Jantjaey 4, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



President— Mt. Waldemar Lindgren. 



Vice-Presidents — Mr. M. R. Campbell, and A. H. 

 Brooks. 



Secretaries — ^Messrs. F. E. Wright and Ralph 

 Arnold. 



Treasurer — ^Mr. Joseph A. Taff. 



Members at Large of the Council — F. L. Ean- 

 some, T. W. Stanton, George H. Ashley, E. 0. 

 Ulrich, George B. Richardson. 



Arthur C. Spencer, 



Secretary 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION 



To THE Editor of Science: I am sorry to 

 conclude, after a perusal of the last number 

 of Science that has reached me (October 26, 

 1906) that everything is not going just right 

 everywhere just now. My grief is greatly 

 softened, however, by the fact that the col- 

 umns of that always instructive and some- 

 times entertaining journal seem to be pretty 

 ' wide-open ' to people who ' object.' I can 

 hardly tell what a boon this will be to some 

 of us whose activities are now mostly re- 

 stricted to some form of mild and, I trust, 

 inoffensive ' kicking.' 



I have been waiting for some months for 

 somebody to enter a protest against the phrase- 

 ology of the published notices of the awards 

 of pensions from the ' Carnegie Foundation 

 for the Advancement of Teaching.' As the 

 same ' peculiar wording ' has been used in 

 every such notice that I have seen, I infer that 

 it must have been purposely selected and for- 

 mally adopted by some one. ' The retirement 



of Professor is made possible ' (the 



italics are mine) by the action of the trus- 

 tees of the Carnegie Fund, etc. 



When I first read this phrase in the an- 

 nouncement of Dr. Harris's retirement from 

 the Bureau of Education I thought it only an 

 amusing oversight, a bit of ill-considered com- 

 position, or a case of ' the types made us say ' ; 

 but when I read it later of Professor Morley 

 and again of Professor Dolbear (I think) I 

 saw that some other than the printer's devil 

 was having a hand in it. For in my humble 

 and far-away judgment the italicized words, 

 as applied to the retirements named above, 

 are about the most infelicitous that a diabol- 



ical ingenuity could select. To one who 

 doesn't know the man or his work, or the big 

 place he fills in the ' educational heart ' of 

 the great republic, the words clearly imply 

 that the president, and everybody else, for that 

 matter, have been wanting for years to retire 

 Dr. Harris, but that it was impossible to get 

 rid of him until the Carnegie fund came to the 

 rescue. One must conclude that through the 

 same beneficent charity Western Reserve Uni- 

 versity is HOW relieved of Professor Morley, 

 the most distinguished member of its faculty; 

 and that Tufts breathes again, free from the 

 incubus of Dolbear. I am not holding the 

 trustees of the Carnegie fund responsible for 

 these words nor am I questioning their sin- 

 gular appropriateness in ilne majority of cases 

 with which the trustees will have to deal, but 

 to the inventor of the phrase, whoever he may 

 be, I submit that there ought to be an alterna- 

 tive, for use when the above seems to be not 

 just the right thing to say — something that 

 will not mislead the intelligent but unin- 

 formed reader. 



About a quarter of a century ago it was 

 my pleasure to sit through several sessions of 

 the physical section of the British Associa- 

 tion, presided over by Lord Kelvin. Follow- 

 ing the usual English practise, he always said 

 a few words after the presentation of each 

 paper, conveying the thanks of the section 

 to its author. The custom is often purely 

 formal and generally the words have little 

 real meaning, but it was delightful to see 

 that the distinguished chairman, following his 

 natural leaning towards ' precision,' had de- 

 vised two expressions, quite similar in form 

 but, to a reflective listener, very different in 

 meaning, which he made use of as judgment 

 dictated, in the discharge of this part of his 

 duty as presiding officer. In one case he 

 would say, " I am sure the section will join 

 me in thanking Mr. • for his most in- 

 teresting and important communication on 

 this subject," while in another it would be, 

 " I am sure the section will join me in thank- 

 ing Mr. for his communication on this 



most interesting and important subject." 



Can not the editor of the Carnegie pension 



