The growth of the colleges since the war in the sixteen Southern
States for both white and black population is very encouraging. Fully
one-third of the colleges and universities and one-third of the
instructors and students of the nation are located in the Southern
States. Many of these colleges are only first-class academies, but
they are doing an excellent service. Benefactions in behalf of higher
education in the South have been something phenomenal in the history
of philanthropic work. The Peabody Fund for education in the South
was $3,100,000. The Slater Fund $1,000,000. Tulane and Vanderbilt each
gave $1,500,000 towards founding universities in the South. It is
estimated that more than $20,000,000 have been given by special donors
for this purpose since the war. This vast sum has been augmented by
the annual gifts of the churches for this object. The Methodist
Episcopal Church had expended up to 1892 the sum of $6,187,630.46 to
promote higher institutions of learning among both white and black
population in the South.
Other denominations have given largely in the same direction. These
benefactions have given new impulses to the cause of education, which
have been of vital importance in the regeneration of the social
conditions of this section of the country. The annual outlay for
schools in the Southern States increased from $11,400,000 in 1878 to
$20,000,000 in 1888. All these educational influences have contributed
to establish a New South that presages far-reaching possibilities for
good for all time to come.
The growth, number and progress of the American colleges and
universities is more and more attracting the attention of the
civilized world. In 1890, they numbered 415, with grounds and
buildings valued at $65,000,000, with scientific apparatus and
libraries valued at $9,000,000, and the productive endowment funds
aggregated $75,000,000. The total income of these higher institutions
of learning from all sources was $11,000,000.
The colleges and universities and professional schools in the United
States for the same year contained 135,242 students and 7,819
instructors. In the colleges and universities alone there were 46,131
men and 11,992 women. There were 34,964 in the normal schools, 6,349
in agricultural and mechanical colleges, and 35,806 in the various
professional schools. Besides, there were 117 medical schools with
4,552 students, and 145 theological schools with 7,013 students, and
54 law schools having 5,518 students.
These facts give us some faint conception of the extensive educational
agencies which have been provided, chiefly by private enterprise and
by the churches, for higher education.
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