TEE COLLEGE PROFESSOR 273 



THE CASE OF THE COLLEGE PEOFESSOE 



By Peofessob WARNER FITE 



INDIANA UNIVEBSITX 



ONE of the recognized subjects for public commiseration at tbe 

 present time is the college professor's salary. Once in so often 

 some disgusted member of the profession writes a letter of protest to 

 bis favorite weekly journal and starts a new wave of sympathy. Yet 

 so far it has occurred to none of the complainants to propose, as a 

 serious measure, the policies by which other men have bettered their 

 condition — for example, the policy of organized self-assertion expressed 

 in the trade-union. In the eyes of the profession the bare suggestion 

 is vulgar. The aims of the scholar and teacher, as he will have you 

 know, are essentially disinterested. His work in the world is that of a 

 missionary working for others. Or if the " others " sounds too evan- 

 gelical, at least his motives are those of professional honor. It is 

 therefore out of the question for him to make any very overt demand 

 for increased compensation. Eather is it the business of society to 

 recognize the delicacy of his position and see that he is properly re- 

 warded. 



Yet there is something incongruous in a missionary complaining 

 of his pay. The missionary is supposed to be delighted with hardships 

 and to find ample satisfaction in " the beauty of self-sacrifice." If, 

 like other men, he thinks that he is also entitled to a fair living, then 

 it is not to be seen why the duty should not rest upon him, as upon 

 others, of presenting his account. The college professor may plead in 

 excuse that for him the business of settling accounts is specially trouble- 

 some. And it is true that his work calls to a special degree for freedom 

 from distractions, and that to the problems upon which he is engaged 

 questions of compensation are external and immediately irrelevant — 

 while for the business man distractions are the ordinary routine and 

 higgling for higher prices the game in which he delights. Unques- 

 tionably, in the interest of the college professor's work, it is desirable 

 that his economic welfare be reasonably secure. Yet if the professor's 

 furnace fire goes out, and no one is at hand to attend to it, he must set 

 about it himself or freeze. By the same token, if society fails to attend 

 properly to his salary, the responsibility rests upon him. And in the 

 end this is the place where the responsibility should rest. 



It would make this responsibility clearer if he would frankly ask 

 himself what, after all, he is really standing for. And if the question 



vol. lxxviii.— 19 



