NOVEMBEB 26, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



755 



the announcement of the establishment of the 

 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 

 Teaching, with its pensions for teachers in col- 

 leges and universities, aroused again hopes 

 that the status of the individual would be 

 significantly and permanently improved, but 

 the policy finally adopted dashed them to the 

 ground. Indeed, it has been argued, with 

 some show of justice, that the Carnegie pen- 

 sions, far from being a benefit to men of 

 science engaged in academic work, will act as 

 a distinct hindrance, since there are not 

 wanting signs that some institutions are al- 

 ready taking into account these pensions when 

 fixing or advancing salaries. Thus, it may 

 happen that the provision intended to benefit 

 the professor, when worn out by investigation 

 and teaching, or his widow, when he is dead, 

 will actually serve as a means of keeping down 

 his salary while alive and rendering the best 

 service possible. Only those who are to be 

 " benefited " can appreciate to the full the 

 crushing efi'ect of such a procedure. " He'll 

 get a Carnegie pension, anyway, when his time 

 comes !" What a miserable philosophy of 

 academic life those words can cover ! The ex- 

 ploitation, in this way, by institutions of in- 

 vestigators and teachers still in their prime, or 

 in the best days of their youth, is a sin too 

 heinous to be quite covered by the charity- 

 mantle of an old-age pension. The possibili- 

 ties here for " graft " at the expense of man- 

 hood and womanhood are as dangerous and 

 degrading as anywhere in the realm of poli- 

 tics. The authorities of the Carnegie Foun- 

 dation must see to it that the selection of 

 " picked young men " and their retention as 

 cheaply as possible will remove the institu- 

 tion indulging in such practises from the 

 sphere of its benefits. Much could be done at 

 their initiative to make the hire worthy of the 

 laborer. That in any profession or depart- 

 ment of service to mankind advantage should 

 be taken of zeal, devotion and ability on the 

 lowest basis ought to be now impossible. That 

 a young man or a young woman of genius 

 ought to be kept both poor and in leading- 

 strings is neither humane nor evolutionally 

 justifiable. Youth that dares and does ought 

 to be well fed bodily and spiritually. One of 



the saddest chapters in the history of educa- 

 tion deals with the young men and women 

 who have been " exploited " by institutions 

 and then dropped, like a lemon sucked dry, 

 or retained on the staff at starvation wages. 

 For this state of aifairs, so unjust to the indi- 

 vidual and so corruptive of the best human 

 instincts and ideals, some drastic remedy is 

 needed. The present writer believes that the 

 endowment of men and women and the adop- 

 tion of the policy that universities are for men, 

 not men for universities, would go far toward 

 relieving the situation and making conditions 

 helpful to individual genius and worthy the 

 dignity of scientific research. Certain inde- 

 pendent fellowships of large income in Europe 

 and America illustrate the point; so, likewise, 

 the achievements of endowed men of genius, 

 like Darwin, etc. Some of the things that 

 would result, if such a policy were adopted, 

 may be here briefly outlined. 



1. Health and Rest. — Endowment of the 

 individual would be of great physical and 

 moral, as well as intellectual, benefit. It would 

 enable the investigator to work in conformity 

 with his ovm rhythm of rest and activity, and 

 thus largely avoid the risk of bodily or mental 

 break-down. He could also take his sabbatical 

 year when he needed it and not merely when 

 he could get it or beg it. The all-too-coramon 

 spectacle of a professor (with a family to care 

 for besides himself) reduced to the necessity 

 of recuperating by getting well again on haK 

 his salary or even less, would be no more, and 

 the theory ended that a sick man needs less to 

 get well with than a well man to keep well on. 

 Such endowment would protect investigators 

 from summer schools and those other academic 

 fringes that are a burden to body and soul. 

 Hours need not then be wasted arranging 

 man-millinery, rehearsing for academic func- 

 tions, standing in line, sitting on platforms, 

 marching from building to building, and 

 submitting to the increasing fads and 

 fancies of the American universities. An 

 endowed man would feel his backbone stiff- 

 ened enough to join the few protesting 

 now and put an end to the subordination 

 of science to the gown and its long train 

 of absurd inconsequentialities made so much 



