Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-06-16
TEACHERS. aEss .. nMs

New York Evening Post.-The ghost
of Colonel Sellers seems TO haunt ev-
erybody who figures out a pension
scheme. Statesmen. financiers, phil
anthropists alike expect to see their
unfelt farthing or two yielding M
lions. Nor are they chilled by the
collapse of other peoples schemes.
Not even with all their own facts do
hey reckon too closely before set
ting out; few general principles
viii do. The important thing is TO
get started.
1t is now pretty clear that when
Mr.. Carnegie and his advisers plan
ned the great endowment for a retir-
ing fund for college professors, they
did not see exactly TO what its appli-
cation would soon bring them. The old
professors in all our private, non
sectarian colleges were 70 be cared for
out of the income OF $4,000, 900.
When it was found that half this in
come was not being called for the
benefits of the endowment were ex-
tended to state institutions, and So
900, 900 added 10 capitalize the ex-
pected increase in the annual expense.
This plan is working admirably in its
early years; but as Professor J.
A1eKeep 'ttell sho}ws, ig the :ss--.esss
Science. its luture mods "a surprise.
The administrators seem to have over
looked the very thing that escaped the
English old-age pension enthusiasts
namely. the so-called age distrinu-
tionof the population" During the
past twenty or thirty years. American
colleges have more than doubled their
faculties. and nearly all the new pro
fesSors were chosen young. Conse-
quently. they are now growing old to-
gether with the result that, after an
other twenty years, the proportion OF
teachers eligible for retirement will
be much higher. Professors widows.
100. whom the foundation has agreed
to pension, will multiply at much the
same rate. Therefore. argues Pro
lessor Cattell, even with a stationary
number of professors and stationary
salaries, Harvard alone will soon be
able TO collect $3.50 900 year in an
nuities and $4,000 in widows pen
sions.
Neither at Harvard, however, nor
anywhere else will the faculty have
stopped growing The state universe
ties. indeed are rapidly expanding
their teaching STATS, and also raising
their salaries. Here, then, is the out
look for the next generation:
"The cost in great university of a
pension system such as that of the
Carnegie Foundation. If all retire who
are eligible, may forty years hence ne
expected to be in the neighborhood Of
one million dollars year. If at that
time trust funds bring 3 per cent in
terest, it will require $30,000.000 to en-
dow a pension system for a single
university; and there will probably he
not fewer than twenty such with a
hundred others tending to become
such Forty years hence some two
billion dollars may he required to en-
dow completely a centralized pension
scheme for North America such as
that of the Carnegie Foundation
Allowing for the widest error in
these estimates. it is clear that Mr..
Carnegie cannot realize his splendid
dream of becoming in perpetuity the
bountiful protector of American col
lege professors in old age. Yet ev-
cry one must be glad that he did no,
consult with Professor Cattell before
beginning. His beneficer ce, even II
its limit IS in sight. has meant comfort
and relief TO a multitude, and probab y
will indirectly bless the greater mul.
.itude whom it cannot reach.