May 14, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



111 



a year in these leading institutions. The 

 most serious danger which threatens the 

 continued and developing efficiency of our 

 universities lies in the unattractive and 

 utterly inadequate salaries paid- the in- 

 structors. Is it not well to make the por- 

 tals through which all must enter the col- 

 legiate teaching profession reasonably 

 attractive to men of character, spirit and 

 ability? The writer is well aware of the 

 satisfactions and rewards of the teacher's 



part of the burden of the instruction falls, 

 and within the limitations of their ranks 

 must develop those who are to recruit the 

 higher positions. Nine hundred or a 

 thousand dollars a year for doctors of 

 philosophy! Why should our universities 

 place so very low an estimate upon the 

 value of their own product? As if to dis- 

 credit the rank still more, the rules of the 

 Carnegie Foundation refuse to recognize 

 the years spent in it as a teacher toward 



life other than financial, but should not 

 these men for the sake of the efficiency of 

 the institutions receive salaries somewhat 

 commensurate with the long and expensive 

 preparation for their life work, and ade- 

 quate to insure the possibility of their in- 

 tellectual development rather than retro- 

 gression? 



Is it to be expected, otherwise, that the 

 field of university teaching will appeal to 

 men of suitable quality ? It has been seen 

 that it is upon these men that the greater 



the necessary twenty-five years of service 

 entitling one to a retiring allowance. The 

 writer has known of able men, loyal to 

 their institutions, who have spent fifteen 

 years and more in this rank before receiv- 

 ing deserved promotion. Furthermore, 

 most institutions rob themselves of the 

 younger men's natural desire to pursue 

 advanced study and to grow, by loading 

 them down with a heavy burden of en- 

 tirely elementary work— and refusing to 

 count years of service as instructor toward 



