704 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 801 



abolisli it, has rights enforceable in a eouit 

 of equity. Were it not for repeated declara- 

 tions of the trustees to the contrary, I should 

 be strongly disposed to think the trust char- 

 itable. The courts would of course not be 

 bound to adopt the view of its character now 

 taken by the trustees, and the trustees may 

 hereafter themselves think differently. Their 

 recent change of attitude suggests that possi- 

 bility. If unforeseen exigencies should compel 

 them to take the position that the trust is 

 after all in the nature of alms, very likely the 

 courts would sustain them. A recipient of 

 charity takes what he can get, not by right, 

 but by grace. 



" I assume, then, that the trust is non- 

 charitable. It is true the trustees reserved 

 the right to change their rules governing the 

 details of administration; but obviously that 

 has no reference to the abolition of a class 

 already designated, so as to destroy vested 

 interests. The articles of incorporation em- 

 power the trustees ' from time to time to 

 modify the conditions and regulations under 

 which the work shall be carried on,' and, by a 

 two-thirds vote, to ' enlarge or vary the pur- 

 poses ' of the gift. This no doubt permks the 

 door of entrance into either class to be closed 

 at the discretion of the trustees; such action 

 operates prospectively; but it is seriously 

 doubted that the trustees by this clause re- 

 serve the power to cut off jjersons who are 

 already in, and this includes all teachers and 

 others of professorial rank who prior to the 

 date of change in rule two were employed in 

 accepted institutions." 



Dean George F. James, of the College of 

 Education, continued the discussion some- 

 what as follows : 



" All of us remember with what pleasure 

 we heard of Mr. Carnegie's gift for the ad- 

 vancement of university teaching. The gen- 

 eral plan seemed to hold large promise for the 

 improvement of higher institutions through 

 better provisions for the teaching force. 

 When the trustees later announced their plans 

 in detail, the establishment of a service pen- 

 sion appeared from many points of view even 

 more important than the accompanying ar- 



rangement of a retiring annuity at the age of 

 sixty-five. As the trustees went on with their 

 work and issued one report after another, 

 proving the gradual acceptance by our colleges 

 and universities of a uniform standard of en- 

 trance requirements and a minimum require- 

 ment in equipment, productive funds, and 

 other conditions of efficiency, we became each 

 year more convinced of the broad usefulness 

 of the foundation. 



" When the trustees suddenly disavowed 

 one of the two main principles first adopted 

 in respect to pensions, the announcement 

 came as a distinct shock, not merely on ac- 

 count of the direct and immediate conse- 

 quences, but even more on account of the un- 

 certainty which might attach itself to the 

 whole scheme of the foundation owing to this 

 radical change of policy. The trustees had 

 themselves on many occasions implied that of 

 the pension system inaugurated by the founda- 

 tion, the two best characteristics were the 

 implicit confidence which beneficiaries might 

 put in the consistent execution of the plans 

 adopted, and the sense of right rather than 

 favor which would be associated with each 

 annuity granted. The first characteristic is 

 largely eliminated by the sacrifice by the 

 foundation of one important principle without 

 any convincing statement as to either the ad- 

 visability or the necessity of the action. The 

 second characteristic on which the trustees 

 have laid much stress can hardly be pre- 

 served, and professors in accepted institu- 

 tions can hardly look upon the pension as a 

 right rather than a charity, in view of 

 the very serious strictures made by the 

 president in the last annual report on a 

 majority of the men who have so far retired 

 on a service pension. The impersonal rela- 

 tionship which the trustees so properly empha- 

 sized as desirable between the foundation and 

 the men retired under its provisions is thus 

 very suddenly and vitally modified, with a re- 

 sulting imminent danger that the attitude of 

 university teachers the country over toward 

 the foundation may no longer be as cordially 

 sympathetic as hitherto. 



" The problem of age and service pensions 



