November 23, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



667 



poration as referred to at length in another 

 part of this report, it is not possible longer 

 to avoid facing the fact that the salaries paid 

 to the professors and adjunct professors of 

 the university are inadequate, and that the 

 effects of this inadequacy are deplorable. 



So long ago as 1857, the trustees gave seri- 

 ous consideration, at the hands of a special 

 committee, to the subject of the compensation 

 which should properly be paid to the professors 

 in Columbia College. 



On May 11, 1857, it was 



Resolved, That the incumbents of the chairs of 

 chemistry, of mathematics, of moral and intel- 

 lectual philosophy, of ancient and modern litera- 

 ture and of history and political economy, should 

 severally receive a salary at the rate of $3,000 per 

 annum. 



At the same time it was provided that in 

 addition to such salary there should be allowed 

 to those professors to whom a dwelling was 

 not assigned at the college, a sum not exceed- 

 ing $1,000 per annum for house rent. In the 

 course of a few years this provision resulted 

 in making the salaries of the incumbents of 

 the chairs named $4,000 each. 



In 1861 it became necessary to reduce the 

 expenses of the corporation, and in that year 

 a substantial reduction was made in the 

 amount of the salaries paid to the several pro- 

 fessors. Those professors who had been in 

 receipt of an annual salary of $4,000 each 

 had their compensation reduced to $3,600 each, 

 and one professor who had been in receipt of 

 a salary of $3,300 had his compensation re- 

 duced to $2,900. 



At the time when this reduction in com- 

 pensation was made there were, in addition 

 to the president, but ten professors in the 

 service of the college. 



On February 5, 1866, a select committee of 

 five, which had been appointed to consider 

 and report upon the amount of salaries and 

 compensation received by the several members 

 of the faculty, and to consider and report 

 whether it was expedient or proper to make 

 any changes in the rate of compensation al- 

 lowed to any or all of the professors, and 

 whether it was expedient or proper to dis- 

 criminate between the several professors as 



to their salaries or rate of compensation, and 

 if so, as to how such discrimination should 

 be made, submitted an elaborate report. 



It appeared that at the date of the report 

 there were, in addition to the president, seven 

 professors in active service in Columbia Col- 

 lege. Of these, five received salaries of $4,000 

 each, one a salary of $3,300 together with the 

 free occupancy of a house, the rental of which 

 was estimated at $700, and one a salary of 

 $1,800. The professor of municipal law re- 

 ceived a salary of $6,000 and a proportion of 

 the tuition fees of the students of law, which 

 for the year covered by the report had in- 

 creased his salary to $7,607.64. The professor 

 of political science received a salary of $4,000, 

 and the three professors in the newly estab- 

 lished School of Mines received salaries of 

 $3,000 each. 



The special committee made inquiry as to 

 the salaries paid at other institutions of learn- 

 ing, and reported that at Union College the 

 stated salary of a professor was $1,500, to 

 which had been added for each of the two 

 years past an increase of 20 per cent., or $300. 

 The usual salary of a professor at Yale Col- 

 lege was $2,300, and at Harvard College, 

 $2,400. The committee pointed out that the 

 three institutions mentioned were all situated 

 in places where the expenses of living were 

 less than in the city of New York, and that 

 this diiference should be borne in mind in 

 estimating the value of the salaries received 

 by the professors in the several institutions. 



The committee also stated that, inasmuch 

 as Columbia College was chiefly dependent 

 upon private liberality for support and had 

 but slender means of its own, the compensa- 

 tion then paid to its professors was inade- 

 quate as a result of necessity and not from 

 choice, and that, therefore, no proper conclu- 

 sion could be drawn as to what the salary of a 

 professor should be from the amount then 

 paid. 



After reviewing all the information at their 

 command, the special committee expressed the 

 opinion that the salaries paid to the professors 

 of Columbia College were adequate at the 

 time they were established, but that the time 

 had come when they should be changed. The 



