Makch 11, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



385 



meritorious service, or by reason of old age, 

 disability or other sufficient reason shall be 

 entitled to the assistance and aid of this cor- 

 poration." The rule adopted in regard to the 

 first of the two classes of pensions specified in 

 the act of incorporation reads : " Any person 

 who has had a service of twenty-five years as 

 a professor and who is at the time a professor 

 in an accepted institution, shall be entitled to 

 a retiring allowance computed as follows." 



The change in the attitude of the president 

 of the foundation has been as sudden as it is 

 complete. In a letter to him, written on 

 March 21, 1908, I said that the wisdom of the 

 length of service pension was doubtful, and in 

 his reply, intended for publication in Science 

 and printed in the issue of April 24, 1908, he 

 wrote : 



The provision for permitting a retiring allow- 

 ance to be gained upon length of service seems 

 also to us to add much to the value of the retiring 

 allowance system. Under this provision a pro- 

 fessor may, at the end of twenty-five years, retire 

 on a stated proportion of his salary, the propor- 

 tion increasing with each year of service. It is 

 not likely that many professors will avail them- 

 selves of this provision. The man whose heart is 

 in his teaching will not wish to give it up until a 

 much later period. There are, however, teachers 

 to whom this provision will be specially attractive, 

 and that is to those who desire to spend the 

 remainder of their active lives in scholarly re- 

 search or literary work rather than in teaching. 

 I can imagine no better thing for an institution 

 of learning than to have about it a group of men 

 who are engaged in active research and who are 

 not burdened with the load of teaching which 

 falls to most American teachers. In this way 

 the retiring allowance will contribute directly to 

 research. 



Dr. David Starr Jordan, one of the trustees, 

 is much franker than the president. He 

 writes to the Evening Post that it seemed 

 " financially impossible " for the foundation 

 to meet the demands made on it under the 

 rule. This is certainly a valid ground for not 

 admitting to its privileges additional institu- 

 tions or those not yet professors; but accord- 

 ing to law resort must be had to the bank- 

 juptcy court when financial obligations can 



not be met. Whether the foundation is liable 

 to those who have been financially injured by 

 the change in the rule is an open question. 

 Probably the only precedent is the case of 

 Professor Capps against the University of 

 Chicago, in which it was decided that a uni- 

 versity can not alter its statutes to the finan- 

 cial disadvantage of a professor. It seems 

 that it might be urged that the foundation has 

 made an implicit contract with the professor. 

 To encourage the advancement of teaching it 

 promises certain rewards to those who per- 

 form certain services. Those who have per- 

 formed the services can perhaps recover at law 

 the payment promised. But whatever the 

 legal obligation may be, the moral responsi- 

 bility is obvious. President Pritchett writes 

 that the " change will command the approval 

 of the great body of devoted and able teach- 

 ers." When he learns of his extraordinary 

 error, he will, it may be hoped, recommend 

 such modification of the new rule as will be 

 accepted as equitable by those concerned. 



The president of the foundation writes: 

 " It is part of the invariable policy of the 

 Carnegie Foundation to place in the hands of 

 those interested in education the fullest de- 

 tails respecting the foundation and its admin- 

 istration." But it is not clear that the founda- 

 tion has been entirely frank in the present in- 

 stance. The official statement in regard to the 

 rules signed by the secretary of the board of 

 trustees reads : 



The rules as thus amended provide a retiring 

 allowance for a teacher on two distinct grounds: 

 (1) to a teacher of specified service on reaching 

 the age of sixty- five; (2) to a teacher after 

 twenty-five years of service in ease of physical 

 disability. 



Although these are the general rules governing 

 retirement, the trustees are nevertheless willing 

 to grant a retiring allowance after the years of 

 service set forth in Rule 1 [Rule 2 ?] to the rare 

 professor whose proved ability for research prom- 

 ises a fruitful contribution to the advancement of 

 knowledge if he were able to devote his entire time 

 to study or research; and the trustees may also 

 grant a retiring allowance after the years of 

 service set forth in Rule 1 [sic] to the executive 

 head of an institution who has displayed distin- 



