282 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 791 



them to have wives, assuming an average 

 pension of $1,000, and assuming that sur- 

 viving widows would receive half of the 

 pension which their husbands had earned, 

 what would be the probable sum necessary 

 to set aside in order to meet the annuities 

 which would finally result if every pro- 

 fessor retired at sixty-five? 



To answer this question one must assume 

 a mortality table and a rate of interest. 

 Teachers have a better expectation of life 

 than that indicated in the American mor- 

 tality tables, and it was therefore necessary 

 to use some table which represented more 

 nearly the expectation of life in the case 

 of preferred risks. The best authority 

 available for this purpose is the MeClin- 

 tock tables, prepared by Mr. Emory Me- 

 Clintock, actuary of the Mutual Life In- 

 surance Company of New York. These 

 tables were made up by taking into consid- 

 eration all the standard annuity tables in 

 use in 1899, such as Finlayson's table 

 (which was for many years the standard 

 in Great Britain) , the results of the French 

 companies and also the experience of the 

 New York Life and the Mutual Life In- 

 surance companies in the writing of an- 

 nuities. The lives of such annuitants form 

 very much the same class of risks which 

 those of teachers offer. This table was 

 adopted as the New York standard for 

 annuities after the recent insurance in- 

 vestigation, the law going into effect Jan- 

 uary 1, 1907. The difference in the life 

 expectation, as computed by the American 

 mortality tables and by the McClintoek 

 tables, is shown in the following compari- 

 sons. 



Another assumption which must be made 

 is the rate of interest. The rate prescribed 

 by law, upon which life insurance com- 

 panies base their calculations, is 3^ per 

 cent. 



Assuming this extreme case, the actu- 



aries estimated that a capital of $10,000,- 

 000 would permanently carry such a load 

 as that indicated for a body of approxi- 

 mately three thousand teachers. Some 

 teachers will, however, die before reaching 

 sixty- five ; others will resign ; but, mest im- 

 portant of all, the bulk of teachers who 

 reach the age of sixty-five will prefer to 

 teach for some years longer, and the foun- 

 dation receives five per cent, instead of 

 three and a half. All of these considera 

 tions indicate that under such conditions 

 as hold in practise such a capital would 

 supply an average allowance of $1,500 a 

 year to such retired teachers and their 

 widows as are likely to be furnished by a 

 body of three thousand professors. This 

 estimate was given in the first annual re- 

 port. 



On the other hand, there are numerous 

 facts on the other side of the argument 

 which will occur to every one. Such an as- 

 sumption provides for less than one hun- 

 dred institutions (or, with the sixteen mil- 

 lions now in control of the foundation, for 

 perhaps one hundred and twenty institu- 

 tions, of which about one half have now 

 been admitted). It can not provide for all 

 the colleges of America, and this fact has 

 been emphasized in each annual report. 

 In addition, we have taken no account of 

 the growth of the institutions of learning. 



