216 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 841 



need in the material equipment of the depart- 

 ment of literature, science and the arts is a 

 new building for the natural sciences." 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



UNrVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS 



Atter reading the address of Dr. Jordan 

 recently published in Science, I desire to enter 

 a protest against some of his statements. I 

 have been for many years in touch with grad- 

 uate students, and have been moved with a 

 keen desire to induce them to enter the teach- 

 ing profession. I thus know of the difficulties 

 they face and why many of them fail to ful- 

 fill the hopes I had in them. I agree with 

 Dr. Jordan that we are not producing the 

 scholars we should, but in the diagnosis of 

 evils we differ. In his address he comes back 

 again and again to the fellowship system and 

 talks touchingly of the starving doctor of 

 philosophy. In my opinion, the starving doc- 

 tor is a figment of the imagination. It is the 

 rapidity of promotion, not the lack of it, that 

 ruins promising investigators. 



The University of Pennsylvania has had a 

 system of fellowship long enough to make its 

 effects apparent. Twenty-four Harrison fel- 

 lowships have been granted annually for fif- 

 teen years. Few of the fellows were, however, 

 graduates of Pennsylvania. The effect of this 

 will be apparent when it is recognized that 

 from the fellows instructors are chosen and 

 from them in turn the professors come. Prac- 

 tically all the instructors and younger pro- 

 fessors are graduates of other colleges. Our 

 young men are a cosmopolitan body represent- 

 ing nearly every college and university in the 

 country. The result has been a transforma- 

 tion of the university in a deeper and more 

 vital way than any other of our important 

 changes. Besides these fellows who have be- 

 come teachers there has been another group 

 coming from the smaller colleges where they 

 were instructors and who have returned to 

 them after a couple years' study here. These 

 two groups account for nearly all our former 

 fellows. 



The following table gives the present occu- 

 pation of all who have been fellows: 



Professors and instructors in universities 



and colleges 107 



Normal and secondary teachers 31 



Literary work 5 



Business and business experts 8 



Government experts 6 



Chemical experts 4 



Social work 7 



Ministers 5 



Students 10 



Deceased 8 



Unknown 2 



Total 193 



This does not look like starvation. If we 

 had double the number of fellowships we could 

 double the service we render to our ovm and 

 to sister institutions without overstocking the 

 market. The fact is a good instructor pays 

 his way everywhere. It is the professor that 

 needs endowment. 



Where then is the trouble if it is not in 

 this quarter? Here again I shall turn to my 

 own experience, which, however, I believe is 

 that of many others. I find among the fel- 

 lows a man of promise. He is made assistant 

 at $800 a year, then instructor at $1,000, which 

 is steadily increased until at thirty he is 

 earning $1,500. Now comes the test under 

 which so many break down. He has published 

 a thesis, written several articles, and has be- 

 come a proficient teacher. This makes him 

 a man of the kind that college presidents 

 want and friends praise. It is one of the 

 peculiarities of college presidents that they 

 want " men of promise," they never seek for 

 " men of deeds." This young man should 

 settle down on his $1,500 a year and do work 

 that would advance his science. But the at- 

 tractions of salary and the flattery of friends 

 are too much for him. He drops his original 

 work for more pay and finds that hastily con- 

 structed books help him along more rapidly 

 than original work. This is the last of him 

 so far as science is concerned. Let me give 

 a couple examples. A young instructor was 

 pushed along until he had the $1,500 a year. 

 He then received an offer of $2,500 from an- 

 other college. I talked to him in this way: 

 " Tou are familiar with the courses you give 

 and your hours are reasonable. Now is the 



