Mat 14, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



119 



a sabbatical leave. Surely these are 

 sbort-sigbted policies. Let us trust they 

 win soon be abandoned. It is no wonder 

 that after a fair trial of the profession for 

 which they have prepared themselves many 

 of the more spirited m^n leave it — albeit 

 regretfully— for fields in which they can 

 earn a respectable living, thus creating 

 vacancies to be filled by inexperienced 

 successors. This is the movement, earlier 



capital lottery prizes in the professorial 

 rank is far from reaching the root of the 

 trouble. It does not touch the facts really 

 disclosed by a careful diagnosis of the 

 data. In truth, the effect of such a policy 

 will inevitably be to make the actual situ- 

 ation worse for the great mass of teachers. 

 This becomes clear from a study of charts 

 27-31. 

 And this is no small factor in the prob- 



referred to, which seriously threatens effi- 

 ciency. 



Noting Charts 22-26, it is seen that the 

 fuU professorship must be excepted from 

 the downward trend of the past twenty 

 years. In that rank— and that rank only 

 — the average salary has increased. The 

 effect of this, however, has been to widen 

 the gap between the full professors and 

 the rest of the staff. The remedy which 

 has been proposed by some writers — 

 notably President Pritchett — of bettering 

 the general situation by offering a few 



lem. It may be claimed that relative- 

 equity is of more importance than almost 

 any other item touching compensation. 

 Bearing in mind what has been said about 

 age and preparation, do the conditions- 

 justify these great differences? It must 

 be borne in mind that a university is not 

 akin to a large factory or business organi- 

 zation in which the various classes of em- 

 ployees are separated by wide social gaps 

 — each one moving in his own circle. On 

 the contrary, by taste, training, ability 

 and aspiration we belong to one compact 



