320 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



has now but little hope of winning the position of college teacher. The 

 professor's refuge, therefore, is found in his doctorate. 



But in this free country, made up of forty-iive separate states with 

 varying grades of civilization, each with its legislature able and willing 

 to incorporate colleges with standards suited to local demands and local 

 ideals, or absence of ideals, there is little hope of outgrowing the tend- 

 ency to degradation of titles. If the dancing master was professor a 

 third of a century ago, he is equally free in the early future to advertise 

 himself as D.D., which for him means Doctor of Dancing. Our only 

 hope is in the gradual elevation of educational standards, causing the 

 people to become intolerant of such dishonesty. Titles received from 

 universities should be protected by law in America as they are in 

 Europe. The corrupt purchase and sale of professional degrees and of 

 honorary degrees, which is now practised secretly, is to some extent 

 punishable by law, but there is little vigilance in ferreting out offenders, 

 and we seldom hear of prosecutions. Charlatanry will continue to be 

 practised so long as there are gulls to be fooled in this world. Legis- 

 latures will continue to incorporate colleges without endowment, and 

 these colleges will give degrees that imply no scholarship. With full 

 knowledge that present evils will not be removed during the lifetime 

 of any one now living, each educational institution that has a faculty 

 of honest men can do its share toward the attainment of a liigher 

 moral standard of titles and distinctions by setting an example of 

 truthfulness and moderation. 



