Famous Givers and Their Gifts

by Sarah Knowles Bolton

In this connection the suggestion of Professor Richard T. Ely in his book on "Socialism and Social Reform," page 334, might well be heeded. After showing that Germany and other countries have used government credit to some extent in behalf of the farming community, and that New York State has been making loans to farmers for a generation or more, he says, "A sensible demand on the part of farmers' organizations would be that Congress should appoint a commission of experts to investigate thoroughly the use of government credit in various countries and at different times, in behalf of the individual citizen, especially the farmer, and to make a full and complete report, in order that anything which is done should be based upon the lessons to be derived from actual experience."

Mr. and Mrs. Stanford were much beloved in Washington for their cordiality and generosity. They gave an annual dinner to the Senate pages, with a gift for each boy of a gold scarf-pin, or something attractive, and at Christmas a five-dollar gold-piece to each. Also a luncheon each winter, and gifts of money, gloves, etc., to the telegraph and messenger boys. Every orphan asylum and charity hospital in Washington was remembered at Christmas. Mr. Sibley, representative for Pennsylvania, relates this incident showing Mr. Stanford's habit of giving. "My partner and myself had purchased a young colt of him, for which we paid him $12,500. He took out his check-book, drew two checks of $6,250 each, and sent them to two different city homes for friendless children; and with a twinkle in his eye, and broadly beaming benevolence in his features, said, 'Electric Bell ought to make a great horse; he starts in making so many people happy in the very beginning of his life.'"

Mr. Daniels of Virginia tells how Mr. Stanford was observed one day by a friend to give $2,000 to an inventor who was trying to apply an electric motor to the sewing-machine. Mr. Stanford remarked, "This is the thirtieth man to whom I have given a like sum to develop that idea."

After Mr. Stanford had been in the Senate two years, on May 14, 1887, he and Mrs. Stanford laid the corner-stone of their University at Palo Alto, on the 19th anniversary of the birthday of Leland Stanford, Jr. In less than four years, on October 1, 1891, the doors of the University were opened to receive five hundred students, young men and women; for Mr. Stanford had written in his grant of endowment "to afford equal facilities and give equal advantages in the University to both sexes." In his address to the trustees he said, "The rights of one sex, political or otherwise, are the same as those of the other sex, and this equality of rights ought to be fully recognized."

Mrs. Stanford said to Mrs. White as they sat in her library at Palo Alto, "Whatever the boys have, the girls have as well. We mean that the girls of our country shall have a fair chance. There shall be no dividing line in the studies. If a girl desires to become an electrician, she shall have the opportunity, and that opportunity shall be the same as the young men's. If she wishes to study mechanics, she may do it."

Mr. Stanford said in his address on the day of opening, "I speak for Mrs. Stanford as well as for myself, for she has been my active and sympathetic coadjutor, and is co-grantor with me in the endowment and establishment of this University."

They had been urged to give their fortune in other directions, as some persons believed that much education would unfit people for labor. "We do not believe," said Mr. Stanford, and the world honors him for his belief, "there can be superfluous education. As man cannot have too much health and intelligence, so he cannot be too highly educated. Whether in the discharge of responsible or humble duties he will ever find the knowledge he has acquired through education, not only of practical assistance to him, but a factor in his personal happiness, and a joy forever."

Mr. Stanford desired that the students should "not only be scholars, but have a sound practical idea of commonplace, every-day matters, a self-reliance that will fit them, in case of emergency, to earn their own livelihood in an humble as well as an exalted sphere." To this end he provided, besides the usual studies in colleges, for "mechanical institutes, laboratories, etc." There are departments of civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, besides shorthand and typewriting, agriculture, and other practical work.

He wished to have taught in the University "the right and advantages of association and co-operation. ... Laws should be formed to protect and develop co-operative associations. Laws with this object in view will furnish to the poor man complete protection against the monopoly of the rich; and such laws, properly administered and availed of, will insure to the workers of the country the full fruits of their industry and enterprise."