Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-04
PAY AND ABILITY.
Salaries Drawn by Men in Various
Walks Of Life.

From the 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 sti-
ponds received by college faculties The SAL
aries OF the presidents or the fourteen rank
and universities of this country, all put to-
gether. he pointed out do not amount to as
much as the salary and perquisites OF a
single fortunate president of a life insurance
corporation. Moreover. as the average sal
airy OF an American university professor is
only 1900. 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. except
so far as 1t 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 difference In salaries. 1t is
whether In either case the salary is above
or below the pay necessary to get the quail
lty or ability requisite for the place.
The salary of the President Of the United
States is only half that paid to the presi-
gent OF NE insurance company now under
investigation; yet because of that less pay
II has never been difficult to get men to
take the place not even when the Presi-
dents salary was half its present amount
Nor has it ever been difficult to get men OF
eminent abilities to take the vice pres:den-
cy or places in the cabinet because OF the
smallness of the salaries paid
The average salary of university profess
sors Is as great as the average of official
salaries of lower grade paid, by the Unit
ed states In places for the filling of which
superior ability is requisite. Men holding
offices in the federal Treasury Department
OF the highest responsibility and demand
Ing rare and peculiar abilities are paid only
| from $1,000 to 5000 year.
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 fed
| eral government, and In some cases more
The pay of senators and representatives in
the federal Congress is much less than some
| OF these presidents receive. The average
pay of governors of states is less.
The average pay OF the clergy in the
United States is very much less than 81. 60
and that sum is high compared with the
average earnings of lawyers and doctors
all men of learned professions. 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 educa ton
We do not mean in saying this that col
lege 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 unsup-
piled because of the smallness of the pc
cuniary inducements offered? The applicants
are far more numerous than the places.
The law and medical schools turn out an
nually thousands of new lawyers and doc
toIS, III Spitt oI the pdltTlneSS OF the money
rewards obtained by the run of these pro-
feSSionS.
Why? Because the goal which the best
element in society sets before itself is not
success in mere money making. 1t is the
element which thinks rather of the things
OF the spirit; which is controlled by the
aspiration that distinguishes the artist
the ambition. first of all. to do we'll its 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 civilization
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
millennium.