STATUS OF AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSORS. 753 



to the business affairs of their institution; have been known indeed to 

 take up the burden of business, after it had been abandoned by the 

 corporate board, and so to care for teaching and business that in time 

 both were returned in excellent condition to the control of the trustees. 

 No doubt it is true that in some cases the faculty gathered under 

 the present system may not be fully competent to undertake manage- 

 ment such as has been suggested ; but that is no reason for continuance 

 of a system which can bring about such a condition. Serious errors 

 are less likely to be made by those who know something about the re- 

 quirements than by those who know very little or practically nothing 

 about them. A not very skillful carpenter is a far better judge of 

 carpentry than the ablest statesman can be. A faculty of not very 

 high grade can judge better respecting the all-around fitness of a candi- 

 date than can a board composed of eminently successful bankers, law- 

 yers and clergymen — better even than can a college president, who at 

 one time was a typically good professor, but who by force of circum- 

 stances has been diverted from educational work to become a strong 

 man of business. 



vol. i.xvir- 48. 



