716 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 882 



whicli tlie pension may carry as a recognition 

 of merit, a badge of honor. It will ever be im- 

 possible and perhaps undesirable to separate 

 the economic responsibility applicable to all 

 meritorious servitors of society from the 

 special recognition to be accorded those who 

 might well be relieved of economic pressure, 

 or to those who through devotion to intellec- 

 tual or moral purpose have been debarred from 

 the more lucrative pursuits. The distinction 

 is none the less to be held and clarified, despite 

 the similar resultant expression; moreover the 

 sturdy justice and even the humanitarian 

 sympathy that invites to the acceptance of 

 economic responsibility is itself congenial to 

 the sentiment that finds a duty and a pleasure 

 in lending honor and dignity to a pension con- 

 ferred in recognition of distinguished or 

 altruistic service. 



Our sole institution for recognizing this 

 claim to recognition of the learned classes owes 

 its existence to the wisdom and beneficence of 

 one man — the Carnegie Foundation for the 

 Advancement of Teaching. The present re- 

 flections are prompted by the opinions of its 

 president, Dr. H. S. Pritchett {Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly for November), in discussion of 

 the " Moral Influence of a University Pension 

 System"- — or let us say frankly by the con- 

 siderations which are conspicuously absent 

 from his presentation. We stand ready to ac- 

 cord Mr. Pritchett the authority of judgment 

 as to management, growing out of his ofiicial 

 experience and accumulated wisdom; but we 

 can not grant him by virtue of his oflice any 

 special warrant in the appraisal of wise prin- 

 ciples which management is to follow, other 

 than that conferred by the possession of in- 

 sight and ideals and the personal qualities to 

 carry them to expression. We are ready to 

 accept his summary that " the experience of 

 the world seems to point strongly to the con- 

 clusion that on the whole a contributory form 

 of pension is likely to be more just and least 

 harmful " ; and we can not withhold a regret 

 that the experience of the world was not avail- 

 able five years ago when the contrary policy 

 was adopted by the Carnegie Foundation. 

 Let it be recognized that every pension sys- 



tem applicable to many and to all sorts and 

 conditions of men presents problems of man- 

 agement and requires economic considerations 

 of the greatest good — or as Mr. Pritchett 

 seems to view it, the least harm — of the larg- 

 est number. The foundation must balance its 

 books by economic as well as by intellectual 

 and moral standards. Yet fundamentally the 

 selection of university professors of selected 

 institutions as beneficiaries carries an honor 

 and a privilege as well as a benefit. This 

 aspect of the pension must dominate and 

 guide the spirit of the institution as it in- 

 spired Mr. Carnegie's deed of gift and ap- 

 pealed to his wisdom and philanthropy; and 

 considerations of management must on no ac- 

 count or pretext be permitted to disturb the 

 trend of a far-reaching purpose, or to en- 

 croach upon the field where policy is sacred 

 and politics profane. 



Mr. Pritchett's article gives the impression 

 of an ofiicial weighed down with administra- 

 tive annoyances, and deeply concerned to avert 

 the impending demoralization of the professor 

 when confronted by the remote prospect of an 

 allowance granted without supervision or 

 under the care of a trustee or guardian, if 

 such should be granted at an age when the 

 allowance might still be used for the advan- 

 tage of his career. Mr. Pritchett's doubts ex- 

 tend to many distressing aspects of the pro- 

 fessor's character. Under these circumstances 

 it would be as fair as kind that President 

 Pritchett should be relieved of the burdens of 

 his ofiice, which might well be placed in the 

 hands of someone more strongly convinced of 

 the worthiness of the academic class as bene- 

 ficiaries, more deeply interested in furthering 

 the purposes for which the foundation was es- 

 tablished. The symptoms, we venture to 

 diagnose, point to another case of the preva- 

 lent malady of hypertrophy of the executive 

 centers of the spinal cord, and atrophy of the 

 higher cerebral centers of intellectual vision 

 and directive purpose. The suggestion is 

 obvious that the malady may be of contagious 

 origin, since the board of trustees is made up 

 of college presidents. But is it not trans- 

 lucently clear that this institution, of such 



