336 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 844 



tlie length of service pensions. What needs 

 explanation is why they were established, why 

 they were discontinued in the manner adopted 

 and why they were not paid to those to whom 

 they had been promised. Suppose that Mr. 

 Carnegie in order to get better domestic ser- 

 vants and at lower wages had promised that 

 those who wished could retire after twenty- 

 five years of service with half wages. If he 

 found that the arrangement did not work well 

 or that he did not have enough money to keep 

 up his establishment, he might very well have 

 employed no new servants on these terms. 

 But would he have broken his engagement 

 with those who had served part of the time; 

 and, if so, what would have been the decision 

 of the courts if suit had been brought? 



In his report Dr. Pritchett dismisses the 

 breaking of the pledges of the foundation 

 lightly with the single remark: 



The experience of the year has confirmed in the 

 judgment of the trustees the wisdom and essential 

 justice of the action taken a year ago. 



Now this is a truly remarkable, indeed an 

 almost incredible state of affairs. The pres- 

 ent writer has discussed the matter with some 

 two hundred university professors in the 

 course of the past year, and so far as he re- 

 members not a single one of them regarded 

 the action of the trustees as other than unwise 

 and unjust. In the act of incorporation the 

 objects of the foundation are stated to be to 

 provide pensions of two kinds : (1) for long 

 and meritorious service and (2) for old age, 

 disability or other sufficient reason, and 

 further " to do and perform all things neces- 

 sary to encourage, uphold and dignify the pro- 

 fession of the teacher and the cause of higher 

 education." In the method used to give up 

 the pensions for length of service the founda- 

 tion has certainly not fulfilled the obligations 

 specified in the second part of its charter. 



It is obvious that unless Mr. Carnegie 

 greatly increases the endowment of the foun- 

 dation it can not meet its present obligations. 

 They obtain most of all in the case of the 

 ■ younger men now entering the academic 

 career in view of its promises. It will doubt- 



less be necessary to give up the retiring al- 

 lowances, for age and confine them to disabilr 

 ity. The present writer does not regret this, 

 for reasons which he has fully stated (Science, 

 April 2, 1909). 



Retirement at the age of sixty-five has sub- 

 stantially the same drawbacks as retirement 

 after twenty-five years of service. Men who 

 are less competent or who are not in favor 

 with the administration will be retired; and 

 instead of security and loyalty, there will be 

 unrest and bitterness. The president will be 

 quick to retire professors because their pen- 

 sions are not paid by his institution, but from 

 an outside source. There is no more reason 

 for retiring professors at sixty-five than 

 justices of the supreme court. There should 

 be pensions (or still better full salaries after 

 long terms of service) for disability, but these 

 should be paid by the university. It would 

 have been far better if the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion had given its income as an endowment to 

 one institution after another for the establish- 

 ment of a pension system. Its present finan- 

 cial difficulties would have been avoided, and 

 the dangers of a centralized autocracy would 

 have been escaped. 



It is to be hoped that when the trustees of 

 the foundation abandon the retiring allow- 

 ances at the age of sixty-five years, they will 

 do so in a manner that will "encourage, up- 

 hold and dignify the profession of the teacher 

 and the cause of higher education." 



J. McKeen Cattell 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE TYPE OF COLUMBINA SPIX 



A FEW years ago I discussed the question of 

 Columhina vs. Chwmepelia in The Auh^ con- 

 tending that the designation of Columba pas- 

 serina Linn, by Gray in 1840 as the type of 

 Columbina was valid, and that his later des- 

 ignation of the same species as the type of 

 Chcemepelia rendered Ghmmepelia (Swainson, 

 1827) a synonym of Columhina (Spix, 1825). 

 The genus Columhina originally contained 

 four species, all described as new, one of 



'Vol. XXV., 1908, pp. 301-306. 



