THE SMALL COLLEGE 45 1 



ethical nature of the excuse that " a man must live " may be called in 

 question, but no married man dare question the validity of the corollary 

 that " a man's family must live/' nor blame the teacher who, with wife 

 and children dependent on him, places bread and butter ahead of ideals 

 and starvation. On these stern conditions the teacher is often forced 

 to countenance practises which he knows to be fundamentally wrong; 

 and on the same stern conditions he is often forced to assume public re- 

 sponsibility for these same practises. If he protest, he is curtly told 

 that teachers are not wanted who can not loyally support the institution 

 and its policies, and is given the choice of upholding a policy which he 

 knows to be harmful or of tendering his resignation. In short, while 

 they are not allowed any appreciable share in determining the policies 

 of the college, the faculty are forced to pose as the authors of these same 

 policies, and criticism of any one of them is sufficient ground for a 

 charge of " disloyalty " to the institution, and often a threat of dismis- 

 sal from one's position. In all such matters, the teacher is not a free 

 agent. He acts virtually under duress. The real responsibility for 

 existing conditions must be sought elsewhere. 



Above the faculty stands the board of trustees, a self-perpetuating 

 body governing the college from without, sometimes with slight sym- 

 pathy for the views of those within. The power of the board is abso- 

 lute ; its will is the supreme law of the college. For the most part it is 

 made up of successful business men, few of whom are in agreement with 

 the ideals of the faculty, many of whom indeed are incapable of under- 

 standing such ideals. They are keen, enterprising men, who have made 

 money, who are proud of their business, intensely if blindly loyal to the 

 town, and always ready to push its interests in season and out. They 

 are proud of the fact that we have a college here. Its presence adver- 

 tises us as a literate people, and it attracts new families to the town, 

 thus " making business." While some of them have a rather hazy idea 

 as to what college is for, they are very sure it is a fine thing, and they 

 are willing to work for it, spend time and money for it, and use their 

 utmost endeavors to advertise it effectively. Standards of scholarship 

 are beyond their comprehension, but size appeals to them, for to them 

 size and success are synonymous terms. They are ambitious for a big 

 town and a big college. Whether the latter shall be a center of sound 

 scholarship or merely a degree mill is a question that is not considered; 

 indeed, the very meaning of such a problem is beyond the comprehen- 

 sion of most of them. Theirs is the narrowly commercial point of view, 

 and they are constitutionally incapable of appreciating any problem 

 that can not be expressed in commercial terms. 



" M is to be asked to resign on account of inefficiency," declared 



a member of our board of trustees, in the hearing of a friend. 



"But I had supposed M to be highly efficient," objected the 



friend. " He has certainly had fine training in his subject, and all who 



