PRODUCTIVE SCHOLARSHIP 607 



let research flourish for advertising purposes in the catalogue when 

 there is nothing of it in the laboratory. Dishonesty and humbugery in 

 scholarship and in education probably are the meanest, because the most 

 injurious, of all forms of rascality; and yet, though there should be 

 none of it, who can be found willing to say that it is even uncommon ? 



America, as already stated, is not doing her share of creative work, 

 and this inexcusable negligence is far more pronounced in the southern 

 states than it is anywhere else, though no section is free from blame — 

 no institution can claim to be ideal. This is not due to racial peculiari- 

 ties, to want of material equipment, nor to an inordinate struggle for 

 wealth, but chiefly to the atmosphere of the university, to the environ- 

 ment in which the university professor is placed and upon which he 

 must depend for his daily intellectual stimulus. 



For schools, academies and colleges that confine themselves strictly 

 to elementary work, creative scholarship on the part of the teachers is 

 not so imperative, but, as the reputation of every institution is that of 

 the work it does and no more, therefore, in the case of those that wish 

 to justify their claims to the title of university, let every important 

 chair, irrespective of the present or prospective quantity of graduate 

 work, be filled only by a man who has contributed something to the 

 advancement of his subject, and who is likely to continue doing so. 

 Such a man, because of his love for his specialty, and because of his 

 thoroughness, usually is an enthusiastic teacher and often an inspiring 

 one — the highest qualification. He who is not a research man seldom 

 induces the love of knowledge in others — blood doesn't come from 

 turnips. 



In the name of civilization and of human progress let no position 

 that presupposes scholarship and offers the sacred privilege of doing 

 work be filled save by him who recognizes that in this case opportunity 

 means duty. The ideal man is one who has a sympathetic appreciation 

 for all sciences and a minute knowledge of his own specialty — one who 

 knows something about everything and everything about something, for 

 nothing short of this can give that accuracy and that resourcefulness 

 essential to the solution of difficult problems, nor that alertness and 

 breadth of view so necessary to the detection and to the understanding of 

 new phenomena. To be sure, the ideal man seldom is found, but it is 

 better to hunt long for the ideally good, than, as sometimes seems to be 

 the case, quickly to secure the ideally bad. 



This, then, the careful selection of his faculty, selection and pro- 

 motion according to their productive ability (for by their fruits ye shall 

 know them), is the president's first and greatest obligation. Nor is this 

 impracticable, for it is the avowed and fruitful policy of the president 

 of one of our leading universities, a policy fully approved by his board, 

 and supported by the legislature to which he is responsible. 



Another important thing the president can do — and one of our best 



