Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 135

The petition prepared by the trustees' committee was based not only on the needs of an institution that was making a substantial contribution to the good of the State, but on a claim that the Institute should be accorded this aid because of generous grants that Massachusetts had recently made to M. 1. T. and the Agricultural College. A hearing on the petition was given by the committee on Education, February 9, 1894. Mr. Salisbury, judge Aldrich, Mr. Washburn, Dr. Fuller, and Col. E. B. Stoddard, a member of the State Board of Education, all spoke convincingly and at some length in favor of the grant. The act authorizing the expenditure passed both houses and was signed by the Governor in March.

In June, the building committee was authorized to contract for, build, and equip the new laboratories. Two other projects, the construction of a new home for the President, and the erection of a foundry, were also referred to this committee. Action on these proposals, and the actual construction of laboratories took place during the third administration. They will be described in a later chapter.

The gross business of the Washburn Shops during the eighties ranged from $16,000 to $33,000 a year. Cash balances dwindled from year to year, shop expenses eating up interest of the Washburn fund and income from tuitions of apprentices, as well as proceeds from sales. The Lucius J. Knowles machine shop fund, received in 1887, was a temporary boon. In that year, the trustees appropriated $5,000 of the $12,000 bequest for the temporary use of the shop. Three thousand dollars were similarly appropriated in 1891, and the remaining $4,000 was used the following year for the purchase of shop equipment.

The shop and its management created a distinct line of cleavage in the Board of Trustees. One side favored frequent investigations of shop affairs; the other group stoutly defended its management. Such an investigation, made in 1886, was productive of only minor changes. At that time there was also an inquiry into the relations between the Washburn

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999