New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-22
COLLEGE Salaries.
will reveal

The testamentaIy disposition of his estate by
the late Professor LOOMS, of Yale University,
must have greatly interested academic circles
throughout the country. The fortune ac-
cumulated during a laborious and abstemious
life is to belong ultimately to a single inStitu-
ton, but the uses for which it is to be employed
give distinctive character and value to the
bequest, and impart to it significance which
will not be overlooked nor underestimate IN
other centres Of learning.
Professor LCOmis acquired his reputation as
a mathematician and his fortune as a writer Of
mathematical textbooks and it is natural
therefore that he should have desired to per-
petuate his name and make his acquisitions
continuously fruitful through the astronomical
department Of Yale. His fortune is devised to
the uses Of the Observatory, but not without
restrictions as to its employment and it is these
conditions which make his last will and tesla
ment a suggestive document. The LOOMS Fund
will eventually amount to about so 80, 600, and
the income Of this sum is to be devoted to " the
promotion of the science Of astronomy by en-
ployng it to pay the salaries Of professors and
the costs Of research and publication. Yale is
fortunate in the present possession of we'll
equipped observatory, which, with this pro-
vision for securing the highest knowledge and
skill in the application Of its facilities, ought to
become one of the most famous and useful in
stitutonS of its kind in the world.
A college is always expected to receive with
profound gratitude gifts and bequests for the
erection of new buildings which will perpet-
uate the names of the givers, but the mainte-
Il. ,t.h of inf tl,.
makes serious inroad upon the general funds
Of the institution, and it can be truthfully said
in consequence that they often supply test
Of the unselfsh devotion with which the insti-
tuition is served. When one considers how
meagre the salaries of college professors are
one marvels at the learning and the labor which
are expended in material age in the cause Of
higher education. Now and then an independ-
ent fortune or. more rarely still, as in the ca Sc
OF Professor Looms, an income from writing
makes the question Of salary mimpoitant, but
with the vast majority plain living is neces-
sty, whether it be preference or nOt-often,
moreover, living so plain as to be a hindrance
rather than a help to high thinking. Great
schools are not made by buildings and appa-
ratus. but by the men who breathe an immortal
shirt into them, and il is astonishing that so
many institutions for which the country has
cause to be grateful have been made possible
by the fortitude and self-sacrifce Of those who
have converted equipment into force.
Because the colleges have hitherto been
served with unsurpassed fidelity, and, all
things considered, with very high standard
of talent and attainment, it does not follow that
they always will be if the existing conditions
of service remain unchanged, or that more ade-
quate rewards might not have made past de-
votion more fruitful. Anxiety and tribulation
do not commonly promote efficiency, and the