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A Patriotic Investment by Andrew D White

May 22, 2009

Being an address by the Hon. Andrew D. White at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Yale Class of 1853, delivered in College Street Hall, New Haven, June 22, 1903.

Something more than six months ago, I was present at the anniversary of the most venerable university in Scotland, and at one of the main festivities was seated next a countryman of ours, whose wealth and public spirit have aroused not only wonder but admiration on both sides the Atlantic. The conversation between us having turned upon public benefactions of various sorts, I spoke of the many great things waiting to be done in the United States, whereupon my munificent neighbor said: “Name some of them.”

Whereat a great joy arose within me; a hope large and lucid seemed to swim within my ken : the opportunity to give substance to ideas and plans and dreams, which 1 had brooded over for years. But just at that moment, the tide of after-dinner eloquence was turned on in full flood, and in an instant it had swept away my opportunity apparently forever.

But the flood of eloquence has subsided ; those old ideas, dreams and plans reappear; and now the answer which I could not give at St. Andrew’s, I purpose to give, at least in part, at Yale. I say, “in part,” for there are a multitude of wise benefactions which I may not suggest here and now. What I now purpose is, to answer the question : “What can wealthy Americans at this moment best do for their whole country? for the uplifting of its civilization for the strengthening of what is best in its character, national and individual for the evolution of better modes of thought and action on subjects of most profound interest, not only to ourselves, but to the nations around us and the centuries to follow us ?”

Looking over the country, and seeking agencies already working successfully for the steady uplifting of American civilization, I see, among the most effective, our great universities. They are gradually taking rank among the first in the world ; they have become a power as never before. Rightly did James Bryce see in them a main hope for our national future. Not only are their methods and range of instruction vastly superior to those in the days when the Class of Fifty-Three was gathered here, but their advantages have been enormously extended. At that time, a student body of 500 was considered exceedingly large. Now we have universities in various parts of the country numbering 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, and in one case over 5,000 students.

The main reason for this improvement in methods and range of instruction is, that the universities are taking hold up on the national life in ways formerly unthought of. The main reason for this increase in numbers is, that the nobly ambitious young American more and more realizes that, as the national life becomes more and more complicated, as its problems become more and more intricate, as universities offer more and more instruction in fields which fit men for every sort of high intellectual endeavor, his chance, to say the least, is better with a university education than without it. The result is, that more and more, the brightest young men, the most energetic, the men of highest purpose and clearest thought, are drawn to the universities. It would appear, then, that these institutions are centers from which new influences are most likely to be forcefully exerted through the pulpit, the press, the courts, the legislatures, and in public life generally.

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http://bikibook.com/books/a-patriotic-investment

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