AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSORS. 129 



concern us here; what is contended for is a proper assignment of 

 powers and duties to accord with the conditions of to-day as contrasted 

 with those of two generations ago, when most of the great institutions 

 of to-day were little better than are the eastern High Schools. This 

 adjustment would give to the teaching staff its proper standing and 

 the trustees would be guardians of the material interests. 



Perhaps this second step should be regarded as the first. It cer- 

 tainly would change in some respects the estimate which some boards 

 entertain regarding the relative importance of trustees and professors. 

 In many colleges, professors have given their services at small salaries, 

 far less than they could have obtained in other directions, have refused 

 calls at higher salaries to other colleges, in not a few instances have 

 reduced their salaries voluntarily and served the college for a pittance, 

 simply to preserve it from destruction. All this they did deliberately, 

 hoping that in the end their college would be placed upon a sound 

 basis and depending upon the good sense of the trustees for proper 

 recognition in due season. Such contributions should be accepted as 

 so much money given annually to preserve the college and the con- 

 tributors should receive at least as much credit as do such trustees as 

 pay something in actual cash. That this is not the case is well known. 

 When money is received by a college, the trustees should not hasten 

 simply to relieve themselves from their subscriptions, they should 

 share the relief with the professors ; and if, at length, sufficient money 

 should come to relieve the actual pecuniary stress and to leave a sur- 

 plus, common honesty requires that that surplus be devoted toward 

 finally relieving the professors. That done, the time will have come to 

 consider the question of expanding the curriculum and of appointing 

 new instructors. That this is not the view held by trustees of our day 

 is a familiar fact. And yet the condition does not justify any reflec- 

 tion upon the honor of the trustees; it is due solely to the fact that 

 they know little about the professors as men or as workers, — to the con- 

 stantly widening gulf separating the corporate and educational boards. 



In any event, this second step, if taken, would go far toward re- 

 storing the profession to its former honorable standing and would go 

 far also toward making possible the third step, which is consolidation. 



There are too many academies calling themselves ' college ' or 

 even ' university,' with high grade curriculum and low grade require- 

 ments, with long lists of pupils in preparatory classes of one sort or 

 another and very short lists of students in so-called college classes. 

 Many of these have no apology for existence aside from the fact that 

 otherwise the religious denomination, which they represent, would 

 have no educational institution in the region. There are in proximity 

 too many feeble colleges, with few college students, with insufficient 

 equipment, with practically no endowment and with makeshift instruct- 

 ors. If a judicious consolidation could be brought about, if the 



