Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-11-21
PROFESSIONAL LIFE.
AN ENGLISH JOURNALS DARK AND
DEsoLATE PICTURE.

OCOOGNtG EtS OhC.
The Ranks Of Professional Labor Becoming
Crammed Beyond Those OF All Others.
An Outlook That Is Certainly ysry Dreary
for This Glass.
A German statist recently assert I'd, In .
carefully drawn up monograph on the sub
ject, that the majority Of university students.
and, indeed, Of all educated lads in Germany,
were living In a dream They all wanted 70
be professional men," and there was not
professional work In the country, including
among the professions the service OF the state,
for more than one-third OF them all Either
the work must be divided and professionals
become poorer even than at present, or two
out OF three candidates must, as far as their
professional incomes were concerned, go with
out food
THE PROFESSIONS ovERCRowDED.
Germany Is overrun with half starved pro
fessional men. 50 is America. and 50 before
long the United Kingdom will be.
The increase of remunerative work to be
done by the educated who desire TO live by
their brains, and. II possible, by the profess
sions recognized as Comforting "a diploma OF
presumable culture. aud leaving the workers
gentlemen In their own eyes and those of the
girls they court, bears no proportion 10 the
increase in the numbers OF those who contend
for it.
The cases" which come before the chief
OF the professions grow more painful every
day, and IL has become n truism to say that
OF all who start on professional careers one
third Ego undern-that is, get sick, die or
emigrate-one-third barely survive fighting
on, without a hone of retiring, TO old age,
and one-third make decent or comfortable
living That is just the proportion given by
the learned Germsn, and we fear the num-
bers OF the first class are far from having
reached their limit
The rush caused by the enormously in
creased numbers OF the educated has hardly
begun, and there are other causes. The de-
sire for "a life in which ability tells" is In
creasing even faster than education, and 50 is
the indispositon to lead the kind of life, no
doubt most painful one, which business
with insufficient capital involves Caste
feeling, which always feeds the professions,
grows stronger than ever in certain sections
Of the community; while, owing at once to
the greater accumulation and diffusion of
wealth, there Is new pressure into the
ranks Of young men with small fixed incomes,
the class which looks on its gains from work
as supplementary, and which all over the
continent keeps down the salaries OF protes-
sionals. These men all think that they rise
in life by entering the close professions The
price of partnerships is for the same reason
rising, while, owing 10 the habit of postpou.
ing retirements, vacancies grow constantly
fewer; and the system Of jobbing In favor of
close relatives is, outside the service Of the
state, more inveterate than ever Men de-
scend TO anything for the sake Of sons-in law.
The prizes, too, grow less. Democracy
hates large salaries and thinks all salaries
large, while, though the close professions
make desperate efforts 10 keep up their stand
ard Of remuneration, it is declining in every
direction. The ordinary professional man"
must either take less or see his connection
gradually slip away.
This diminished chance, moreover, Is not
accompanied by any diminution in the strain
OF life. That increases every year with the
increased number Of competitors, and with
the inceSsant rise in the standard OF necessary
requirement, till II i now asserted that hard
ly any professional man escapes serious loss
from any illness which may visit him; while
an interruption OF six months from any
cause whatever ruins the most promising
career The absent are, as far as pecuniary
hope is concerned. the dead
This Is not pleasing outlook for the new
generation, which needs money more than
ever. People say simplicity increases, and
that is true in sense, but it is simplicity
rather in thought and in methods OF express
sion than in habits Il life. Nothing is Cheap
or except bare food. rent in the professional
districts does not decline-witness the new
habit OF dividing houses between two or more
diSsociated men OF the same profession-and
there never a time when il was more i'm
lead 'civilizedn life, meaning IN great
city life in which one bleeds money from
every pore.
WHAT Is Tbs REMEDYl
Even success has become for professional.
les valuable than IL was The immense ma
gority OF them desire 10 save and the change
in their position in this respect has been as
founding. The fall In the rate of interest 10
10 obtained covers every secure investment,
except, We believe, certain kinds of house
property, which II j. Il heartbreak to inherit,
and which no one with his time fully occu-
pied would or could attempt TO manage prop
erly. Every one feels this fall, but very few
realize Us full extent
In 1850 II was possible for "a man without
working to obtain $500 year for a principal
of flO.OJO with the fullest security, aud now |
he Is fortunate II with the same security he |
obtains A:iO-a change which not only |
whites away his income, but leaves the road |
choked with competitors who. were the an |
nuaI product OF sleeping money still per 1
cent, would retire at once. That evil, II it |
be one, affects men In business. like men in
the professions, but the latter feel 1t more,
FOR while business may be indefinitely Ell. |
banded, the professional mans gains are
limited 10y that great natural fact that
Energ nnF nh
twenty-four hours into one day.
What Is the remedyf There Is none what
ever. As the pressure increases, the work
must either be divided or the price Of work
must come down, with, in either case re-
iuction Of professional income. We do not
oelieve that the strong causes which increase
the number OF those entering ON a profess
sional career will lose their potency in our |
time, and fully expect 70 see the great pro- |
fessional class an exceedingly poor one. In !
1910 the situation here will probab bly, resemble |
that in America, where, though a very few |
professionals make great incomes, a majority |
are not better OFF than English Dissenting |
and TO earn by incessant work |
4l 800 year Is 70 have succeeded greatly. |
The mass Of those who do not go underu |
will make from ESQ to $500, and will look |
out most assiduously for wives who can
bring some addition to their incomes That
Is already the position OF affairs on the con
tlnent, and there is nothing whatever to pro-
tect Englishmen from a similar pressure.
The change results from progress, from that
thirst for education which IL is in our day
the ambition Of legislators to crafty, and |
from that desire for refined life which is its
necessary result. The capacity for brain
work Is growing more common, and brain
work is therefore less valuable
That is all, but that is sufficient to cause a
small social revolution, out Of which that
section of the classes whom Mr.. Gladstone
thinks so sure to he unwise will emerge much
less happy men, with less dignity, less money,
and less leisure than they had.-London
Spectator.
CONJURY IN THE KITCHEN.