48 



SCIENCE 



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



of Technology is $3,200, and that for 

 Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute is $2,783. 

 It appears, then, that the average college 

 professor at 34 is receiving a less return 

 than his contemporary in other professions 

 by perhaps $1,000 per year, although there 

 may well be individual instances in which 

 there is little disparity. But this is not 

 the main issue ; for, as is pointed out in the 

 bulletin referred to, it is at this point that 

 the divergence in the financial rewards be- 

 gins to increase rapidly. The salary of 

 the full professorship, reached at 34, repre- 

 sents nearly the limit of the earning power 

 of the encumbent if, as is so often true in 

 our institutions, his entire energies are 

 consumed in his institutional service, un- 

 less perchance he occupies some position 

 carrying with it special administrative re- 

 sponsibilities. His colleague without the 

 walls of the college has, on the other hand, 

 also just entered upon his most productive 

 period, and may reasonably hope to see his 

 income increase into the tens of thousands, 

 permitting him to maintain a comfortable 

 home and affording him means to meet the 

 growing expenses incident to the educa- 

 tion of his children. So far, then, as 

 young men are influenced by the maximum 

 :financial rewards and prizes attainable, it 

 must frankly be admitted that, at present, 

 the teaching profession is at a disad- 

 vantage. 



But I am personally disposed to believe 

 that such difficulties as exist in securing 

 and holding able men as teachers of science 

 are less the result of the comparatively 

 small maximum returns which may be 

 expected when the final stage in pro- 

 fessional promotion has been reached, than 

 because of the depressing conditions which 

 ■confront them during the long period 

 ■which now elapses between the attainment 

 -of salaries of $800 to $1,000, and a salary 

 ■of $2,000, a period which, in the larger in- 

 ;stitutions is probably rather more than six 



years. The young teacher's apprentice- 

 ship as assistant or junior instructor is 

 over, and he is anxious to feel that his long 

 period of study and development is bring- 

 ing him an adequate return, and he hears 

 his classmates tell of bridges built, fac- 

 tories started, laurels won, and salaries 

 raised— sometimes with an all-too-thinly 

 veiled suggestion that he has chosen the 

 less worthy role— and he longs to join those 

 who can boast of material successes. To 

 this is often added the proper desire for a 

 home of his own. Or perhaps the home 

 has been established, when there must be 

 a struggle to provide those comforts (not 

 luxuries in an extravagant sense), which 

 his temperament and training lead him to 

 desire, which his institution and his com- 

 munity tacitly expect of him, and which 

 above all, would make of him a man of 

 growing refinement such as we are in- 

 creasingly in need of in our teaching ranks. 

 Helpful and necessary as it is to increase 

 the salaries of the higher paid professional 

 positions as soon as this is possible, I be- 

 lieve that there is a still more urgent need 

 that the salaries of the junior grades 

 should be earlier lifted to a point at which 

 the strain of anxiety is removed and 

 moderate comfort and congenial surround- 

 ings are made possible. This is, of course, 

 mainly true of our larger institutions, or 

 those situated in communities where the 

 cost of living is now so sadly out of pro- 

 portion to the amounts on the salary lists, 

 but it may be questioned whether the ratio 

 of income to outgo is essentially better in 

 smaller institutions and places. I believe 

 that this is a matter which all of the col- 

 lege authorities should consider in order 

 that this period may prove less repellent 

 and that the rounding out of the non- 

 professional side of the science teacher, 

 which is often so large a factor in his 

 success, may not be postponed until many 

 of his best years have been spent in a de- 



