The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-01
RAISING HARVARD SALARIES.

RAISING HARVARD SALARIES.
 The appeal for an endowment of at least s2,50O,0OO for the purpose of in-
 creasing the salaries of the professors and instructors in Harvard College, signed by President Roosevelt, Bishop
 Lawrence, and other Harvard alumni,
 contains some figures as to the pres ent compensation of the teaching force.
 Thirty-seven professors now receive
 salaries of $4,GOO a year or more; 57 pro fessors recseive salaries averaging S,9S0; 3S assistant professors receive salaries averaging $2,130, and SS intructors are
 paid an average of $990.
 These salaries are considered so low
 as seriously to menace the prestige and efficiency of the institution, the ap-
 peal to the alumni for a special en-
 dowment fund saying:
 ''The heart of the college is the teach- CTS. The position of Harvard to-day ! among American univerities is due not
 so much to its age, traditions, or able administration as to it's noble line of teachers. That the teachers in the col lege should be the best in the land; that 1 the older professors should be free from the cares of Istraitened income: that the younger teachers should be able to give themselves without distraction to their work: that the best men should he shall honored if he serves his coun- be drawn away to other colleges, but should see before them reasonbIe pro
 motion in work and salary, is essential to the leadership of Harvard and the culture of her sons In these days Of increasing cost of living and f higher salaries in commercial and in-
 dustrial pursuits, the alumni and friends of Harvard will not allow the
 men who teach their. boys and who fill
 the chairs of the great teachers of the
 past to receive these meagre wages" The fund will surely be subscribed, for at least s1,S00,000 has already been pledged. There is but one other in stitution in the the country so capable
 of raising money as Harvard, and that is John D. Rockefeller. The increase of salaries that the teaching force at liar
 yard will receive is fully deserved, and everybody will rejoice at the good for
 tune of the professors, assistant pro-
 fessors, instructors, lecturers, tutors
 and so on along the pedagogical line.
 Yet is their present plight so very heart-rending as the appeal would indi- cate? Are the salaries now paid in re- ality "meagre wages?" If fifty-seven professors receive an average salary of
 about four thousand dollars a year, can l they be said to be on the verge of des- titution? Are thirty-eight assistant
 professors, for the most part younger
 men, living under the heavy hand of oppression if they receive an average of | $213O year? There are many people
 who would gasp with astonishment at 1 the idea that these incomes constitute
 poverty, showing how much depends
 upon the point of view.
 AS a practical matter, however, there l is no possible doubt that Harvard must
 raise salaries in order to maintain it's l high position as an institution of learn- l ing. Competition has to be met in the | form of new and rich universities, like
 that at Chicago, offering larger salaries l to Harvard professors. It is more and
 more difficult, probably, to make a pro- lessor at Cambridge believe that the
 mere honor of working for Harvard is 1 the equivalent of the additional thou sand or two a year which some other | institution may offer. Nor can it be l doubted that the great prizes in the | other professions and in finance and in- | T aI at% o+ +lo
 American youth, are affecting the pro- fession of teaching somewhat as they
 have already affected the Christian ministry. In the face of ten thousand dollar salaries and incomes plentifully offered in financial and industrial pur- suits, it is becoming relatively harder 1 to retain for the higher branches of l teaching the ablsst minds among the
 generations rapidly crowdng to the front.
 There is tradition that the true 1 teacher of former times cared little about his income so long as he could pursue the calling that he loved. Sal ary was with him a secondary affair l gratefully received, yet not stubbornly l insisted upon. While the highest sala-
 ry movement for college professors
 may raise the question whether the
 profession is losing its old idealism in
 the desire for the good material things l of life, we are bound to say that, as a
 whole, the great teachers, like their
 great predecessors of the past, remain
 men whose lives are wholly dedicated
 to an unselfish service to mankind.
 And the great teachers we shall always have with us, regardless of salaries. | because to teach is their inborn passion
 in life.-Springfeld Republican.