Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/105

THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVEMENT 79 letter. "I desire to contribute something I will pledge five hundred dollars." Are there not a hundred such noble brethren in the West, whose names we do not know, whom we cannot reach personally in any other way than through the columns of The Standard, and yet, who, without personal appeal, will feel in this great stress itself the invitation of duty ? The following week they had another encouraging word to say to their friends outside the city: It is a great encouragement that subscriptions are coming by mail from individuals and churches in different parts of the West. We are receiving about one thousand dollars a week in this way. We are confident that there are very many who are intending to make subscriptions before our year ends if they find we need them. The time has come to say that we shall certainly need the best help of every friend we have. We ask everyone who feels any interest in the success of this great undertaking to sit down quickly and send in his pledge. That anyone disposed to do this might have the means at hand, the secretaries printed the subscription blank in full in another column. These blanks soon began to return in the shape of good subscriptions. The interest among the churches visibly increased. On March 20 the secretaries announced in The Standard that forty thousand dollars had been secured outside of Chicago. Returns had so increased that they were coming in at the rate of nearly three thousand dollars a week. In response to renewed requests to set a day for the presentation of the cause of the new institution in the churches the secretaries named the second Sunday in April as "University Day" for the presentation of the work and the taking of subscriptions. Having been again urged to insert the subscription form in The Standard they did this also. The following week this was done once more and for the last time, and it was announced that up to that date a total of seven hundred subscriptions had been received. The rapid development of interest among the churches from this time to the end will be seen from the fact that at the close of the campaign eight weeks later the number of subscribers had more than doubled. On April i it was announced that one hundred thousand dollars remained to be secured. In the first two months of the campaign two hundred thousand dollars had been subscribed. It had taken eight months to raise the third hundred thousand. How could