formity in the scope and requirement of the
work for this degree. The Doctor's degree should stand in this
country, as it does in Europe, for research, and a general knowledge
of philosophy, with ability to open up original sources of
information. The student should be a resident graduate for at least
one year, and after rigorous examination be required to contribute
something to the advancement of knowledge, and withal be a man of good
character and judgment, before receiving this most desirable degree in
American and European universities. With such a uniform standard, this
degree will not likely depreciate in public esteem, but have, as all
degrees should, a uniform value. A federation of colleges may help to
attain this end.

College degrees are not essential to a man's success in life, but when
they are obtained as a reward of merit have a certain social value
which usually insures a speedier entrance into any chosen field of
work.

Another characteristic of American colleges is that they are _endowed_
either by churches, by the state or by individual donors. The
endowment is generally in the form of property or stocks yielding an
annual revenue. It may be a sum of money given to the college, to be
loaned and the interest to be permanently appropriated to the support
of professors or applied to the current expenses. The amount necessary
to endow a professorship varies from twenty-five to fifty thousand
dollars. The fund thus given remains intact, and the interest or
revenue of it alone is used to carry out the purpose of the donor.

No college of a high grade can exist without a generous endowment or
aid from some source. Education in the colleges and universities
throughout the world is given almost as a gratuity. It is maintained
principally through the benefactions of wealthy men who erect
buildings, found professorships and establish libraries for the use of
others.

The resources of American colleges surpass those of any other country
in the world. In 1890, the value of grounds, buildings and apparatus
for 378 colleges in the United States was $77,894,729, and the
productive fund of 315 colleges aggregated $74,090,415. In Germany,
the twenty-two universities are national property, and are supported
out of the national treasury at a large annual expense. The annual
incomes of Oxford and Cambridge in England aggregate more than
$3,500,000.

Many of the American colleges have wealthy foundations. Harvard