THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



475 



outstanding charters, four of which are 

 the already dead ones, killed again by 

 the senate bill above referred to, and 

 two the very perniciously quiescent 

 companies, one of which is known to 

 be controlled by a large railroad cor- 

 poration. It remains to be seen 

 whether these six repeal bills can get 

 through the senate. So far then as 

 the pending legislation at Albany is 

 concerned, it will have little effect on 

 the people's hope for Niagara whether 

 the Foelker restriction bill wins out or 

 fails, but it will be a most important 

 step forward if the six Foelker repeal 

 bills should succeed in reaching the 

 governor. 



THE REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 

 OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



The annual reports of President 

 Eliot form a series of educational docu- 

 ments of great and permanent interest, 

 by no means confined to the great uni- 

 versity over which he presides. The 

 current report states that the principal 

 event of the year was the raising by 

 general subscription of the ' teachers' 

 endowment fund,' amounting to $2,300,- 

 000, for the increase of salaries in 

 Harvard College. This was locally 

 necessary, as the university was in 

 danger of losing its men to other in- 

 stitutions; it is also of general acad- 

 emic interest. The average salary of 

 the 57 professors in Harvard College 

 was $3,9S0, and only 13 received as 

 much as $5,000. The maximum salary 

 has now been increased to $5,500 to 

 be paid to all after a long enough 

 period of service. The average salary 

 of 3S assistant professors was $2,130, 

 and of 88 instructors $990. These 

 salaries have also been increased. The 

 largest ordinary salaries at Columbia 

 are $5,000, at Yale $3,750 and at Penn- 

 sylvania $3,500. It appears to be most 

 unfortunate that while our leading uni- 

 versities have spent vast sums for 

 grounds and buildings, the salaries 

 have remained stationary or have even 

 decreased.. The academic career should 



be made attractive by freedom, security 

 and congenial work rather than by 

 large salaries, but the salaries should 

 be as large as those received for equal 

 performance in other professions. Har- 

 vard has once again led the way in an 

 important educational reform. 



The report contains an account of 

 the failure to form a merger with the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 The reason given is the decision of the 

 supreme court forbidding the sale of 

 the present site of the institute. This 

 is technically correct, but the value of 

 this land is really a small matter. It 

 could have been readily transferred to 

 the city for park or other public pur- 

 poses without cost to the institute if 

 the removal and the combination with 

 Harvard had met with general ap- 

 proval. The fact is that the plan 

 failed because the faculties and alumni 

 of the two institutions opposed the 

 union that was favored by the presi- 

 dents and the corporations. We have 

 here an interesting question of ultimate 

 academic control, which President 

 Eliot fails to discuss or even to notice. 



Some elaborate statistics are given in 

 the report in regard to students who 

 have taken different kinds of college 

 degrees during the past fifteen years at 

 fourteen institutions of different type. 

 These show that the old classical course 

 has completely lost its predominance. 

 The A.B. degree is now given at Har- 

 vard without Latin, though a classical 

 language is still required at entrance. 

 In many institutions, for example since 

 1901 at Michigan and Cornell, and 

 since 1904 at Wisconsin, the A.B. is 

 given without regard to the kind of 

 entrance examination, and the number 

 of degrees of this kind has greatly in- 

 creased. Thus Wisconsin gave only 

 21 A.B.'s in 1903, as compared with 

 194 in 1905. Where two or more 

 courses are maintained, one retaining 

 more or less of the classics and the 

 others without, the classical course 

 tends relatively to lose ground. Thus 

 in 1891 there were at Yale 832 students 



