46 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 732 



great deal has been written on this and 

 similar topics, and I can claim very little 

 originality in the thoughts which follow. 

 I present them in the hope that they may 

 arouse in you, parents, employers, practi- 

 tioners and teachers, an increased interest 

 in the general welfare of those to whom the 

 teaching of science is entrusted. 



It may first be asked. What ground 

 exists for the assumption that there is a 

 present or prospective lack of science 

 teachers ? It seems to me that this is indi- 

 cated by the increasing difficulty which is 

 reported from Tarious institutions and 

 from various departments as having been 

 experienced in filling their instructing 

 corps with the best type of men. I know 

 this to be true in chemistry from my own 

 experience, and from the marked increase 

 in the number of applications for assist- 

 ants which have come to me from all parts 

 of the country. Unless many of us mis- 

 judge the trend of the times, the increas- 

 ing pressure of competition, making neces- 

 sary the improvement of old and the devis- 

 ing of new means for the utilization of by- 

 products and waste materials, the greater 

 refinement of products without added cost, 

 demanded by the consumer, and the 

 awakening of the country to the necessity 

 of husbanding its natural resources, all 

 tend to place the chemist and chemical 

 engineer in the forefront of industrial 

 activity, and to make those professions in- 

 creasingly attractive to our young men, as 

 affording unexcelled opportunities for pro- 

 ductive work in a field which at present 

 is not overcrowded. If, at the same time, 

 it is possible by missionary effort to dispel 

 the well-established notion among fond 

 parents that chemistry, pure or applied, is 

 synonymous with explosions and impaired 

 health— an opinion which lacks a statistical 

 basis— the number of young men entering 

 the profession will doubtless increase, but 

 it may fairly be questioned whether what 



may be designated as the ' ' caU. of the prac- 

 tical" will not prove increasingly alluring, 

 and our difficulties in retaining able men 

 of the type which we desire to enlist in the 

 service of our institutions, become more 

 and more serious. 



Let us face this situation squarely and 

 ask, What is it that makes this ' ' call of the 

 practical" so enticing to ambitious, 

 thoughtful young men who are conscious 

 of their ability to get results, or, perhaps, 

 merely hopeful of a fair measure of suc- 

 cess in what they undertake? Money and 

 opportunity are obviously the influential 

 factors; and in the best type of men the 

 latter is likely to be given the greater 

 weight in the selection of a life work. Let 

 us look at these a bit more closely. No 

 one acquainted with existing conditions, if 

 appealed to for advice by a young man 

 facing his choice of a career, would fail to 

 point out to him the probable financial 

 sacrifice involved in the selection of the 

 work of a teacher. Indeed, this is so seri- 

 ous a question that in the case of a young 

 man who may be without financial re- 

 sources other than his earnings, but is tact- 

 ful in his dealings with his f ellowmen, of 

 high scholarship, and with ability to think 

 independently — just the man who is 

 needed in our corps of teachers — one may 

 well pause before uttering decisive words 

 of counsel which will almost certainly be 

 of great influence in determining the ma- 

 terial prosperity of his later life ; of greater 

 influence, I sometimes fear, than our 

 knowledge of the past or our prescience 

 really warrants. 



How great, in reality, is the financial 

 sacrifice involved in a decision to enter the 

 teaching profession? Data regarding the 

 compensation of teachers in institutions of 

 college grade have recently been made 

 public by the Carnegie Foundation for the 

 Advancement of Teaching in its Bulletin 

 Number Two, on ' ' The Financial Status of 



