Millions & Michigan

A great shaking of heads among college presidents has greeted news of higher taxes. Anything which taps private fortunes taps potential endowments, and the presidents wonder if the millions will ever roll in again as they did in the 1920s. Last week the Manhattan publicity firm of John Price Jones, Inc., which manages many a money-raising campaign, figured out what Depression has already cost 31 rich U. S. universities and colleges. From a high of $74,456,326 in the academic year 1930-31, gifts fell off to $20,657,891 in 1933-34. During that four-year period, the 31 institutions received $165,486,417. Topping the list, thanks to Edward Stephen Harkness (House Plans), were Yale with $44,558,683, Harvard with $30,868,781. Others:

Chicago $18,983,354 Columbia 9,095,556 California 7,387,806 Johns Hopkins 7,387,049 Cornell 6,128,742 Pennsylvania 4,622,142 Princeton 4,236,692 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3,635,683 Stanford 3,434,172 Radcliffe 1,358,963 Mount Holyoke 1,174,522

Realization that the golden times may be over spurs educators to get their hands on what they can now. One rich prize for which many have been angling is the $30,000,000 Rackham Fund of Detroit. University of Michigan had the inside track because the late Horace H. Rackham directed his trustees to favor Michigan charity and education. Michigan was worried when the Rackham Trustees went outside the State to bestow $50,000 on the Warm Springs Foundation. But last week these same trustees dutifully endowed the home University with $5,000,000 to build up its graduate school.

Horace H. Rackham, a small Detroit lawyer, owed his entire fortune to one lucky step, taken when he was 45. From his front porch in 1903 he could hear a gasoline engine sputtering in the backyard of his neighbor, Henry Ford. Hesitantly Lawyer Rackham mortgaged his property, invested $5,000 in the new Ford Motor Co. In 1919, after receiving $4,000,000 in dividends, he sold out to Henry & Edsel Ford for $12,500,000. Taken aback by his fortune, Lawyer Rackham did his best to ignore it, living modestly, carrying on his practice, shunning publicity. His philanthropic career almost ended in a fit of hysteria when the Detroit Community Fund revealed him as the donor of $20,000. Later, in strictest secrecy, he financed archeological expeditions for the University of Michigan.

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