ACADEMIC ASPECTS OF ADMINISTRATION 331 



As thus analyzed, the situation is explicable, in part even justified. 

 As evolutionists we bear in mind the rapidly shifting, indeed the un- 

 precedented character of the conditions in which our academic practises 

 have been evolved. Under such conditions organization must be elastic, 

 initiative open, adjustments ready to meet emergencies. Power is nat- 

 urally concentrated in a few, even in a single hand ; and once more, the 

 democracy of our ideals asserts itself in the keeping in touch with 

 popular demands of what academic service may be expected to supply. 

 But it is still more true and very much more significant, in so far as 

 this is an excuse, that we have outgrown all that, except where the 

 frontier still holds. The time is here for most of. our universities and 

 is close at hand for the rest, when we must cease to ask special con- 

 sideration for our educational provisions. "We are not a weakling nor 

 an unfortunate people. Let our universities stand as worthy embodi- 

 ments of our national resources comparable with those of other lands, 

 as do our railways, our factories or our public library system. This 

 is not a matter of time, but of tradition. Some of the foremost of the 

 German universities are about as old or younger than the college whose 

 anniversary is now observed. But the traditions under which these 

 were established and under which they have developed are decided 

 traditions of the supreme right of Lehrfreiheit and of the great dis- 

 tinction and worth of the academic career. If such is to obtain amongst 

 us we must develop perceptions keen to that which is educationally 

 sound, to what is culturally good; we must trust implicitly those who 

 have these perceptions; we must secure for the career devoted to this 

 cause, honor, encouragement, responsibility, authority and a suitable 

 living. 



From whatever side we approach the situation we reach the same 

 conclusion, for the factors thereof are of a nature all compact. We 

 measure academic success by unsuitable standards, derived from the 

 market-place ; and as a consequence there is a sorry contamination even 

 within the fold. That the professor has not been able to withstand these 

 several influences must with like frankness be confessed. The law of 

 the grove is compromised, evaded or forgotten. Professors become 

 statistically minded, dwell upon sizes of classes, offer inducements for 

 the hesitant student, seeks the favor of those in power and further the 

 ends preferred by those who mete rewards. We find them also dis- 

 couraged by the unfair struggle for existence, with everything rising 

 except the price of postage stamps and professors' salaries ; we find them 

 acquiring a disturbing interest in commercial ventures; we find them 

 losing the finer qualities of their service because of the trying elements 

 in the intellectual climate. The excuse is not far to seek. When men 

 of the academy find, as years go by, that their own preferment is largely 

 determined by utility, not in direct development of their personal 



