512 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



idea of the pension will induce some men to surrender work at an earlier 

 age than they ought. It is impossible to offer to men an advantage 

 such as that which flows from a pension system of any sort without 

 arousing in some minds the question — How can I get the most out of it ? 

 But the number of such individuals amongst college teachers is small 

 and will become smaller as the standards of college life rise. 



Nor can one shut one's eyes to the fact that the colleges themselves 

 may, by reason of the pensions of the foundation, neglect their own duty 

 in taking care of their old teachers. The officers of the foundation 

 have done all in their power to make it clear to the colleges that the 

 funds at their command and likely in the future to be at their com- 

 mand could care for only a limited number of colleges. Nevertheless, 

 in spite of this effort, it has been tacitly assumed by many colleges, 

 and generally by those of the lowest standards in scholarship, that any 

 obligation on their part to care for their old teachers had vanished with 

 the inauguration of the foundation. This phase of the situation is also, 

 I believe, a temporary one. 



One other feature of the Carnegie Foundation pensions has aroused 

 criticism. This is the plan of a centralized pension fund and the fact 

 that this agency deals in its publications with general educational ques- 

 tions which touch directly university interests and educational policies. 



The dread of a centralized agency in any field of social activity is 

 one which depends largely on the point of view of the individual. The 

 idea that such an agency as the Carnegie Foundation will exert arbitrary 

 pressure upon those colleges which choose to accept its pensions seems to 

 me improbable. Such agencies, like universities themselves, are in the 

 end molded by public opinion. There is, however, no method by which 

 this can be proved to one who sees in the existence of such an agency 

 unfortunate influences upon the colleges and universities. The two 

 opinions result from differences in the point of view, not from differ- 

 ences in intellectual honesty and sincerity, and such differences of view 

 only time and experience can bring together. 



It seems to me, however, that the argument that a central educa- 

 tional agency may exert arbitrary and unwise influence over the uni- 

 versities may be very fairly compared with a similar arraignment of 

 the universities themselves which, by a somewhat singular coincidence, 

 was put forward at a meeting of teachers simultaneously with the one 

 just alluded to. 



This complaint came from the secondary school men. They argued 

 that the universities are outside corporations having little sympathy 

 and knowledge of secondary school work and yet not only ready to exert 

 over the high school an arbitrary power, but actually in a number of 

 cases exerting this power to the harm of the secondary schools. These 

 secondary school teachers protested most strongly against the domina- 

 tion of any such outside irresponsible agency. 



