CORRESPONDENCE 



To THE Editor of " Science Progress " 



STARVATION PAY OF BRAIN-WORKERS 



From F. H. Perrycoste, B.Sc, 



Dear Sir, — I believe that I am correct in stating that a raw youth of about 

 eighteen, if possessing a good physique and a fair character, and if normally 

 " intelligent," is started, even whilst under training, in the police force at a 

 pay of ;^i82 per year ; and he may rise to the rank of superintendent at a 

 minimum annual pay of ;^45o : and every rank in the police force carries a 

 substantial pension. Incidentally, I have seen it stated that the average 

 annual pay of university professors is about ;^40o ; and the provision for 

 pensioning them is, I believe, negligible. 



It was recently decided that dockers — who, I suppose, are at the lowest 

 level of unskilled physical labour — ought to receive ^250 per year ; and a 

 scheme is under consideration for guaranteeing them, whilst unemployed, pay 

 at the rate of ;!^2oo per year at the expense of the industry. 



Let it be remembered that those who become policemen and dockers have 

 been earning wages — in these days possibly or probably more than their 

 cost of living — since they were fourteen. 



Now we will turn to the other side of the picture. In a recent issue of 

 Nature the University of London advertises for two demonstrators in chem- 

 istry at a salary each of ;^2oo — equivalent in purchasing power to about £j6 

 in 1913. I presume that such demonstrators will be graduates — i.e. that, 

 instead of having earned their living during seven or eight years previously, 

 they have been kept at school and university at very heavy expense to their 

 parents. 



I brush aside at once the myth that only rich men send their sons to 

 the universities. In numberless cases the lads are sent there at the cost 

 of grievous self-denial to the parents, and not even as a good pecuniary 

 investment for the lads themselves. 



If a man really wants his son to get rich, he must, in many cases, be 

 rather a fool to send him to a university instead of putting him at sixteen 

 into trade or finance, which will give him a living at once and a prospect 

 of affluence later. 



There are, however, strange creatures living who regard congenital brain 

 power as not simply or primarily a potential asset for the possessor, but as 

 a sacred trust to be nursed and developed for the good of the community ; 

 and these impracticable people, if they descry brains in their children, will 

 seek to Educate them to their utmost in order to render them essentially 

 " useful members of society " — as the derided but hallowed old phrase had 

 it. Whether eventually their educated but sweated and starvation-paid 

 offspring will bless them, or otherwise, is another matter. 



Now, I do not suggest that at present prices the docker's pay is at all 



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