USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 30
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On this, the crowning day of his life, the great man had prepared no formal reply in writing. He listened carefully to each speaker, and once asked a neighbor to repeat some- thing that had just been said: "I want to use that," was his explanation. No speech of his whole life was so inti- mate, so direct and so personal as this.
He began: "Dear Friends: The affectionate note of these tributes goes straight to my heart. It fills me with wonder; but it touches me deeply. This day is going to be
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one of the happiest and most delightful of my memories." One of the speakers had credited him with unusual courage, to which he replied : "That has never entered my mind. I confess to recognizing another quality to which President Lowell referred-a readiness for combat. ... I never stopped in any attempts of mine because I encountered opposition. . . . I was eager to do something in the future. . . " He admitted the influence on his career of strength and health: "Joy in work has been the source of a large part of the satisfactions of my life."
He would have not been Eliot had he not touched by the way upon the men with whom and through whom he had made his life great,-James Russell Lowell, Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, and others. In this twenty minutes, which was almost the close of his active life, his mind went back to the other people who had shared in his labors and in his triumphs; and he closed in a trumpet call, emphasized by the nearness to the end of the World War: ". .. let me, finally, emphasize the duty of Harvard men, of all educated men, to serve their country in peace as well as in war. I call upon the younger Harvard grad- uates, to serve their country with devotion and at sacrifice in peace as well as in war."
Unwearied by the experiences of this famous day, in the afternoon President Eliot spoke in the open air to the as- sembled students of the University. He abounded in the homely advice which was the warp and woof of hundreds of his addresses throughout his life. "Serve the country, serve her in peace as well as in war. . Wherever you live, take every chance that comes to you .. . for serving the public welfare." "Use the opportunities of selecting studies ... in what work, in what profession, you can find joy all your life. ... It does not involve introspection, reflec- tion on yourself, or any effort after 'self-expression'.
Do not put off marriage too long. . If you find that you do not like the profession upon which you have entered, do not stay in it. . . . You cannot all expect to live as long as I have; but I hope you will live long enough to experience the kind of happiness I have enjoyed today."
Radiates.
From a photograph
Courtesy of R. L. Agassiz
LOUIS AGASSIZ
1
GIFT TO MASSACHUSETTS
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THE GIFT TO MASSACHUSETTS
Eliot's mind never felt itself circumscribed by political boundaries. He was proud of his Massachusetts ancestry ; he paid many tributes to the spirit of Massachusetts people, one of the wittiest of which was his remark that "he did not sympathize with the Pilgrim Fathers, but with the Pilgrim Mothers, who had to live with the Pilgrim Fathers." His greatest feat in education was to transform his college from a Massachusetts institution to a national institution; through- out his life he was among the livest, most public-spirited and most successful characters in all Massachusetts history.
He was an unusual compound of a master in administration, who knew how to drive a thousand-horse team without tan- gling the harness, and at the same time was a seer and a prophet. Of his ninety-two years of life, after deducting four or five years spent outside the United States, and the vacations in Maine which did so much to prolong his days, he must have spent at least eighty years of fruitful life in Boston and Cambridge.
He was one of the earliest teachers in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was fostered by the State. He was one of the founders of Radcliffe College and a friend of all the Massachusetts colleges, whether for women or for men. He sympathized with the immigrants into Massachu- setts, and welcomed their sons into Harvard. He was a past master in the art of softening the hearts and opening the pockets of the monied men of Massachusetts for good causes. He had the keenest interest in the plain, straightfor- ward, supporting citizen; one of his best writings is his brief Biography of John Gilley, a farmer fisherman, who was a summer neighbor down in Maine. He carried the name of Massachusetts into every State and city in the United States.
He believed in his neighbors. Above all, he was a lifelong apostle of democracy, and what he meant by democracy can best be stated in his own words: "For me democracy simply means freedom for each individual to arrange his training and his life-career so that he can do his best for the common welfare. You all understand that the variety of human na- ture is such that one man's best is very different from an- other's, just as one man's mental habits and powers are
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different from every other's. With these varieties in human nature democracy has to deal; and the hopes of democracy depend on whether all these varieties are developed and made serviceable."
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
BABBITT, IRVING .- "President Eliot and American Education" (Forum, 1929, Vol. LXXXI, pp. 1-10).
BECK, JAMES MONTGOMERY, and ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- America's View of Germany's Case (London, Central Committee for National Patriotic Organization, 1914).
BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY .- An Appeal in Behalf of the Further En- dowment of the Divinity School at Harvard University. To Which Are Added Statements by C. W. Eliot, etc. (Cambridge, 1872).
BRIGGS, LE BARON RUSSELL .- "As Seen by a Disciple" (Atlantic Monthly, 1929, Vol. CIV, pp. 588-604).
BROSNAHAN, TIMOTHY .- President Eliot and Jesuit Colleges (Privately printed, Woodstock, Md., no date)-Refers to an article on the exten- sion of electives to secondary schools written by Charles W. Eliot.
COTTON, EDWARD HOWE .- The Life of Charles W. Eliot (Boston, Small, Maynard, 1926).
DUNBAR, CHARLES FRANKLIN .- "President Eliot's Administration" (Har- vard Graduates' Magazine, 1893-1894, Vol. II, pp. 449-476).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- [Address] (Johns Hopkins University, Cele- bration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary, Johns Hopkins Press, Balto., 1902)
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- American Contributions to Civilization, and other essays and addresses (N. Y., Century, 1907).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The American People and the War (Lon- don, Lindsey Press, 1914).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Changes Needed in American Secondary Edu- cation (N. Y., General Education Board, 1916).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect (2 vols .. Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1924).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Charles W. Eliot's Talks to Parents and Young People (Boston, Beacon Press, 1928)-Edited by E. H. Cotton. ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Civil Service Reform and Popular Govern- ment (National Civil Service Reform League, New York, 1912).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Class Life (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press,
1913)-Autobiographical. Class of 1853-sixtieth anniversary wel- come.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM, and STORER, FRANK H .- A Compendious Man- ual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis (Privately printed, Boston, 1868).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Conflict Between Individualism and Col- lectivism in a Democracy (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1910) -Three lectures.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "Contributions to the History of American Teaching" (Educational Review, 1911, Vol. XLII, pp. 346-366)-Ac- count of his personal experience.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Cultivated Man (Boston, Houghton Mif- flin, 1915).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Durable Satisfactions of Life (N. Y., Crowell, 1910).
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Education for Efficiency, and The New Defini- tion of the Cultivated Man (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1909).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses (N. Y., Century, 1901).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- File of articles and addresses in the Harvard College Library.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Four American Leaders (Boston, Am. Unitar- ian Association, 1906)-Franklin, Washington, Channing, Emerson.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Fruits of Medical Research with the Aid of Anesthesia and Asepticism (Boston, Barta Press, 1909).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Future of Trades-unionism and Capital- ism in a Democracy (Putnam, N. Y., 1910) -Larwill Lectures, 1909. ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- A Good Urban School Organization (Phila., 1904).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Great Riches (N. Y., Crowell, 1906).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM, editor .- Harvard Classics (50 vols., N. Y., Col- lier, 1910)-"The Five Foot Shelf of Books."
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- An International Force Must Support an In- ternational Tribunal (Balto., Am. Society for Judicial Settlement of International Disputes, 1914).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- A Late Harvest; Miscellaneous Papers Written between Eighty and Ninety (Boston, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1924). ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- More Money for the Public Schools (Double- day, Page & Co., 1903).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "Personal Recollections of Dr. Morrill Wy- man, Professor Dunbar, Professor Sophocles and Professor Shaler" (Publications, Vol. XII, Cambridge, Cambridge Historical Society, 1917)-See pp. 25-45.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Religion of the Future (Boston, Luce, 1909).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "The Religious Ideal in Education" (Outlook, 1911, Vol. XCIX, pp. 411-414).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Report of Committee on Secondary School Studies (U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, 1893).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Requirements for Admission to Colleges and Scientific Schools (n. p., 1897)-Address before Schoolmasters' Assoc. of New York.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "Some Reasons Why the American Republic May Endure" (Forum, 1894, Vol. XVIII, pp. 129-145).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- Some Roads towards Peace (Washington, Adams, 1913)-Report to trustees of Carnegie Endowment for Inter- national Peace, on observations in China and Japan.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Tendency to the Concrete and Practical in Modern Education (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1913).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Training for an Effective Life (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1915).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM, and HOWELLS, WILLIAM H .- Tributes to Can- ada (Boston, 1916).
ELIOT, CHARLES W .- University Administration (Boston, Houghton Mif- flin, 1908).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Utilization of Public Reservations (U. S. Congress, Senate: Committee on the District of Columbia, Park Im- provement Papers, Second Series, No. 1, Washington, 1901).
