COLLEGE CONDITIONS 399 



away finally; commercial intercourse is complete and the small farmer 

 handles more money than did his wealthy predecessor of a century ago. 

 College is sought no longer only by those destined for the " three learned 

 professions " ; young men of all aims, and a multitude with no aims, are 

 enrolled in the classes ; it has become the thing to own a diploma. The 

 faculty no longer consists of five or six men, each supposed to be fa- 

 miliar with everything in the curriculum but, in all reputable colleges, 

 it is composed of teachers who have spent years in special preparation 

 for the chairs which they occupy — a college professorship is no longer 

 regarded as a haven of rest for men who have failed in some other walk 

 of life; the curriculum has been broadened in all directions and the 

 cost per student has been increased by several hundred per cent. 



In spite of the changed conditions, colleges, and to a great extent 

 professional schools, are still regarded as closely allied to charitable 

 institutions. The presidents of starveling academies with a college 

 annex go about the country pleading the cause of their poor self-deny- 

 ing professors; colleges are exempt from all ordinary taxation; they 

 maintain costly fields for semi-professional athletic contests to which 

 admission fees are charged; they are permitted to reserve large parks 

 around their buildings, even though the reservation be to secure an 

 unearned increment. This conception that colleges are charitable insti- 

 tutions does comparatively little injury to the community, but it does 

 far-reaching injury to the staff of instructors in that the salaries are 

 adjusted on the altruistic basis. It is felt that the work is so lofty in 

 aim and so important to the human race that no consideration of pe- 

 cuniary reward should be permitted to corrupt the worker. Not long 

 ago a western association of college teachers resolved that, in their 

 opinion, the minimum salary for a professor should be at least $1,400. 

 The president of one of the colleges asserted that such a minimum would 

 be absurd; that, if the rule were enforced, a very great proportion of 

 the colleges west from the Mississippi would be driven out of existence. 

 If that should be the result, devout lovers of true education ought to 

 establish at once a chain of prayer meetings to bring about the enforce- 

 ment of that minimum. 



But it is very difficult to believe that young men or young women 

 have an inherent right to receive higher education at another's expense. 

 If one can earn such education, it is his right ; if another choose to earn 

 it for him, no one may criticize either giver or receiver. All recognize 

 the parent's duty to give to his child every advantage within his means, 

 even at the cost of great self-denial, for he brought that child into the 

 world without its consent. But the responsibility of others ceases at an 

 early stage in education, far below the requirements for college en- 

 trance ; it extends no farther than the community's protection demands. 

 A wise community will go beyond the limit of its absolute responsibility 



