Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 240

Several other gifts, in addition to the Milton P. Higgins shop fund, gave encouragement to the trustees. In 1912, the American Steel & Wire Co. donated $2,500 toward the endowment. The following year, J. Russell Marble of Worcester added $1,000 to invested funds, and Charles Baker, '93, gave $5,000 to establish the Ella McCullagh Baker library fund, in memory of his wife. The will of Mrs. Harriet D. Brown of Worcester, who died in 1912, provided $12,000 and named the Institute as residuary legatee, a clause that ultimately was to produce a substantial scholarship fund. The basis of another valuable fund, the Kinnicutt Loan Fund, was established in 1912 with the $400 secured from the sale of Newton Hall furnishings and a gift of $100 from Lincoln N. Kinnicutt.

Financial resources were still far from adequate to provide for the increased number of students, or to pay salaries commensurate with the scale of other colleges. The only hope for immediate increase lay with the State Legislature. In the fall of 1911, Charles G. Washburn, James Logan, and Homer Gage were appointed to make application for another increase in the annual grant from $15,000 to $50,000. This bold stroke was actuated by the announcement that M.I.T. had been granted double that sum. The burden of the appeal was taken by Mr. Washburn. He prepared it with his characteristic legal skill, and flanked by other friends of the Institute, eloquently laid it before the legislative committee early in 1912.

The bill covering this grant met stiffer opposition than any similar bill had encountered in the Massachusetts General Court. For three months it was the subject of vigorous debate. Stout opposition was raised by the molders' union because of a previous labor dispute over the Institute foundry. Amendments were offered which would have reduced the grant to $35,000, and that would have required the Institute to raise $500,000 from other sources. But Mr. Washburn stuck to his original proposal, and by the power of his counter attacks, brought the bill to passage in April, 1912. In its final form,

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