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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 633 



from one full professorship to another. To give 

 satisfaction such a sliding scale would have to 

 be administered uniformly and the practise of 

 withholding the expected advance in some cases 

 and in making it in others strictly debarred, 

 otherwise members of a faculty would feel them- 

 selves perpetually under trial and while this 

 might stimulate a certain feverish activity, it 

 would not promote the efficiency of the body as a 

 whole. I believe that the healthiest system and 

 the one which would lead to the finest esprit de 

 corps to be that of uniformity of pay; the salary 

 in the case of each institution to be of public 

 knowledge. A sliding scale of annual increase 

 which could be relied upon would be satisfactory 

 to the younger members of the staff and pecul- 

 iarly advantageous to those who remain in service 

 for a long period of years. 



Such a system would do away altogether with 

 the present very objectionable practise of trying 

 to obtain offers from other institutions, not for 

 the purpose of accepting the same, but to force 

 an increase of salary in the position which one 

 already holds. At present this is in many in- 

 stitutions the only successful way of improving 

 one's condition as regards pay. 



Such a system as that outlined, however, should 

 be so arranged as not to altogether discourage 

 migration; for, aside from mere monetary con- 

 siderations, it is doubtless better for the univer- 

 sities and their professors to have a certain 

 reasonable amount of change of personnel, on the 

 one hand, and of environment, on the other. 



It might possibly be found necessary to pay 

 higher salaries in departments which come into 

 touch with practical life, such as the chairs in 

 engineering, architecture, medicine and law, than 

 in the ease of purely academic positions, because 

 of the demand outside of the universities for men 

 fitted to fill these positions, but such a distinc- 

 tion is unfortimate and should be avoided if pos- 

 sible. If a man conversant with practical affairs 

 selects a university career he does so necessarily 

 at a pecuniary sacrifice and it is perhaps not too 

 much to ask him to be content with the same 

 pay as his colleagues in other departments. 



22. 

 As regards instructors in different schools, or 

 perhaps even in different departments of the same 

 school, some variation seems necessary. Experts 

 in law, medicine or engineering, even though of 

 no greater relative prominence in their special- 

 ties than teachers in the so-called academic de- 

 partments of the university, must ordinarily be 



paid higher salaries than other teachers, simply 

 because a sufficient number of first-class men 

 can not be gotten away from the competition of 

 active practice in these subjects for salaries that 

 will procure good teachers in the academic de- 

 partments; otherwise, indeed, a imiversity pro- 

 poses to pay the academic teachers on the basis 

 necessary for the professional ones, which is not 

 likely to be the case. I assume, therefore, that 

 the practical question for discussion is whether 

 there should be variations in the salaries paid to- 

 men of the same rank in the same school or 

 similar departments. Ordinarily, I should think 

 it preferable to pay the same salary to men bear- 

 ing the same title and doing work similar in 

 amount and general character. Where a univer- 

 sity's funds are reasonably adequate to the work 

 it is attempting to do, this seems the best way 

 of preventing jealousies and dissatisfactions which 

 are very natural where there are marked dis- 

 tinctions in salary among men of the same rank. 

 At least this is true among professors and asso- 

 ciate professors, though the reasons for it are- 

 not nearly so strong in the case of temporary 

 appointees like instructors and assistant profes- 

 sors. A variation of salary within certain limits 

 may here often be proper and useful in enabling 

 the university to retain a good man whom it 

 can not immediately promote to the higher ranks. 

 In any case, however, I should think it proper 

 for a university in rare instances to pay special 

 salaries to men of extraordinary abilities. The- 

 salary of a professor is not large at best, and a 

 university teacher with an opportunity to earn 

 a much larger sum outside of the university might 

 occasionally have duties that he felt obliged to 

 discharge which necessitated a larger income. If 

 his value to the university were very great, I 

 should think it proper for the university to re- 

 tain him by special arrangement, but such cases- 

 would be very few in number. 



Institutions whose income does not enable them' 

 to employ the usual number of full professors at 

 salaries paid for good men by the larger univer- 

 sities must necessarily choose between having all 

 the men in a department below the first rank, 

 or trying to have at least one first-rate man in 

 each department who shall be paid a substantially 

 higher salary than the others. I should think 

 it better for an institution to pursue the latter 

 policy; but it would be difficult for such an in- 

 stitution to retain its better men, even of thet 

 second grade, if it never advanced any of them 

 to the' rank of professor except the heads of de- 

 partments. The title of professor is looked upon 



