Cook to Michigan

Last week the University of Michigan's law school became, in the opinion of its officials, "the wealthiest the world has ever known." The will of William Wilson Cook --Michigan Law graduate (1882), onetime general counsel for Postal Telegraph & Cable Co.--who died at Rye, N. Y., fortnight ago, had endowed the institution with over $10,000,000.

"Believing as I do," wrote Donor Cook, "that American institutions are of more consequence than the wealth or power of the country, and believing that the preservation and development of these institutions have been, are, and will continue to be under the leadership of the legal profession, and believing also that the future of America depends largely upon that profession; and believing that the character of the law schools determines the character of the legal profession, I wish to aid in enlarging the scale and improving the standards of the law schools by aiding the one from which I was graduated."

Long had Donor Cook thought about and preached the beneficence of U. S. institutions. In 1927 he wrote a book, American Institutions and Their Preservation, published it privately, sold it at cost, gave it to libraries. Last year he gave Michigan $200,000 the income of which was to support a series of lectures explaining, identifying U. S. institutions. To him these were the ten great & good institutions of the U. S.:

1) The Constitution

2) Popular sovereignty

3) Universal suffrage

4) Division of sovereignty between Federal and State governments

5 ) The Supreme Court

6) Separation of legislative and judicial powers

7) Public schools

5) Town meetings

9) Separation of church and state

10) Equality of opportunity.

Total Cook benefactions to Michigan amount to $20,000,000. include the celebrated Lawyer's Club, Martha Cook Dormitory (in memory of his mother), an administration building, a law research library, none of which, according to Michigan legend, he ever went to see. preferring to retain his conceptions of them from the architectural drawings.

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