648 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 827 



lack of men. who deserve to be higlily re- 

 warded, and we are in danger of sliding down 

 the lines of a vicious spiral, until we reach the 

 stage where the professor and his scholarship 

 are not respected because they are not re- 

 spectable." 



University professors and scientific men 

 doubtless belong to the privileged classes. If 

 their salaries are too small in comparison with 

 the incomes of the classes, they are ample in 

 comparison with the wages of the masses. 

 But the salaries and rewards are not adjusted 

 to performance. In Germany the docents 

 in the universities have had a meager support, 

 but the professorship has been maintained as 

 a high office. Promotion to it has not as a 

 rule accrued through favor, through length of 

 service, or even through personal presenta- 

 bility or skill in teaching, but as a reward for 

 research work in which a man is judged by 

 his peers. To this method of university ad- 

 ministration must in large measure be at- 

 tributed the primacy of Germany in research 

 during the past century. In Great Britain 

 and in France also the exceptional man has 

 received exceptional honors. 



In this democracy we face conditions into 

 which the other nations are likely to follow us. 

 Geheimrats, knights and academicians may 

 become no more reputable than our LL.D's. 

 As scientific men increase in numbers and 

 their work becomes more highly specialized, 

 it becomes more and more difficult to use fame 

 and social distinction as rewards. The most 

 plausible expedient would appear to be the 

 establishment of research positions in our 

 universities, in our endowed institutions and 

 in the government service, better paid and 

 more free than any now existing. By the wUl 

 of Senator Vilas, the University of Wisconsin 

 will have ten professorships with salaries of 

 $10,000 and freedom from routine teaching. 

 If each large university has such a scheme, the 

 vacancies being filled by the professors and 

 the position and salary being for life, a com- 

 paratively small expenditure would go far 

 toward attracting exceptional men to the 



academic and scientific career and stimulating 

 them to do exceptional work. 



The difficulty confronting us is that our 

 competitive system of payment does not apply 

 to services rendered to society. The physi- 

 cian must promote health, the lawyer prevent 

 litigation and the editor conserve decency at 

 their own cost and to their own cost. The 

 scientific man is not directly paid for his re- 

 search work; he often has difficulty to find a 

 charity that will publish it. The man of let- 

 ters was formerly dependent on a patron, but 

 thanks to the printing press, the increase of 

 the reading public and the copyright laws, his 

 condition has improved. The patent office has 

 been of assistance to discovery; its scope 

 should be extended to cover, for example, the 

 production of new varieties of plants and ani- 

 mals, and, if possible, the production of new 

 kinds of ideas. But methods should be de- 

 vised by which scientific work will be rewarded 

 in some direct proportion to its value to so- 

 ciety — and this not in the interest of the in- 

 vestigator, but in the interest of society. 



At the same time we must remember that 

 human nature is extremely complicated and 

 imperfectly understood. The fine flower of 

 genius may wither in the sunshine more 

 quickly than in the shade. Children are loved 

 and cherished in direct proportion to the sac- 

 rifices made for them. There is a subtle dis- 

 tinction between play and work. It might 

 happen that the joy of creation in art and 

 science would be crushed by professionalism. 

 The dominant motives of conduct vary from 

 age to age, from land to land, from group to 

 group, from individual to individual. But in 

 spite of our ignorance of the causes of conduct 

 we may have some confidence that among the 

 restless nations of the west, poverty, celibacy, 

 obedience and obscurity are exotic ideals which 

 can not be used to make the scientific career 

 attractive. 



J. McKeen Cattell 



Columbia Uni\-eesity 



(To be concluded) 



