nce, the great
claims of higher education. Ignorance is the source of a large part
of the poverty and a vast amount of the crime in the world--hence the
need of education. If we assist the highest forms of education--in
whatever field--we secure the widest influence in enlarging the
boundaries of human knowledge; for all the new facts discovered or set
in motion become the universal heritage. I think we cannot
overestimate the importance of this matter. The mere fact that most of
the great achievements in science, medicine, art, and literature are
the flower of the higher education is sufficient. Some great writer
will one day show how these things have ministered to the wants of all
the people, educated and uneducated, high and low, rich and poor, and
made life more what we all wish it to be.

The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities--a
search for cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source. My
interest in the University of Chicago has been enhanced by the fact
that while it has comprehensively considered the other features of a
collegiate course, it has given so much attention to research.

DR. WILLIAM R. HARPER

The mention of this promising young institution always brings to my
mind the figure of Dr. William R. Harper, whose enthusiasm for its
work was so great that no vision of its future seemed too large.

My first meeting with Dr. Harper was at Vassar College, where one of
my daughters was a student. He used to come, as the guest of Dr. James
M. Taylor, the president, to lecture on Sundays; and as I frequently
spent week-ends there, I saw and talked much with the young professor,
then of Yale, and caught in some degree the contagion of his
enthusiasm.

When the university had been founded, and he had taken the presidency,
our great ambition was to secure the best instructors and to organize
the new institution, unhampered by traditions, according to the most
modern ideals. He raised millions of dollars among the people of
Chicago and the Middle West, and won the personal interest of their
leading citizens. Here lay his great strength, for he secured not only
their money but their loyal support and strong personal interest--the
best kind of help and cooeperation. He built even better than he knew.
His lofty ideals embodied in the university awakened a deeper interest
in higher education throughout the Central West, and stirred
individuals, denominations, and legislatures to effec