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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 865 



where the problems of instruction are less 

 varied, such remarks have even less justifica- 

 tion. The qualities that make a successful 

 teacher, in any environment, are high char- 

 acter and wide knowledge; and a very few 

 years trial should suiEce to inform the dis- 

 cerning and disinterested judge whether 

 or not a man possesses these essentials. 

 If he does not there is no justification 

 for retaining him, no matter how much 

 money or inconvenience is saved by doing 

 so. If he does there is no justification 

 for removing him, no matter how much 

 money doing so releases for other purposes, or 

 how much the administration believes in his 

 incapacity, so long as it has no other evidence 

 of it to offer to the public except vague general 

 statements about environmental unfitness, 

 and having reached the limit of growth. 

 Such statements are based altogether too 

 much on personal opinion and on intangible, 

 esoteric considerations to justify action so 

 serious in its consequences as removal from 

 an academic position always is. 



Sidney Gunn 

 Massachusetts Institute 

 OF Technology, 

 July 3, 1911 



ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY 



To THE Editor of Science: Referring to 

 Mr. Handschin's letter concerning academic 

 and industrial efficiency in your issue of June 

 9, I feel that it should be said that it is very 

 doubtful whether the efficiency of educational 

 institutions can be compared in any way with 

 the efficiency of industrial concerns. 



I very much doubt the unsupported thesis : 

 " But the institution which pays the most to 

 ' productive ' labor is the most efficient." If 

 a railroad were to be built by hand labor the 

 labor cost would be relatively high, but I 

 fancy no one would say that the work was 

 efficiently done. Indeed, it may be stated 

 with almost no other support than our general 

 knowledge of things that in proportion as 

 new machinery is devised to take the place of 

 hand labor the efficiency of production is 

 increased. 



In general, efficiency, as the word has been 

 recently used, is the ratio of useful energy 

 of one form recovered to total energy of an- 

 other form supplied or destroyed. I should 

 like to inquire who can measure the total 

 energy supplied by a teacher or the useful 

 energy recovered? 



Without question there are certain econ- 

 omies that may be realized in the conduct of 

 an educational institution of any kind, but, 

 while these economies must not be overlooked, 

 they are the least important of all of the 

 items to which attention should be given. 

 In most of the discussion that has appeared it 

 has seemed to me that the duties of the college 

 and the university have been confused. What- 

 ever may be the dictionary definition of a 

 university, it is accepted as a place for re- 

 search, a place where enthusiastic men may 

 find encouragement and the means to assist 

 them in their efforts to increase the world's 

 store of knowledge. It is not necessarily an 

 aggregation of colleges — it is not a commer- 

 cial laboratory. Its duty, therefore, is to 

 promote research with only so much control 

 by a group of scholars as to make it reason- 

 ably certain that any study undertaken is 

 worthy of effort. It is the duty of a college 

 to give young men and young women a cer- 

 tain small proportion of knowledge already 

 available, to teach them where and how to 

 get more, and to endeavor to inspire them 

 with a high sense of duty to their country, 

 their neighbors, themselves and their God. 

 This is as we know the college in America. 



In its mechanical or commercial sense effi- 

 ciency is not a word to be used in connection 

 with this duty of the college, or the work of a 

 university. The cost matters little if the 

 duty and work are well performed. 



I would not have this statement considered 

 as a reflection upon the excellent report of 

 Mr. Cooke to the Carnegie Foundation for 

 the Advancement of Teaching, which report 

 seemed to me to be full of suggestions of 

 great value. 



Wm. G. Raymond 



Iowa City, Iowa 



