Aprh, 24, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



675 



education. If it is lost as a direct conse- 

 quence of attendance to his duties, we have 

 the best warrant for special provision. 



The whole question of enforced pensions is 

 endlessly complicated, the conflict between 

 individualism and socialism being the most 

 pressing of our civilization. It seems self- 

 evident that if part of the salary of a professor 

 is paid in the form of an old-age annuity, he 

 must receive so much less salary at the time. 

 It costs the same to pay a professor $3,500 a 

 year-, or $3,000 plus an annuity, the annual 

 expense of which is $500. The question is 

 which is better for the professor and for so- 

 ciety. The Carnegie Foundation descending, 

 as it were, suddenly from heaven is certainly 

 a windfall for a professor in an institution 

 that did not have a pension system — perhaps 

 he would like it still better if he were paid 

 the cash value of his annuity, which in some 

 cases would be as much as $20,000. The 

 foundation is also a godsend to the college 

 president, the income of whose institution is 

 generously augmented. 



But these present gains to the individual 

 may obscure our appreciation of what will 

 happen twenty years hence. Our educational 

 system will be richer by the income of $15,- 

 000,000; but will the professor be better ofE 

 because part of his salary is paid in the form 

 of an enforced annuity? There are obvious 

 advantages to the individual, to the institu- 

 tion and to society; but there are also diffi- 

 culties and dangers. If we are to have an 

 extension of paternalism, it appears that it 

 should apply first to children and to the 

 ignorant, rather than to university professors. 

 Economic socialism may be inevitable and 

 even desirable, but we must try to maintain 

 intellectual and moral individualism. If we 

 make an economic caste of university pro- 

 fessors and put it under the care of a board 

 of university presidents, the outcome may be 

 a deadening of intellectual vigor and moral 

 freedom in the university. 



In accordance with your kind permission 

 I shall print this correspondence in Science. 

 Very truly yours, 



J. MoK. Cattell 



ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN AUSTRIA 

 We learn from the London Times that the 

 professorial senate of Vienna University has 

 issued a pronouncement in regard to the case 

 of Professor "Wahrmund, of Innsbruck, which 

 deals with the questions whether a professor 

 of canon law can be deprived of his chair in 

 the juridical faculty of a state university if 

 he comes into conflict with the doctrines of 

 the Eoman Catholic Church, and whether it 

 is admissible that the church should exercise 

 control over the agreement of his teachings 

 with her doctrine. It holds that if the prin- 

 ciple that the teachings of a professor must 

 coincide with religious doctrine were to be 

 recognized, no department of hiunan knowl- 

 edge would remain unaffected, since all de- 

 partments of knowledge have some bearing 

 upon religious doctrine, and concludes that, 

 inasmuch as a mere adroit attempt to influence 

 the exercise of the right of the state or super- 

 intend the universities might in future intro- 

 duce ecclesiastical influences into the manage- 

 ment of the universities, the academic senate 

 considers " inflexible resistance to efforts of 

 this kind, however they may be made, to be a 

 necessity enjoined by the vital principles of 

 science." Professor Wahrmund has been re- 

 quested by his colleagues of Innsbruck Uni- 

 versity to suspend his lectures for the time 

 being, lest academic disturbances necessitate 

 premature closing of the university. 



PREDATORY POLITICS IN OKLAHOMA 

 Many of our state universities and state 

 educational systems have passed through a 

 period of predatory politics. Fortunately, the 

 good sense of the people must in the end pre- 

 vail, and the more important the institution, 

 the less danger is there from the methods of 

 the ward politician. We regret that it is now 

 the fate of the new state of Oklahoma to 

 suffer disgrace in the hands of its politicians. 

 Every republican has been deposed by the 

 democrats from the head of the state institu- 

 tions, including the University of Oklahoma, 

 the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic 

 Arts, the University Preparatory School, the 

 Central State Normal School, the Northwest- 



