Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/307

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RODIN—ROMER
289

medical education and public health, it made appropriations to a number of objects in other fields.

To the General Education Board, the next largest of his charities, Rockefeller had given up to Dec. 1920 over $115,000,000. By the close of the fiscal year 1920, this Board had contributed more than $32,000,000 towards the endowments of different colleges, excluding professional departments, the general practice being to make gifts contingent upon the raising of additional sums. Among medical schools which received help were Washington University, $2,345,000; Johns Hopkins, over $2,200,000; University of Chicago, $2,000,000 (joint fund with the Rockefeller Foundation, 1916); Vanderbilt, $4,000,000 (1919); Rochester, $5,000,000 (1920); Yale Medical School, $1,582,000; and the Meharry Medical College (for negroes), Nashville, Tenn., $150,000 (1920). The Board's facilities for aiding medical education were greatly increased in 1919 by a further gift from Rockefeller of $20,000,000, both principal and interest to be expended in the United States during the next 50 years. In 1919 it gave $500,000 towards the endowment of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, opened the following year; and in 1920 appropriated $1,000,000 to the proposed building fund of Teachers' College, Columbia University, the largest gift yet made to any institution for training teachers. To the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, Rockefeller gave in all upwards of $25,000,000. In Nov. 1920 announcement was made that he had given more than $63,000,000 to the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, New York, largely for the continuing of charities in which Mrs. Rockefeller, who died in 1915, had been interested. By that time more than $8,000,000 had already been appropri- ated, chiefly for the benefit of women and children.

It was estimated at the beginning of 1921 that the total amount given by Mr. Rockefeller for philanthropic and chari- table purposes exceeded $500,000,000. Nearly four-fifths of this had gone to the four great charitable corporations which he created: The Rockefeller Foundation, General Education Board, The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Quite as significant as the magni- tude of these gifts was the fact that they were free from all restrictions, having been given for the general purposes of the respective corporations, the trustees of which have power to dispose of the principal as well as the income. As the corporate purposes of these organizations are extremely broad, and the gifts are free from restrictions, they will always be adaptable to the changing needs of the future generations. While it was probably true that Mr. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world, it would appear, in view of the statements made by competent authorities, that his wealth in 1921 was less than $500,000,000, and that in making his gifts he had drawn very heavily upon capital as well as income.


RODIN, FRANCOIS AUGUSTS (1840–1917), French sculptor (see 23.447), presented in Nov. 1914 20 examples of his work in bronze, including " L'Enfant prodigue," " La Muse," " France," " Cybele," " L'ange dechu," " Balzac," and a bust of Mr. George Wyndham, to the Victoria and Albert museum, London, as a token of his admiration for the deeds of the British army. In 1916 Rodin presented all the works remaining in his pos- session to France, and in 1917 a replica of " The Burghers of Calais " was placed in the garden adjoining the House of Lords. He died at Meudon, near Paris, Nov. 17 1917.


RODZIANKO, MICHAEL VASSILIEVICH (1859- ), Rus- sian politician, was born in 1859 and belonged to a family of great landowners. At the age of 19 he joined the Horse Guards, but he soon resigned and retired to his large estates in the government of Novgorod. He took an active part in local life and was also a member of the conferences of Zemstova and Towns. In 1905 he was elected member of the First Duma and was re-elected at all subsequent elections. .He joined the right wing of the Octobrist (Moderate Liberal) party, and with the support of the Conservatives was elected president of the Third Duma after the resignation of A. Guchkov in March 1911. Later he was reflected president of the Fourth Duma, and took an important part in the struggle for constitutional changes in the Government of Russia. He strongly opposed the reactionary policy of the Imperial Government, and always defended the rights and privi- leges of the Duma. By the force of events Rodzianko was placed at the head of the national movement at the moment of the revolution, and, as president of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, he sent a telegram to the Tsar pointing out the necessity of his abdication. But he had no real influence on the course of the revolution. He played for some time a purely decorative role, receiving telegrams of congratulation and deliv- ering speeches, but he soon disappeared from the stage. After the Bolshevist revolution, he made his way to the south of Russia, where he took part in different anti-Bolshevist organi- zations and bodies. Later he emigrated to Germany.


ROGERS, BENJAMIN BICKLEY (1828–1919), English classical scholar, was born at Shepton Montagu, Som., Dec. n 1828. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he was elected a fellow of the college in 1852 and was called to the bar in 1856. There he was on the high road to success, when increasing deafness obliged him to retire and devote himself exclusively to literature. He translated all the plays of Aristophanes, reproducing the Greek metres in the English version. He died at Twickenham Sept. 22 1919.


ROGERS, JAMES GUINNESS (1822–1911), British Nonconformist divine, was born at Enniskillen, Ireland, Dec. 29 1822. He was educated at Silcoates school, Wakefield, and Trinity College, Dublin. From 1865 to 1900 he was a minister of the Clapham Congregational church. He is best remembered for his close association with Dr. Dail in the Liberal-Nonconformist education and disestablishment campaigns of 1865–75, and for his friendship with Mr. Gladstone and Lord Rosebery, who consulted him as the foremost representative of Nonconformist statesmanship. He died at Clapham Aug. 20 1911.


ROLLAND, ROMAIN (1866–), French man of letters, was born at Clamecy, Nievre, Jan. 29 1866. He was educated at Clamecy, and later in Paris, where he had a distinguished academic career. From 1889–91 he was a member of the French School in Rome, in 1892 went with an archaeological expedition to Italy, and in 1895 was appointed professor of the history of art at the Ecole Normale Superieure, later occupying the same position at the Sorbonne, where he introduced the study of the history of music. He produced many critical and historical works, among them Histoire de l'Opera en Europe avant Lulli et Scarlatti (1895); Des Causes de la Decadence de la Peinture italienne (1895); and Le Thidlre du Peuple (1903); besides studies on Millet (1902); Beethoven (1903) and Michel-Ange (1906). His most famous work, however, is the romance of Jean Christophe, the biography of a German musician, one of the most remarkable productions of the present day. The work is in three series, Jean Christophe, Jean Christophe a Paris and La Fin du Voyage. It appeared in 10 volumes, the first, L'Aube, in 1904, and the last, La Nouvelle Journee, in 1912. A series of articles published by Remain Rolland in the Journal de Geneve during Sept. and Oct. 1914 created an extremely bad impression in France owing to the " defeatist " attitude of the author. His later works include Au-dessus de la Melee, of which the ninth edition appeared in 1915; Colas Brangnon, a novel (1918); Les Precurseurs (1919) and Voyage musical aux pays du passe (1919).

See Jan Rpmein, Remain Rolland (1918); I. Debran, M. R. Rolland, initiateur du defaitisme (1918); W. Kuechler, Romain Rolland (1919).


ROMER, SIR ROBERT (1840–1918), English judge, was born in London Dec. 23 1840. He was educated privately and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler and Smith's prizeman in 1863. From 1865 to 1866 he was professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, but in 1867 was called to the bar, becoming in 1881 a Q.C. and in 1884 a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. In 1890 he was raised to the bench of the Chancery division and knighted, and in 1899 became a lord justice of appeal. He presided over one of the inquiries made after the South African War, and was also a member of the royal commission on university education. He received the G.C.B. in 1901