414 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 794 



pointed assistant professor of mathematics. 

 Dr. Charles Lane Poor, professor of astronomy 

 in Columbia University, has been transferred 

 to a chair of celestial mechanics. 



At Cambridge University Dr. E. W. Hob- 

 son, F.E.S., fellow at Christ's College, has 

 been elected Sadlerian professor of pure math- 

 ematics. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE RETROSPECTIVE ANTICIPATIONS OP THE CAR- 

 NEGIE FOUNDATION 



To THE Editor of Science: The fourth an- 

 nual report of the president of the Carnegie 

 Foundation, the most important part of which 

 is published in your issue of February 25, is 

 marked by one feature which seems scarcely 

 less sinister than the breach of faith on the 

 part of the foundation which was discussed 

 in my remarks printed in the same issue. 



The rules for the granting of service pen- 

 sions by the foundation, as promulgated in 

 the first annual report, and as explained in the 

 statements of the president at that time and 

 subsequently, contained no word indicating 

 that these pensions were to be regarded as 

 disability pensions. In the federal charter of 

 the corporation, moreover, as well as in many 

 other expressions of the purpose of the foun- 

 dation,' service, old age and disability pensions 

 have always been specifically distinguished. 

 The first annual report contains, further, the 

 following -statement (page 37) : 



To better the profession of the teacher, and to 

 attract into it increasing numbers of strong men, 

 it is necessary that the retiring allowances should 

 come as a matter of right, not as a charity. No 

 ambitious and independent professor wishes to 

 find himself in the position of accepting a charity 

 or a favor, and the retiring allowance system, 

 simply as a charity, has little to commend it. It 

 would unquestionably relieve here and there dis- 

 tress of a most pathetic sort, but, like all other 

 ill-considered charity, it would work harm in other 

 directions. It is essential, in the opinion of the 

 trustees, that the funds shall be so administered 

 as to appeal to the professor in American and 

 Canadian colleges from the standpoint of a right, 

 not from tnat of charity, to the end that a teacher 

 shall receive his retiring allowance on exactly the 

 same basis as that upon which he receives his 



' Cf. especially First Report, p. 14. 



active salary, as a part of his academic compen- 

 sation. 



These early announcements of the founda- 

 tion have been generally construed by the pro- 

 fession, in their natural sense, as implying 

 that both service and old-age pensions were to 

 be regarded as a form of deferred salary, 

 earned by the previous service of the recipi- 

 ents, and not presupposing on the part of the 

 recipients either destitution or disability. 

 Acting upon this understanding, some twenty- 

 eight gentlemen,^ who were not physically in- 

 capacitated, and who apparently made no pre- 

 tension to being either " pathetic cases " or 

 " geniuses," accepted service pensions. 



The trustees of the foundation have now 

 determined to abolish all service pensions as 

 such, and to substitute therefor a system of 

 disability pensions. The new report of Presi- 

 dent Pritchett accordingly reads back into the 

 past intentions of the foundation its present 

 purpose, and makes it appear that the service 

 pensions were, from the start, designed essen- 

 tially for disabled teachers. The new report 

 contains the following passage, which should 

 be compared with that just quoted from the 

 first report. The original Eule II. was 

 adopted to make 



provision for teachers, who, after long service, 

 have become broken in health, or who, by physical 

 infirmity, such as loss of hearing, are incapaci- 

 tated for their calling. Among the most pathetic 

 cases in the profession of the teacher, and those 

 most embarrassing to the colleges, have been ones 

 in which teachers have, often after faithful service, 

 broken in health and found themselves with ap- 

 proaching age practically helpless. 



The same rule was in a minor degree also 

 intended to provide for " the rare cases which 

 now and then arise when a man of real genius 

 as a scholar might prefer to accept a smaller 

 pension and devote himself exclusively to pro- 

 ductive work in science or literature." The 

 president of the foundation quotes verbatim 

 the original service pension rule (which says 

 nothing whatever about disability) and im- 

 mediately adds the surprising comment, "the 

 second rule thus became a complex one, cover- 

 ing service and disability." (It may be noted 



' Fourth Annual Report, p. 72. 



