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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 589. 



faculty discussion all the real educational 

 issues, and expect a company of scholarly 

 men to grow enthusiastic over the privilege 

 of wearily debating how a sophomoric at- 

 tempt to vault over or climb around the 

 regulations shall be thwarted, or whether 

 the mandolin club both played and behaved 

 so badly upon its last venture that its lead- 

 ing strings should profitably be shortened. 

 One can comfortably resign oneself to pick- 

 ing the bones when one has dined off the 

 fowl, but to have the bird presented after 

 it has been shorn of its attractions at the 

 first table makes a sorry feast. 



At this stage we must examine with the 

 practical purpose of this discussion, the 

 types of questions and interests that re- 

 quire consideration in university affairs. 

 There is first the appointment of the in- 

 structional staff. In this respect enlight- 

 ened opinion has accomplished a notable 

 success. In the best type of universities, 

 those most closely concerned have adequate 

 means of making their opinion effective; . 

 the president and the board take those ex- 

 ecutive and formal steps that lead to the 

 •election of the candidate and adjudicate 

 where some final authority must assume 

 responsibility. Where this is not the case, 

 the tendency is at least favorable to such 

 a consummation ; though abuses of privilege 

 are by no means obsolete. Yet the fact 

 that this phase of the situation has ap- 

 proached a most commendable status should 

 be as frankly emphasized as other less satis- 

 factory phases should be frankly con- 

 demned. In principle many prefer the 

 practise of Yale University, in which such 

 nominations are presented for the approval 

 of the faculty. With the proper spirit the 

 essential ends are accomplished by either 

 procedure. 



When we come, secondly, to the matter of 

 promotions and salaries, the situation ac- 

 quires a somber east. In some few insti- 

 tutions the methods, though not perfectly 



so, are commendable, in many others mod- 

 erately perverse, in the rest intolerable. 

 Merely because that is another story, yet 

 a closely related one, do I reluctantly pass 

 by the burning question of the inadequacy 

 of professors' incomes. I content myself 

 with the expression that were those salaries 

 as nearly adequate as they could readily 

 become were sentiment properly effective, 

 certain , of the administrative problems 

 would find readier solution; yet in saying 

 this I wish also to emphasize the converse: 

 that were our administrative provisions 

 more suitable, the professor's financial 

 status would have been far more favorable 

 than it now is— and of this more anon. 

 That there obtain widely different opin- 

 ions as to what a professor should be paid 

 is inevitable ; that there should prevail such 

 general misconception as to what influences 

 should determine his compensation, is not 

 inevitable, only unfortunate. This text, 

 also, I must not allow myself to elaborate, 

 though there is strong temptation to do so. 

 As an administrative policy, the salary 

 problems should be and in large measure 

 can be solved by preventing them from 

 arising. Policy is here all important. 

 With many others, I hold as desirable 

 above all other arrangements, an effective 

 provision that shall pledge a definite and 

 dependable living for worthy service. This 

 woiild go far towards avoiding the con- 

 stant and irritating perplexities that from 

 time to time, and in some institutions at 

 the close of each academic year, present 

 themselves with threatening features to be 

 somehow appeased. A system of this gen- 

 eral type is well established at Harvard 

 University. What I emphasize as essential 

 therein is that men are elected to positions 

 of definite rank, for definite periods, with 

 definite understandings. The central issue 

 that is to be determined at the close of the 

 period is whether the university desires to 

 retain the services of the occupant; if so, 



