458 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 847 



sity presidents — who would perhaps consider 

 a president's position as quite different — and 

 the Popular Science Monthly in its March 

 number presents both sides of the ease, de- 

 ciding in favor of permanent tenure. Presi- 

 dent Butler, of Columbia University, in con- 

 nection with the recent dismissal of a 

 professor, took the ground that a teacher has 

 destroyed his academic usefulness when he 

 offends against common morality, or agaiast 

 " the dictates of common sense." President 

 Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin, 

 takes the position that " there is no possible 

 excuse for retaining on the staff of a univer- 

 sity an inefficient man." And he complains 

 that it is too often assumed that universities 

 exist for the instructional force : " That the 

 main thing is to give that force a comfortable 

 and happy time, an opportunity for a some- 

 what easy existence as a teacher, leisure for 

 browsing through literature, and long vaca- 

 tions." 



Very likely to the employing class, accus- 

 tomed to deal summarily with employees earn- 

 ing much more than a college professor, it may 

 seem an anomaly to appoint men permanently 

 instead of leaving them subject to a week's 

 warning. Yet as the Popular Science Monthly 

 points out, there are precedents, as in the 

 army, the navy and the higher courts, and 

 permanence of oifice, when introduced, is in- 

 tended to improve the service, not to demoral- 

 ize it : " It is attached to honorable offices, 

 where public spirit and self-sacrifice are de- 

 manded, and the wages do not measure the 

 performance." 



It may be urged, of course, that in the in- 

 terest of efficiency the wages should be made to 

 measure the performance; that the teaching 

 business should be put on a cold-blooded com- 

 mercial basis, with no sentimental nonsense. 

 Let every university bid for the best men, and 

 discharge any employee when a more efficient 

 man for the job can be found. The system 

 works after a fashion in the business world, 

 though even there its full rigor is only applied 

 now and then by remorseless employers. The 

 general rule even in business is that a man is 

 retained while he gives reasonable satisfaction. 



even though it might be possible to fill the 

 post in a more ideal fashion. Perhaps that, 

 too, will come when the efficiency experts have 

 completed their reform of American business 

 system. 



How it would work in the academic world 

 is another matter, and opinion may differ as 

 to whether it would produce more efficient or 

 less efficient teachers than are found under 

 the present easy-going old-fashioned ways. 

 The one sure thing is that it would bring in a 

 very different type of man. Of course if the 

 machine is to be " speeded up " and only the 

 young and energetic are to find a place in it, 

 the pecuniary rewards must be made com- 

 mensurate if the profession is to be made 

 attractive to men of ability. And without 

 doubt the offer of gorgeous salaries would 

 draw in brilliant young men who now see 

 nothing worth while in teaching because they 

 can make more money in business. But that 

 the net result would be a strengthening of the 

 teaching force is by no means so certain. 

 What efficiency experts sometimes forget is 

 that there is a type of ability that can be 

 found and retained better by the offer of a se- 

 cure and dignified post than by the flourishing 

 of money. The Popular Science Monthly, 

 which is by no means sentimental, hits at an 

 important truth when it says: 



But it appears that the general course of social 

 evolution is not toward competition. In the uni- 

 versity it would probably be adverse to the finer 

 traits of scholarship and character, most of all 

 when, as under our present system, the competi- 

 tion would be for the favor of presidents and 

 trustees. 



No doubt a university tends to accumulate 

 " deadwood," and it is easy to understand the 

 desire a president must often feel to make a 

 clean sweep. Nevertheless it is probable that 

 these disadvantages are more than offset by 

 the republican spirit which prevails in the 

 faculty of a happily governed college or uni- 

 versity, the spirit of equality and of disin- 

 terested service. It would be a pity to have 

 the seclusion of the university, the citadel of 

 idealism, given up to selfish scrambling for a 

 better "job." — Springfield Republican. 



