Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-21
UNIVERSITY SALARIES.

OF TIE llslTEctCES is ustiHSNi; 4Oi
even under the new arrangements these gen
tlemen willreceive wretchedly insufficient
stipend. Their incomes, though greater
than previously, will henceforth range
from Sl25 tc $3.50 month; surely = rate
of compensation by no means calculated
to convince the rising generation that
learning pays. No doubt the poverty Of the
University may be pleadedin barof criticism
on this head, but since the saving effected
by the late reduction only amounts to
about $500 per month, it is plain that the
benefits expected from it cannot be very
great. The salaries of the professors have
been cut down, in one case from SAG to
1878, in another from $3.50 to S275, in the
rest from $500 to $3.50. These salaries are
certainly not sufficient to satisfy even the
most moderate ambition, nor can it be ex-
pected that University which exhibits
SO much parsimony in the payment OF its
faculty can succeed in retaining or secur-
ing frstrate teachers.
The idea has long prevailed that teach
era ought not to require high compensation,
and this belief he's received sort of
support from the fact that in too many OF
our lower educational institutions it has
been customary for ignorant and incompe
tent School Boards to accept the cheap
services of equally Incompetent instruc-
tors. It has in fact been with great
difficulty and pains that the barbarous no.
ton of teaching, namely, that it is only a
kind of recreation, and that teachers are
necessarily poor sort of people, has been
even partially overcome. The truth that
it requires as much talent, as much appli-
cation, as much preparation, to fit man
for the duties OF a college professor as are
needed for the equipment of any of the
better recognized professions of physics.
law, or divinity, has always been accepted
with great reluctance. There are so many
people who think that all teachers are the
same that it is just as easy to fill an ed
vocational position as merely clerical one
and that the emoluments of the edusa.
tional and the clerical offices ought to
stand upon the same basis that it is very
difficult to get the actual merits Of the
case recognized.
The Board of Regents have for some
time seen that it was necessary to do some
thing, and so they have quite naturally hit
upon the expedient of cutting down the
salaries of the professors. They have, it
is true, been sensible enough to perceive
that the instructors were underpaid, but
we think it unfortunate that they should
have concluded that the professors were
overpaid. A salary of $500 per month is
not princely, to say the least. And when
it is all that a lifetime devoted to learning
can command, it indicates an indifference
to the value of that learning which is not
creditable to the governors Of our COL
!eges and universities. 1t is possible that
if the men who have devoted them
selves to teaching were as smart as or
binary business men, they might make
better terms for themselves. But it is very
we'll known that the business faculty is
rarely united with the Students tempera.
ment, and that as rule the most learned
men are the least capable in financial at.
fairs. This, however, should not be taken
advantage OF By those who have the gov.
eminent of our colleges. They should seek
first to secure the best teaching and they
should pay for it fairly.
1t is by no means hopeful augury for
the University of California that it has
been thought necessary to reduce the sal
aries of its professors. 1t may be that
this step has been compelled by the pow
erty of the institution, but we are disposed
to think that economy should have been
exercised in every other direction before
such measure as this was resorted to.
For it is not only unjust to the Faculty
themselves, but it operates as an adver-
tisement depreciating the University. The
present professors may have consented to
accept the reduction, and to continue their
work, but the announcement of necessity
so imperious as to justify what seems a
blow at the very life of the institution
cannot possibly do it any good. We can.
not admit that any of the professors re-
ceived too high pay originally. We believe
that they were worth much more than
they received, in fact. The Regents who
have cut down their salaries are them.
selves men scarcely one of whom would
think it worth his while to devote his best
energies to any occupation for such stipends
as they have awarded the professors. The
truth is that they have indirectly been
influenced by the medieval theory of edu.
cation.
But there is another phase OF the case.
If the University is so poor as these re-
auctions seem to indicate, it is certainly
time that some of our millionaires came
forward to assist the struggling institution.
The States aid has undoubtedly handi.
capped it in this connection, for most men
suppose it to be amply endowed, whereas
it is nothing OF the kind We have many
very rich men, and yet so far only two
gifts have been made to the University
The late Edward Tompkins of Alameda,
aud D. o. Mills, are the only men who have
Thought of it. There are scores who could
afford to endow it muniicently, and it is
evident that it will never be more IN need
of such help than now. The Universities
and colleges Of other States have received
millions in gifts and requests. Is California
to be behind all her sisters in aiding the
cause Of higher education
THE REVOLUTIONARY CONGRESS-.
This is quite a sonorous title, but it ap.
neara Tn stand for meetinp of az eorrv