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Working of the American Democracy (Cambridge, Wilson, 1888)-Address before the ØBK.
ELIOT, WALTER GRAEME .- A Sketch of the Eliot Family (N. Y., Middle- ditch, 1887) .
GORDON, GEORGE ANGIER .- Immortality and the New Theodicy (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1897).
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CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT
HALL, GRANVILLE STANLEY .- Educational Problems (2 vols., N. Y., Apple- ton, 1917)-See Vol. II, chap. XIV, "Some Defects of our Public Schools."
HARRINGTON, THOMAS FRANCIS .- The Harvard Medical School, 1782-1905 (3 vols., N. Y., Lewis, 1905)-Edited by J. G. Mumford. An account of the school during the presidency of Charles W. Eliot, in Vol. III. HARVARD ALUMNI ASSOCIATION .- The Ninetieth Birthday of Charles Wil- liam Eliot (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1925)-Proceedings in Sanders Theatre and the Yard, March 20, 1924.
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL ASSOCIATION .- The Centennial History of the Har- vard Lare School 1817-1917 (Boston, Harvard Law School Association, 1918)-Numerous references to Eliot.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY : PRESIDENT AND TREASURER .- Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College (Cambridge, 1878-1903). HYDE, WILLIAM DE WITT .- "President Eliot as an Educational Reformer" (Atlantic Monthly, 1899, Vol. LXXXIII, pp. 348-357).
KUEHNEMANN, EUGEN .- Charles W. Eliot, May 19, 1869-May 19, 1909 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1909).
Harvard Crimson (Cambridge, 1873 and later years) .- Many articles and commentators on Eliot.
Harvard Graduates Magasine (1892 and later years) .- Contributions by and upon C. W. Eliot.
Harvard Lampoon (1876 and later years) .- Many drawings and skits on Eliot.
HOWE, MARK ANTONY DE WOLFE .- Classic Shades; Five Leaders of Learning and their Colleges (Boston, Little, Brown, 1928)-See pp. 165-199 for "The Harvard Figure of Charles William Eliot."
HYDE, WILLIAM DE WITT .- The College Man and the College Woman (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1906)-See pp. 228-246 for "A Great College President."
JAMES, HENRY .- Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University 1869-1909 (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1931).
MORISON, SAMUEL ELIOT, editor .- The Development of Harvard University 1869-1929 (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1930)-Vol. I of the Tercentennial History of Harvard University.
NEILSON, W. A., editor .- Charles W. Eliot, the Man and his Beliefs (2 vols., N. Y., Harper, 1926)-A biographical study and a collection of addresses and essays.
O'CONNELL, J. D .- The "Scotch-Irish" Delusion in America (Washington, 1897)-In reply to "American Contributions" by C. W. Eliot.
PEABODY, ANDREW PRESTON .- Harvard Graduates Whom I Have Known (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1890)-See pp. 149-150 for members of the Eliot family connected with Harvard College.
PEABODY, FRANCIS GREENWOOD .- Reminiscenses of Present Day Saints (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1927)-See pp. 295-308 on C. W. Eliot.
PERRY, RALPH BARTON .- "Charles William Eliot" (Dictionary of American Biography, N. Y., Scribner's, 1928 and later)-In process of publica- tion, 1930.
SAUNDERSON, HENRY HALLAM .- Charles W. Eliot, Puritan Liberal (N. Y., Harper, 1928).
SULLIVAN, MARK .- "The Personality of President Eliot" (Outlook, 1904, Vol. LXXVII, pp. 825-834).
THWING, CHARLES FRANKLIN .- "President Eliot's Twenty-five Years of Service" (Forum, 1894, Vol. XVII, pp. 355-371).
WENDELL, BARRETT .- The Mystery of Education, and other Academic Per- formances (N. Y., Scribner's, 1909)-See pp. 257-264 for the poem "De Praeside Magnifico."
WINES, FREDERIC HOWARD .- The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1897)-An investigation made under the direction of C. W. Eliot, Seth Low, and J. C. Carter.
CHAPTER XI
PUBLIC FINANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS (1890-1930)
BY JAMES J. PHELAN AND DONALD G. ROBBINS
THE STATE DEBT (1877-1917)
The purpose of this chapter is to treat in a condensed form the subject of public finance in Massachusetts. Included therein are the supervisory functions of the Commonwealth with relation to private finance, and also some account of the developments of private finance, for the period from 1890 to 1930. In forty years perhaps more has occurred in these fields than in the entire previous period since the Revolution- ary War.
