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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 778 



immunity from the infliction of the class- 

 room. Much toward this end can be achieved 

 by endowing the individual and making him 

 free to follow the bent of his genius, refusing 

 to be what he is not or do what he ought not 

 to do; by assuring him that devotion to his 

 real task in life does not mean starvation or 

 the avoidance of human duties and social 

 service altogether. 



6. The Real University. — The endowment 

 of the individual would make possible the ap- 

 pearance of the real university. Hitherto uni- 

 versities, like colleges, have been the creations 

 and the creatures of one man or set of men, 

 not necessarily scientifically-minded at all. 

 Presidents and boards of trustees, often ani- 

 mated and controlled by religious prejudices, 

 political amenities, social prescriptions, per- 

 sonal bias, etc., have had the power to assemble 

 a heterogeneous body of teachers and investi- 

 gators, among whom no two, though person- 

 ally unobjectionable and practically equal in 

 ability or experience, may hold the same title 

 or receive the same salary, constitute them a 

 college, or a university, and, after meeting the 

 necessary legal and other preliminaries, begin 

 the task of educating the youth of the land. 

 Outside of the few that are happily neither, 

 the so-called higher institutions of learning 

 are often trustee-ridden or president-ridden, 

 or both, as is sometimes unfortunately the 

 case. Often the faculties have little or no 

 power of their own, being entirely subordinate 

 to and dictated to at all times by the president 

 or the board of government, or ground be- 

 tween the upper and nether mill stone of 

 both. Such institutions are not genuine uni- 

 versities, but merely places of education after 

 the model of the factory or the local habita- 

 tions of great trusts. The true university can 

 arise only through the free and spontaneous as- 

 sociation of men and women of science, whose 

 movements are subject neither to the personal 

 opinions of a strong president nor to the 

 policies of a board of trustees chosen with ab- 

 solutely no reference to the advancement of 

 science through research, but merely as ap- 

 proved guardians of a certain amount of 

 money set apart for educational purposes. 

 With the endowment of the individual the 



fact would be made clear that universities are 

 made for men, not men for universities. It 

 would mean the end of a universitarianism, as 

 evil sometimes in its results as ever was Sab- 

 batarianism of the narrowest sort. The true 

 university must be one of men, not of posi- 

 tions, and the scholar must be honored for his 

 wisdom and knowledge and not for " execu- 

 tive ability " or opportunist skill in getting 

 along with the " powers that be," and thus 

 easily securing the promotion or the increase 

 in salary denied to others not a whit less ca- 

 pable or deserving. This is a consummation 

 devoutly to be wished. And until such real 

 universities arose, endowment of men and 

 women would ensure them a freedom of move- 

 ment impossible and unprocurable under the 

 present system, where the income of the indi- 

 vidual professor is derived from the institu- 

 tion he serves and does not reach him as the 

 meed of his scientific achievements. If the 

 professor himself were endowed, he would 

 have some choice in the matter, and he would 

 not of necessity be compelled to associate 

 himself with a college or a university whose 

 policies he disliked, or with one whose evident 

 purpose was the spectacular exploitation of 

 his scientific genius. He would be able to 

 wait for the " psychological moment," and 

 qualified to seek among the institutions com- 

 peting for his services the one best suited to 

 his personality, his temperament, his methods 

 of work, and his conceptions of the duties of 

 a man and a man of science. The very fact 

 that he could refuse an academic position and 

 still go on with his investigations would 

 raise the standard of appointments and im- 

 prove the moral tone of the higher academic 

 life, forcing colleges and universities in their 

 relations with members of their faculties, 

 present and prospective, to abandon the ideal 

 of the factory and reach forward into the 

 atmosphere of model business enterprises of 

 the best type. Promotion unasked, where 

 science and ability justify it, is more in place 

 in a university than it is even in the office of 

 a great railroad company. In this respect it is 

 that not a few of the heads of our great edu- 

 cational institutions fail so lamentably when 

 compared with the great railroad presidents. 



