Marcu 29, 1912] 
brought out still more strongly the diffi- 
culty of making exceptions. Every college 
president considers his case an exception, 
and all of his friends consider the record of 
his services as noteworthy. A board of 
trustees dismissing a college president to 
make way for a new man will in most cases 
certify in the highest terms to the extraor- 
dinary character of the departing presi- 
dent. It is very true that most such men 
have given to their work a high order of 
devotion and of disinterested service; no 
college presidents are more deserving than 
some of those that are forced out by their 
boards of trustees. On the other hand, it 
is practically impossible to compare the 
records of such men and single out a few 
for recognition without doing great injus- 
tice to others. The hardships of college 
presidents—aside from those that arise 
from their own failings—come from the 
defects and the crudeness of our compara- 
tively young educational system. Part of 
these are due to an over-production of col- 
leges and consequently of college presi- 
dents. Compensation for such inequalities 
can not be brought about by the action of 
a pension agency. The cure must come 
from a gradual improvement in our edu- 
cational erganization, and a more enlight- 
ened attitude on the part of the public and 
of college trustees toward those who are 
responsible for educational administration. 
It is as difficult to select the especially 
deserving president or dean as to select the 
special teacher whose work has been of 
noteworthy character. The effect of such 
legislation by the trustees has been to 
arouse hopes on the part of many presi- 
dents that they might in case of such an 
emergency as dismissal from office be con- 
sidered in a special class entitled to the 
receipt of a retiring allowance. The ex- 
perience of the past five years shows that 
a 
SCIENCE 
479 
the administration of such a rule is imprac- 
ticable.? 
Other requests and recommendations that 
come to the executive committee cover al- 
most all possible variations from the rules. 
The most common are those in which the 
teacher has served for a shorter period than 
twenty-five years and suddenly breaks 
down in health or dies leaving a helpless 
family. These are indeed the most pathetic 
cases that one can meet. Here again, how- 
ever, a little reflection will show how impos- 
sible it is to go outside of the established 
rules without embarking upon an entirely 
new pension system. Again, it is impos- 
sible for a pension system to take care of 
individuals who neglect to use reasonable 
prudence in the affairs of life. The teach- 
er’s salary is often pitifully small. To 
provide even modest insurance against the 
death of the breadwinner seems often too 
great a burden to add to the already heavy 
load. Oftentimes, too, the men who are 
thus cut down early are those who have 
thrown themselves into the service of edu- 
cation with a splendid enthusiasm, and 
sometimes with a reckless disregard of their 
own health and of the claims of their fam- 
2 At the meeting of the trustees, November 15, 
1911, the action which empowered the executive 
committee to make exceptions in the cases of 
“‘those whose twenty-five years of service include 
noteworthy presidential or other administrative 
work in a college or university’’ was rescinded. 
No person has ever been retired under this au- 
thority. The only exceptions to the rules now 
recognized by the trustees are in the cases of men 
of proved ability in research, who would in the 
judgment of the trustees be able to render unusual 
service to science if free from teaching duties, 
Such eases will be extremely rare. Experience 
shows that research in general flourishes in the con- 
tact of investigator and student. No retirement 
has as yet been made under this provision. Such 
action would mean in any case the highest rectog- 
nition the trustees could render of their apprecia- 
tion of ability already demonstrated and of their 
expectation of still higher achievement to follow. 
