AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSORS. 123 



nected with his work so exhausting that, during term time, any pro- 

 longed study beyond that which is necessary becomes irksome. 



Two generations ago, college trustees kept themselves more or less 

 in touch with the professors and made diligent effort to become familiar 

 with details of the work. With vast expansion in resources and equal 

 expansion in the curriculum, personal relations between professors and 

 trustees practically ceased and the latter have no longer time, opportu- 

 nity, or, in too many cases, inclination, to acquaint themselves with the 

 nature or extent of the work done by individual professors. Univer- 

 sity faculties have rarely any direct representation in the board of 

 trustees or before it, the common mouthpiece being the president, who, 

 no matter how earnest and faithful he may be, is not, in the very 

 nature of things, competent to understand all matters or to present 

 them properly. In too many cases, the professors are not consulted 

 even in the matter of appointments and the trustees place the respon- 

 sibility for these upon the president, as though the institution were a 

 country academy. Naturally enough, trustees have come to regard them- 

 selves as the institution and the professors as merely their employees, 

 as, indeed, has been asserted. This has gone so far that in one insti- 

 tution, at least until a very recent period, all appointments were for 

 the period of one year — a plan admirably adapted to secure adherence 

 to the powers in control. For trustees having this conception of their 

 powers and duties, the usefulness or worth of an instructor is not 

 measured by his ability as teacher or investigator. 



Certainly the attractions making the profession so inviting in for- 

 mer days no longer exist in such form as to be magnetic to ambitious 

 young men. 



It might be supposed that, on the whole, salaries have been increased 

 so as to compensate in some degree for the losses; and the relation of 

 income to number of instructors, as given in the opening paragraph, 

 appears at first glance to confirm the supposition. But not so. 

 Salaries, always small, have not been increased to keep pace with cost of 

 living or even with other demands unknown two generations ago. On 

 the contrary, taken as a whole, the salaries have decreased. The writer 

 recognizes that salaried men are at a disadvantage in comparison with 

 ordinary wage-earners, the advance of salaries being slow and the periods 

 of rest usually long ; but college men are at especial disadvantage owing 

 to peculiar conditions, which have been intensified during recent years. 



College income must come mainly from endowments or their 

 equivalent. Students' fees, though not unimportant, pay but a small 

 part of the cost. Little more than two generations ago, when college 

 faculties were small, the course compulsory and free tuition almost 

 unknown, fees were the chief source of income. With increase in num- 

 ber of students, old buildings became insufficient and new buildings 

 were secured by sale of long time scholarships at low rates, the future 



