April 11, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



551 



attempting to provide for too many colleges. 

 President Pritchett in his first report justly 

 remarked : 



No one can doubt that the establishment of an 

 effective system of retiring allowances in one 

 hundred institutions will contribute vastly more to 

 the introduction of the retiring-pay principle in 

 American education than the maintenance of a 

 charitable fund for a much larger number of 

 institutions. 



But the " one hundred " in this sentence 

 was itself far too large a number. The final 

 result, now definitely foreshadowed, of this 

 original over-estimate seems likely to be that 

 the foundation will in time be nothing more 

 or less than a charitable fund for from sev- 

 enty-five to one hundred institutions. 



A charitable fund, no doubt, will have its 

 uses ; it will mean relief from anxiety and dis- 

 tress for a considerable number of worthy and 

 unfortunate people connected with our col- 

 leges. But it will render none of those serv- 

 ices to " the advancement of teaching " which 

 were once understood to be the chief function 

 of the foundation. 



It is, however, possibly even now not too 

 late for a return to first principles — though it, 

 like any other course of action now open to 

 the foundation, would probably involve some 

 hardship. Let the foundation add no more 

 colleges to its "accepted list"; let it, if ac- 

 tuarial analysis should show this to be feas- 

 ible, announce that all professors who now 

 have legitimate expectations of pensions under 

 the present rules will have those expectations 

 duly realized; or if, as is probable, this is 

 financially impossible, let it provide that at 

 least all now over forty-five or fifty years of 

 age will have their claims met as they mature. 

 But for all others let the present rules be tem- 

 porarily abrogated. Let the foundation then 

 select carefully a much smaller number of col- 

 leges, on the basis of educational standards, 

 geographical situation, and certain other con- 

 siderations. Let it then, after thorough ac- 

 tuarial study, establish for these institutions a 

 stable system of retiring allowances, upon the 

 general principles which the foundation first 

 laid down, with the further requirement that 



the institution shall contribute a part of each 

 pension, and without requiring absolute cessa- 

 tion of academic activity. These things done, 

 the great initial error would be largely cor- 

 rected, and the foundation's original purposes 

 would bC' realized in the measure which its en- 

 dowment permits." Such a plan would indeed 

 do more not only to establish the " retiring- 

 pay principle," but also to increase the attrac- ' 

 tiveness, the dignity and the efiiciency of the 

 college-teaching profession, than would " the 

 maintenance of a charitable fund for a much 

 larger number of institutions." 



It may be, however, that a still more 

 thorough statistical analysis than has yet been 

 made would show that the resources of the 

 foundation will not support such a system for 

 more than an extremely small number of col- 

 leges. If this should prove to be the case, 

 there might be defensible grounds for a de- 

 cision to maintain thereafter, for a larger 

 number, disability-pensions only. But if the 

 foundation should be reduced to this neces- 

 sity, pensions should be granted for disability 

 (to persons genuinely committed to the teach- 

 ing profession) at any period of life, or to 

 professors' widows, whatever the age of the 

 husband at the time of death. A disability- 

 pension system is likely to serve the most 

 urgent need precisely in case of break-down 

 or sudden death in middle life, while the fam- 

 ily suffering such misfortune still has young 

 children to be educated and before the accumu- 

 lation of considerable savings has been pos- 

 sible. Furthermore, whatever pensions are 

 provided for should be granted to legitimate 

 applicants without special presumption of 

 poverty. Such a plan, in my opinion, should 

 be the last resort of the foundation; and if 

 adopted it should be frankly recognized as 

 what it is. Tet even it would be preferable to 

 a scheme of the equivocal sort which the presi- 

 dent of the foundation now appears to regard 

 with favor. 



" Another possible solution which merits con- 

 sideration would be to use the income to aid insti- 

 tutions to establish pension systems. The reasons 

 given (p. 79) for the original rejection of this 

 plan do not seem conclusive. 



