April 11, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



547 



men " ' and to increase its " social dignity and 

 stability," by increasing the eventual reward 

 of those who continue long in it and reach pro- 

 fessorial rank in institutions of sound educa- 

 tional standards. This was laid down as one 

 of the " two fundamental principles " in the 

 first annual report. President Pritchett 

 therein wrote: 



In the long run, men 's personal preference for 

 the work of the teacher . . . can not be depended 

 on to secure an adequate supply of the best men. 

 This fact the older European countries long ago 

 recognized, and in order to secure for the place 

 of teacher the best men, they have sought to 

 dignify the profession of the teacher by the 

 highest social and official honors; and they have 

 sought in addition to strengthen it by larger 

 financial rewards. And inasmuch as the salaries 

 of the teachers can not be made equal to those of 

 outside professions this reward has come, in the 

 main, by the establishment of a system of pen- 

 sions. ... In other words, the first and largest 

 ground for the establishment of systems of re- 

 tiring pensions for teachers has been found in a 

 wish to strengthen the teaching profession.- 



2. As a necessary consequence of the pre- 

 ceding, a second principle repeatedly enunci- 

 ated in the earlier reports was that the retir- 

 ing allowance " should come as a matter of 

 right, not as a charity." President Pritchett 

 wrote in 1906 : 



No ambitious and independent professor wishes 

 to find himself in the position of accepting a 

 charity or a favor, and the retiring allowance 

 system simply as a charity has little to commend 

 it. It would unquestionably relieve here and there 

 distress of a most pathetic sort, but, like all other 

 Ul-considered charity, it would work harm in other 

 directions. It is essential, in the opinion of the 

 trustees, that the fund shall be so administered as 

 to appeal to the professors in American and 

 Canadian colleges from the standpoint of a right, 

 not from that of charity, to the end that the 

 teacher shall receive his retiring allowance on 

 exactly the same basis as that upon which he 

 receives his active salary, as a part of his aca- 

 demic compensation. 



3. One of the purposes especially empha- 

 sized in the first report was that of " f reshen- 



' First report, p. 37. 

 'Ibid., p. 31. 



ing the work of the colleges themselves by 

 enabling them to put new men into the places 

 of those whom old age or disability has ren- 

 dered unfit for service." ^ 



4. Pensions were to be granted on three 

 grounds, old age, length of service and disa- 

 bility. Sixty-five years was specified as the 

 limit of age and twenty-five years in profes- 

 sorial grades " as the limit of service upon 

 which a pension may be earned." Widows of 

 professors were to receive one half the allow- 

 ances to which their husbands would have been 

 entitled. 



Upon these points the opinions of President 

 Pritchett have by this time singularly 

 changed. It will be convenient, in noting 

 these changes, to take up the points in reverse 

 order. 



4. (a) The service-pension provisions of 

 the foundation were, as is generally known, 

 abolished without warning in 1909 ; that is an 

 old story, little creditable to the executive au- 

 thorities of the foundation, to which it would 

 not now be needful to recur, did not President 

 Pritchett repeat certain aspersions (already 

 made in the fourth report) upon the members 

 of the profession who became entitled to, and 

 accepted, those pensions prior to 1910 ; and did 

 he not misrepresent the original policy of the 

 foundation in this matter. Dr. Pritchett now 

 writes : 



The service-pension rule was adopted by the 

 trustees under the assumption that but few appli- 

 cations would be made under it, and that these 

 would be in the main applications from men who 

 were disabled for further service. The intention 

 was, in fact, to use the rule as a disability pro- 

 vision. The outcome showed what might have 

 been clearly foreseen at the beginning, that college 

 presidents and college teachers can no more rise 

 above the ordinary appeal of self-interest than 

 other educated and intelligent men. ... It has 

 been discouraging at times to find men in the 

 early fifties, in the prime of health and strength, 

 applying for pensions upon trivial and selfish 

 grounds in order to escape from teaching.'' 



'Ibid., p. 7. 



* Seventh report, pp. 82-84. 



