5oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



relations of the teaching and corporate boards" (J. J. Stevenson). 

 " Unless American college teachers can be assured that they are no 

 longer to be looked upon as mere employees paid to do the bidding of 

 men who, however courteous or however eminent, have not the faculty's 

 professional knowledge of the complicated problems of education, our 

 universities will suffer increasingly from a dearth of strong men, and 

 teaching will remain outside the pale of the really learned professions. 

 The problem is not one of wages; for no university can become rich 

 enough to buy the independence of any man who is really worth pur- 

 chasing" (J. P. Munroe). The prevailing system "does not attract 

 strong men to the profession of teaching, nor does it foster a vigorous 

 intellectual life in the universities. And occasionally a gross and 

 tyrranical abuse of authority reminds the world how far America is 

 behind Germany in the freedom of its university life " (Springfield 

 Republican: editorial). 



It is quite proper that the professor should be called to account for 

 his meek submission to the situation that is oppressively thrust upon 

 him. " Now the idea of professionalism lies at the very core of educa- 

 tional endeavor, and whoever engages in intellectual work fails of his 

 purpose in just so far as he fails to assert the inherent prerogatives of 

 his calling. He became a hireling in fact, if not in name, when he 

 suffers, unprotesting, the deprivation of all initiative, and contentedly 

 plays the part of a cog in a mechanism whose motions are all con- 

 trolled from without" (Dial: editorial). "Young men of power and 

 ambition scorn what should be reckoned the noblest of professions, not 

 because that profession condemns them to poverty, but because it dooms 

 them to a sort of servitude " (J. P. Munroe). " But there is real dan- 

 ger that the existing system may prove repulsive to men of the highest 

 intelligence and character and that mediocrity and time-serving may 

 be developed where we need the most vigorous ability and indepen- 

 dence " (Popular Science Monthly: editorial). "The degrading 

 tenure " of the professor is spoken of as forming a " nursery of abject 

 cowardice" (W. C. Lawton). How oppositely the protest of the pro- 

 fessor is met when the academician summons courage enough to pro- 

 test, appears in these two comments : " Truly the academic animal is 

 a queer beast. If he can not have something at which he can growl 

 and snarl, he will growl and snarl at nothing at all " (Educational Re- 

 view: editorial). "At any rate American professors have come to feel 

 that their independence is imperilled and their proper influence in 

 the university organization seriously impaired by the activities of deans, 

 presidents, and trustees." " Whatever -organization may be necessary 

 in a modern American university, the institution will not permanently 

 succeed unless the faculty as a group of independent personalities 

 practically control its operation" (J G. Schurman). And here the 

 call to arms ! " The professor must teach the nation to respect learn- 