The Commonwealth approached the last decade of the Nine- teenth Century with its financial house in excellent order. Due in part to substantial Civil War expenses, and in part to the cost of the Hoosac Tunnel and other railroad ventures on the part of the State, the gross debt of the Commonwealth at the end of 1877 reached $33,220,000, or a net figure of $22,335,000 after deducting sinking funds. With retrench- ment in expenditures and the accumulation of sinking funds, due in part to exceptional items, such as the profit of nearly $3,500,000 from the Back Bay Land Development enterprise, the debt was substantially lowered. The sale of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and the Hoosac Tunnel to the Fitch- burg Railroad in 1887, aided in the reduction of the net debt to $5,616,000 at the end of 1888. Against this debt the Com- monwealth held Fitchburg Railroad stock, later exchanged for $5,000,000 of Boston and Maine bonds. Unsold lands from the reclamation venture on the Commonwealth Flats in South Boston, amounted to perhaps $2,000,000.
STATE AND LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS (1890-1915)
About 1890 began a rapid expansion of the projects and activities of the State government. The legislature, subse-
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330 PUBLIC FINANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS
quent to 1888, constructed a substantial addition to the rear of the State House, the total expense rising to about $6,150,- 000. After 1913, further appropriations were made for the construction of the east and west wings to the amount of $1,800,000.
In 1890 the elimination of dangerous grade crossings re- quired the passage of an act authorizing the expenditure of not over $5,000,000 for this work. The railroads affected were to pay 65 per cent of the actual cost, and the balance was to be divided between the State and the cities or towns in which the work took place. By 1896, $1,500,000 had been borrowed for the purpose. Additional funds were subse- quently authorized, until by the end of 1915 bonds totalling $11,300,000 had been issued.
The increased demands for better highways throughout the State, in 1894 led to borrowings for construction, well dis- tributed throughout the State. For this phase of highway expansion a total of $10,230,000 had been borrowed by the end of 1915.
The years 1894 and 1895 marked the beginning of sub- stantial loans for construction of a consumptive hospital in Rutland, an hospital for epileptics in Monson, and an hospital for the insane in Medfield. In 1901, a still more elaborate program was undertaken in the expansion of various hospitals and institutional buildings throughout the State, so that by 1915 something over $9,500,000 of bonds had been issued for these purposes.
For the construction of armories to accommodate companies of the State Militia in the cities of the Commonwealth, the Legislature in 1888 authorized loans, the cost to be assessed back upon the cities in which armories were erected. Under this plan, some $3,000,000 was so expended. Under an act of 1907, the cost of construction and maintenance of ar- mories was taken over by the Commonwealth, with refunds for amounts expended by the cities for that purpose. The Armory Loan then became a direct, instead of a contingent, obligation of the State; and with the construction of added armories, by 1915 this State loan had risen to $4,700,000.
The combined result of all these increased activities of the State government financed by funds outside of the ordinary
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WATER SYSTEMS
revenues of the State, was the steady growth of the State debt, the net amount of which (after deducting the sinking funds accumulated for debt retirement) reached $30,404,000 by the end of 1915, and the larger sum of $33,658,000 by the end of 1917.
SEWERAGE SYSTEMS (1876-1915)
This same period was marked by a rapid expansion in the use of the credit of the State for projects, largely of an engi- neering nature, which had grown beyond the proper scope of a single city and could most soundly be undertaken on a con- solidated basis for the benefit of a number of towns and cities. This work centered in the metropolitan area, including the towns and cities within ten miles of the State House. In a large measure it grew out of projects initially undertaken by the city of Boston itself. Boston was among the first cities in the country to develop its sewerage system in a large way.
In 1884 a commission was created by the legislature to report on general systems of drainage for the Mystic, Black- stone and Charles River Valleys; on the protection of public water supplies; and on various methods of sewerage disposal in these territories. The report of this commission was ex- panded by the State Board of Health; the legislature in 1889 established the Metropolitan Sewerage District, and created the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission to build, maintain and operate comprehensive sewerage systems for the district. With funds borrowed through State credit, expenditures for the comprehensive systems thus developed rose by 1915 to $16,000,000. For the interest and sinking funds to care for this indebtedness, the towns and cities in the district were assessed with their respective proportions.
