THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 173 



clergyman only not an educator. As head, being a man of energy, 

 he meddled with things which he had not learned to understand, har- 

 assed the pupils, doubtless with the best of intentions, attempted to 

 carry out impracticable measures, and made trouble generally. Fortu- 

 nately, he was a man of some tact, and able to learn wisdom by expe- 

 rience, so that after a while order was restored, and at last he regained 

 popularity and confidence. But he learned his new trade at the ex- 

 pense of the institution, which suffered during the period of his tute- 

 lage. Would it not have been better if he had begun as a tutor, 

 then risen to the rank of professor, and finally been promoted to the 

 presidency after he had shown his fitness ? In brief, is it not safe to 

 say in general terms that no man because of success in one profession 

 should at once be intrusted with the highest place in another ? The 

 loftiest positions in any line, political, educational, or what not, should 

 be earned by faithful service and proved capacity in the lower grades. 

 There may be exceptional cases, but they are so rare as to count for 

 nothing in establishing the general principle. Special knowledge, 

 training, and experience are demanded of a college president just as 

 much as of a bank cashier, an army officer, or the captain of a ship ; 

 and rules like those which govern the latter classes of appointments 

 should hold good in the educational profession also. 



Since the duties of a professor are more easily defined than those 

 of a college president, the rules governing his appointment ought to 

 be correspondingly simpler. In general he is to teach a single subject 

 or groups of allied subjects, and should therefore be chosen for special 

 knowledge of the branches indicated. If he is to fill the chair of Latin, 

 he must necessarily be selected because of his scholarship in Latin ; if 

 he is to teach mathematics, he must be a mathematician ; and so on. 

 Furthermore, good character and efficiency are essential. It would 

 seem as if there could be no doubt upon these points, as if no argu- 

 ment about them were possible ; and yet, as a matter of fact, plain as 

 they are, they are frequently ignored. Favoritism, nepotism, and 

 sectarianism often outweigh all other considerations even in the col- 

 lege world ; and men of no genuine scholarship secure appointments 

 over candidates whose real credentials are vastly higher. The son of 

 a college president may be appointed to teach some subject in which 

 he has never been properly trained ; an unsuccessful clergyman may 

 be provided for by assignment to a professor's chair; and such things, 

 far from being mere abstract possibilities, do actually occur. Still 

 other absurdities are continually being perpetrated. The writer has 

 known of a case in which a teacher was invited to take any chair he 

 chose in a certain Western college ; and of another instance in which 

 an applicant for a professorship offered to accept any department that 

 might be offered to him. Professors have been known to begin their 

 own studies in the line of their professorships after they had been 

 elected ; and some years ago the trustees of one college passed a rule 



