276 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



price. The net result is to strain the financial resources of the institu- 

 tion almost to bursting, and at the same time to lay the foundation for 

 such an increase of fixed charges as to bar all possibility of a more 

 liberal scale of salaries. 



In all this the college professor is apt to congratulate himself upon 

 the wisdom of the serpent. The argument of numbers, he will tell you 

 confidentially, is to impress the imagination of legislatures and mil- 

 lionaires, and when a comfortable establishment has been secured, of 

 course all will be changed. But, apart from the fact that the wisdom 

 of the serpent is not the scholar's special brand, and sits not well upon 

 him, if every increase of resources is to be paralleled by a corresponding 

 increase of liabilities, in the form, say, of new departments to maintain, 

 it must be said that the college is playing a losing game. In the mean- 

 time there are few, at least of the better institutions, which could not 

 be financially independent on the strength of their present foundation, 

 if only they would have the courage to curtail their product in favor of 

 a better grade of goods. If standards were raised to approximate those 

 used elsewhere, if college education were presented as a privilege, to be 

 reserved for those who will work for it, if the college would determine 

 for itself what it can profitably offer and what the student can profit- 

 ably take, instead of aiming at a department-store assortment of elec- 

 tives, it would improve its own dignity, increase its real usefulness, and 

 at the same time be able to make a more liberal provision for its 

 faculty. 



Inflation of attendance is, however, only part of a general program 

 of extravagance and improvidence. The popular theory of academic 

 finance is the theory of the deficit. Nowhere else is it considered a 

 mark of economic wisdom to spend beyond your income. In the col- 

 lege it is held to be a necessary condition of health and "life," And 

 for the necessities of " life " it is assumed that the Lord will, and will 

 thus be compelled to, provide. At the same time the furnishings of 

 life have acquired a larger importance. It is no longer a matter of 

 Mark Hopkins and a log, but of the log and Mark Hopkins. Eemem- 

 bering that the chief factor in teaching is the personal intelligence of 

 the teacher, it must be said that the salaries of instruction, as com- 

 pared with the other expenses of maintenance, cut a surprisingly small 

 figure in the budget. 



Here again, however, the college professor is largely responsible. 

 Some allowance must be made for the necessary equipment for instruc- 

 tion in science. Yet even here, and perhaps specially here, it is true 

 that too much emphasis is laid on the laboratory and too little upon 

 the man. It is apt to be forgotten that many of the greatest scientific 

 achievements have required only very crude instruments, and that, 

 after all, the aim of science, as of philosophy, is, in the words of Hegel, 



