Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-07-13
Pay and Ability.
New York Sun.

Chancellor McCracken of the New
York University, in his address to the
graduates on Thursday, contrasted the
great salaries paid by corporations with
the modest stipends received by college
faculties. The salaries of the presi-
dents of the fourteen ranking universe
ties of this country, all put together,
he pointed out, do not amount to as
much as the salary and perquisites of
single fortunate president of life in
surance corporation. Moreover, as the
average salary of an American univer-
sity professor is only $1,000, fifty of
them together get only as much as is
paid as annual salary merely to single
life insurance president.
This comparison is not important ex-
cept so far as it may suggest that the
scale of pay of insurance officers is too
high and Of college professors too low.
The standard of judgment between the
two, however, is not the mere differ
ence in salaries. 1t is whether in either
case the salary is above or below the
pay necessary to get the quality OF abil-
ity requisite for the place.
The salary of the President of the
United States is only half that paid to
the president of life insurance COM
pany now under investigation; yet be-
cause of that less pay it has never been
difficult to get men to take the place,
not even when the Presidents salary
was half it's present amount. Nor has
It ever been difficult to get men OF emil
nsnt abilities to take the vice presidency
orSplaces in the cabinet because of the
smallness of the salaries paid.
The average salary of university pro-
fessors is as great as the average of
official salaries of lower grade paid by
the United States in places for the fill
ing of which superior ability is requi'
site. Men holding offices in the Federal
Treasury Department Of the highest
responsibilities are paid only $4,000 to
$4,000 pear.
Judicial salaries in the United States
do not average as much as the pay OF
college presidents and hardly more than
the pay of professors. Presidents OF
universities get as much as cabinet
officers of the federal government, and
in some cases more. The pay of sena-
tors and representatives in the federal
Congress is much less than some OF
these presidents receive. The average
pay of governors Of State is less.
The average pay of the clergy in the
United States is very much less than
81, 900, and the sum is high compared
with the average earnings of lawyers
and doctors, all men of learned pro-
fessors. 1t is as much as the great
majority Of the officers Of the army and
navy get. 1t is more than the average
income Of men Of education.
We do not mean in saying this that
college professors are sufficiently paid.
We wish that they got more. They
ought to get more. But are there any
places in the faculties of colleges which
are left unsupplied because of the
smallness of the pecuniary inducements
offered? The applicants are far more
numerous than the places. The law
and medical schools turn out annually
thousands of new lawyers and doctors,
in spite of the paltriness of the money
rewards obtained by the run of these
professors.
Why? Because the goal which the
best element in society sets before it
self is not success In mere money max
ing. 1t is the element which thinks
rather of the things of the spirit; which
is controlled by the aspiration that dis
tinguishes the artist-the ambition,
first Of all, to do well it's part, to work
up to its ideals, to make the best use
of it's faculties.
Thank God everybody does not work
for money alone. The progress of civ
Ilization in the future will be most
pushed forward by men, i'll paid and
self-denying, who are now patiently
and obscurely working in laboratories
to discover the secrets of the universe
whose revelation will herald the millen-
mum.