and constant Patron of the Cornell University Medical College in New York City has met all the demands made by that necessarily expensive department, alike in the field of investigation and instruction. How the money which he so generously supplies can be used to the best advantage for the promotion of medical science and education and for the highest welfare of the College is a

problem now engrossing the most serious attention of the Trustees, the President, and the Faculty of Medicine.

SUPPORT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

It appears from the condensed table of the income of Cornell University for the year 1906-1907 that, including the unusual item of $52,554.78, it amounted to $1,270,875.67. Of this amount scarcely one third-$409,873.51-was received from students in the form of tuition, laboratory, and other fees. Excluding State Colleges, the income of the University at Ithaca was $908,638.23, and of this sum more than one third-$362,149.73—was received from students in the form of tuition, laboratory, and other fees. The income of the State Veterinary College from all sources amounted to $29,815.59, of which (as tuition is free to New York State students) only $3,225.20 was received from students. The total income of the State Agricultural College was $144,059.09, of which (as tuition is free to agricultural students) only $4,565.25 was received from students paying fees collected for laboratory and other charges. In the Medical College in New York City the total income amounted to $188,362.76, of which $39,933-33 was received from students in the form of charges for tuition and laboratory and other fees.

There are only three sources of revenue for colleges and universities. These are public taxation, private munificence, and charges on students for instruction and the facilities of instruction. In the eastern states the fees collected from students are already in general higher than they ought to be, in some cases far higher. If the Republic is to remain a democracy, there must be an educational ladder extending from the gutter to the commencement stage, which may be ascended by the talanted, studious, and dili

gent children of the poor as well as by those of the well-todo and the rich. Every advance in the fees charged for tuition and other purposes in colleges and universities tends to exclude a certain portion of our population from the benefits of the higher education. And it is conceivable that these fees might be raised to such a figure that liberal culture and professional training should become the monopoly of that minority of Americans who can afford to spend at least hundreds of dollars annually on the education of each of their children. Under such conditions there would result an unjust and dangerous alliance of capital and brains an aristocracy of wealth in combination with an aristocracy of trained talent. Short of socialism there is no feasible scheme for equalization of wealth. But educational opportunities can be opened equally to the children of the poor and the children of the rich; and America is the last place in the world in which this equality of educational opportunity on the highest plane should be abolished by the barriers of high fees for instruction.

In the western states this difficulty is obviated by the reduction of the student's fees to a nominal figure and the imposition of taxes for the support of the universities, which are state institutions. These state universities are rapidly developing; and in the numbers of students and efficiency of instructors the best of them are destined at no distant date to become honorable rivals of the larger and more celebrated universities of the east. If the privately endowed university is to hold its own in this fraternal competition with the state-supported university, there should be reduction in the charges for tuition which will open its doors as freely to the capable and deserving sons of the poor as the doors of the state-supported university now are. But this reversion to democracy in education, from which high tuition fees are a veritable deviation, is impossible without