WATER SYSTEMS (1846-1915)
The question of water supply next received similar legisla- tive attention. As early as 1846 the city of Boston went west- ward as far as Cochituate and later to the Sudbury River watershed for its water supply. In 1895 the State Board of Health, at the direction of the legislature, submitted a com- prehensive report carefully analyzing possible sources of addi-
332 PUBLIC FINANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS
tional water supply for the entire Metropolitan territory, considering sources as far away as Lake Winnepesaukee in the central part of New Hampshire. The result was the pas- sage of an Act by the Legislature of 1895 creating the Metro- politan Water District and establishing the Metropolitan Water Board to administer its affairs. The District was to take over the supply systems owned by the city of Boston and to develop additional sources of supply on the south branch of the Nashua River, about fifty miles to the west of Boston. The initial expenditure authorized by the legislature for this purpose was $27,000,000, the largest single appropriation ever made by the State up to that time. Total expenditures had by 1915 risen to $42,000,000.
PUBLIC PARKS (1875 -1917)
In the field of public parks, developments initiated by Bos- ton led to a more comprehensive development through the entire Metropolitan District. The admirable system of parks and connecting boulevards constructed by Boston from 1875 onward made such an impression, that in 1892 other sur- rounding communities secured legislation looking to a com- prehensive plan. As a result the recreational problems of the Metropolitan District were developed as a whole under State authority through the creation of the Metropolitan Park Sys- tem and the appointment of the Metropolitan Park Commis- sion in 1893.
This great public improvement was financed through State credit in the same way as the other metropolitan projects, with interest and sinking funds apportioned to the communities benefited. One half the amount of certain loans devoted to metropolitan boulevards were assumed by the Commonwealth itself, and by 1915 loans for this purpose had totalled over $15,000,000.
A further public project undertaken along the same line was the development and improvement of the Charles River Basin, with elimination of the unsightly tidal flats by the con- struction of a dam at the lower end of the Basin. This proj- ect was undertaken in 1903, and eventually cost about $4,- 200,000.
Through these various activities, by the end of 1915 the
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DIRECT STATE TAXES
State had placed more than $76,000,000 of its credit at the service of specific portions of the State. The net amount, after sinking funds, of this indirect or "contingent" debt of the State rose steadily to $61,962,000 at the end of 1907, and then began to decline slightly. In 1917 the net contingent State debt stood at $54,325,000.
TOTAL STATE EXPENDITURE (1890-1915)
The generally increased scale of activity, reflected in the increase of debt, resulted naturally in a steadily increasing ex- penditure for current operation. Such increase took place in the cost of legislative, executive and judiciary functions- still the greatest rate of increase took place more as a result of added activity of other departments. The annual cost of hospitals and correctional institutions increased from under $600,000 per year in 1890 to $6,300,000 in 1915; while ex- penditures under the heading "correctional" rose from $775,- 000 in 1890 to $1,275,000 in 1915, and $2,392,000 in 1917. For educational purposes, expenditures grew by 1915 from under $200,000 per year to nearly $2,000,000. The entire amount expended by the State Government for current opera- tion and maintenance in this period rose from $4,100,000 in 1890 to about $17,500,000 in 1915.
DIRECT STATE TAXES (1860-1915)
The State has long derived its revenue largely from certain excise taxes, parts of which it shares with towns and cities. Ever since 1860, any balance required for expenses above the amounts so obtainable has been assessed back upon the towns and cities of the State substantially in proportion to their assessed valuations. The deficiency thus assessed back was termed the "State tax."
At the beginning of the period under discussion, the State was deriving income of approximately $400,000 per year from insurance taxes; just over $1,000,000 a year from a tax on savings deposits ; $1,400,000 from the State's share of the taxation of corporations and banks; and $400,000 per year from liquor licenses. Taxes on savings deposits and revenue from liquor licenses approximately doubled, while revenue
334 PUBLIC FINANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS
from taxes on insurance companies rose from $429,000 in 1890 to $1,343,000 in 1915.
The assessment of the State tax back on the towns and cities has always tended to keep the issue of State expenditures reasonably close to the voters of the State. New sources of revenue were sought to help pay the mounting expenses of operating the expanding functions of the State government. In 1891 a tax was laid upon collateral legacies, and in 1908 a tax was laid upon direct inheritances of property. In 1915 the combined revenue from these two taxes had risen to $3,282,000.
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