NOVEMBEE 27, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



759 



if concurring with, me, when here I should 

 have expected dissent, as the results are at 

 variance with his former opinion. 



In my book upon the Falls of Niagara, I 

 have set forth the data found in my researches, 

 by which their changing history has been dis- 

 covered. The age of the falls is a very in- 

 teresting, though secondary, problem. My 

 observations may be repeated by others, with 

 variations in treatment. The leading points 

 raised by Gilbert are variations in treatment, 

 of magnitude relatively small; and a third 

 (that upon which he indicates his belief 

 in their great antiquity) rests upon inadmis- 

 sible analogies. All of these points, though 

 tending to divert attention from the main 

 issues, in reality confirm my conclusions. I 

 have no theory as to the length of time to 

 defend, except that which is suggested by the 

 changing physical conditions, as measured by 

 the falls, in the gorge and in the volume and 

 height of the cataract, and as I have said in 

 my book, a matter of a few thousand years 

 does not make an important variation in 

 the value of my pioneering work " in the 

 correct line of investigating the problems pre- 

 sented by this remarkable region." I am 

 pleased that my critic thinks that the de- 

 termination of the age of Niagara lies within 

 the scope of observation, and is of so much 

 popular and scientific interest. 



J. W. Spencer 



Washington, D. C, 

 November 1, 1908. 



THE QUESTION OF PROFESSORS' SALARIES 



The statement is sometimes made, that a 

 general increase in the salaries of college and 

 university professors would be of no service 

 to the institutions concerned, in improving 

 the character of the men available for pro- 

 fessorships. I believe this view to be incor- 

 rect, especially as concerns our colleges; and 

 I venture to present the following suggestions 

 for the consideration of those who hold it. 



A general survey of the institutions of 

 learning, large and small, throughout the land, 

 leads to the painful conclusion that our facul- 

 ties no longer, as they once did, represent 

 groups of cultivated men. The word " cul- 



ture " has of course fallen into disrepute in 

 our day; but the cultivated man, while we no 

 longer aim to produce him, demands and re- 

 ceives our respect and admiration wherever 

 he is found. It would not be difficult to cite 

 a few notable survivals of the type here and 

 there. The rarity of teachers of this kind 

 in our college and university faculties to-day 

 will be readily admitted by all who have any 

 intimate knowledge of the matter. Yet the 

 desirability of having such men as instructors 

 of undergraduate students is keenly felt by 

 those who have to choose a college for their 

 sons. The function of the undergraduate 

 course is precisely to give the student what 

 he will not get when as a graduate he enters 

 the special field of his life work; therefore 

 the undergraduate course should give the stu- 

 dent a general enrichment of life; which is 

 exactly what we mean by cultivation. 



But we are content at present that the 

 highest product of our educational system 

 should be the specialist; a man usually thor- 

 oughly conversant with one small branch of 

 learning, and fairly well acquainted with some 

 allied subjects, but often ignorant in every 

 other field of human interest, without ideas 

 of his ovm in any field but his own, and dead 

 to everything that can be classed as the ameni- 

 ties of life — ^the arts, literature, human 

 society. 



I venture to suggest that our specialist is a 

 man of this kind because he comes from a 

 home which lacks those things of which we 

 now deplore the absence in him. Then why 

 do our institutions of learning draw from 

 such a class of material? They have no 

 choice ; and for this reason : the youth who 

 decides on the teaching profession as his 

 career must of necessity abandon the idea of 

 accumulating money; that surely no one will 

 dispute; and there are many who are willing 

 to accept this as a condition of their existence. 

 But very few are willing to abandon the ambi- 

 tion for wealth as an aim in the future, and 

 at the same time to accept a present and 

 permanent reduction in their scale of living. 

 For the ambition not to be rich makes for 

 happiness about as well as the ambition to be 

 rich; but it does not make for happiness to 



