Apbil 2, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



533 



age value of the retiring allowances is 

 $1,532.58. The institutions drawing the 

 largest sums are: Yale, $25,195; Cornell, 

 $16,570; Harvard, $16,305; Tulane, $14,- 

 365; Columbia, $14,055; Stevens, $11,075. 



Valuable data are given in the report in 

 regard to institutions on the accepted list 

 and the state universities, together with a 

 discussion of political interference in tax- 

 supported institutions with special refer- 

 ence to the University of Oklahoma. Other 

 topics treated are : the exchange of teachers 

 between Prussia and the United States; 

 uniformity in financial reports; teachers' 

 insurance; college requirements for admis- 

 sion; special students; amount of instruc- 

 tion given by teachers ; professional educa- 

 tion; denominational education. 



The foundation adopted during the year 

 two new policies of great importance — one 

 the admission of tax-supported institutions 

 for the cost of which Mr. Carnegie has 

 undertaken to give $5,000,000, the other 

 the provision that a widow shall receive 

 half the pension to which her husband 

 would have been entitled. 



There is no valid reason why the states 

 should not accept a gift from Mr. Carnegie 

 for their universities. In so far as the 

 money came originally from the people, 

 and especially from the agricultural regions 

 of the central and western states, through 

 the workings of the tariff, this was imposed 

 by the representatives of the states, and the 

 best use of the money is to return it to 

 those from whom it was taken. Nor is 

 the fact that the fund is in the form of 

 bonds of the United States Steel Corpora- 

 tion significant. All our universities hold 

 bonds of railway and other corporations 

 whose activities have not always been be- 

 yond reproach. 



The real questions are whether a cen- 

 tralized pension fund is for the advantage 

 of our universities, and, if so, whether a 

 fund can be provided sufficiently large for 



the purpose. The writer dissents from 

 most of his colleagues in doubting the de- 

 sirability of a uniform and centrally ad- 

 ministered pension fund. I have always 

 been prejudiced against annuities and those 

 who buy annuities; it is distasteful to me 

 to be thrust by force of circumstance into 

 this class. The president of one of our 

 leading universities has stated in a report 

 to the trustees that the annual value of the 

 pension to a professor in middle life is 

 $1,200. I should prefer to have this in- 

 crease to my salary now when I have chil- 

 dren to educate; or, if it could be saved, 

 to have it as capital to be used for such 

 purposes as may be desirable and to be 

 bequeathed to my family. The withhold- 

 ing of part of a professor's salary to be 

 paid ultimately after good behavior in the 

 form of an annuity will tend to increase 

 the autocracy of university administration 

 and to limit not only the freedom of action 

 but also the freedom of speech of the pro- 

 fessor. It wiU also limit the freedom of 

 action of the administration, for a professor 

 can not be dropped honorably when part 

 of his salary has been reserved for a pen- 

 sion. It seems from the decision of the 

 courts in the case of Professor Capps 

 against the University of Chicago that this 

 can not be done legally, and there will prob- 

 ably arise complications which have not 

 been fully foreseen. 



It is not intended to imply that the office 

 of the professor should be subject to the 

 commercial law of supply and demand. On 

 the contrary, he should have life tenure, 

 only forfeited by the violation on his part 

 of the conditions implied in accepting the 

 office. It would be intolerable if a pro- 

 fessor could be dismissed simply because 

 the president thinks that he might obtain 

 a more acceptable man in his place for the 

 same or a smaller salary. The professor is 

 appointed at the average age of nearly 

 forty years and is likely to remain what he 



