Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-01
THE GOWNSMAN
The Academic Wage

At AN important university in the East,
IA few months since. the petition OF the
watchmen and assistant firemen in the hght
ing and heating plant for an advancement IN
wages was deferred because they were ALREADY
receiving so much more than the initial
Salaries Of instructors. To become an
instructor a young man must have AT the
least the bachelors degree. Many institu-
tions are demanding higher degree OF even
their youngest teachers. The B. A. means
four year course on top of high school.
A Ph. D.. three years of additional special
lied study
ON ONE thousand dollars year young
~ collegan may live. il he lives wariy
if he buys even few books ne may i've
shabby. But what of the attempt, the
necessity sometimes, that two or even more
mouths be fed on such sum and a certain
standard of gentility be maintained IN the
process? A young instructor in western
college-where money goes somewhat furlner
than in Philadelphia the other
day 10 an older friend that he had not been
financially able to buy an egg or scrap
of meat for his family for over four months.
Such provender was beyond them. Nor WI
it do to say. why did the fool marry
1t cannot be good public policy to deprive
the braniest and most studious OF TINS
primitive right. "Why didn't he go into
business?" is more pertinent query. WIN
four and five dollars day for doing what
any intelligent man can learn how to 20 IN
a couple of days. obviously that is the only
thing to do And the education. the ambi-
ton. the career, all these things go for
naught.
TNHE position of n teacher is supposed to
l. demand certain scale of living. 1t takes
money even to be clean: scholar cannot
work in a cold room: his brains do not
function with insufficient food He has
duties to the subsistence. the education OF
his family as we'll as to his college In the
services he renders and in the Investigations
in which he is busted. Wherefore the aver
age American teacher. driven to abandon
this last by insufficient means, strives to exc
out his sranty income by outside lectures.
hack work summer schools. more teaching
in an already overcrowded curriculum. with
what result? A little more money, de
creased efficiency. often impaired health
and scholarship once and for all definitely
abandoned.
TNHE Gownsman is perfectly well aware
l. that by no means are all college teachers
in so dcplorable condition. Some teachers
have means of their own and it is a, cur
rent pleasantly that scholars often marry
monochrome too diguified a resort. 1t
would be an unhappy thing to convert the
trust of the teacher, to the administration
of which man should be as assuredly
called as to the ministry itself. into post
of gain, alluring to the mere money maker.
But no one. knowing conditions. can deny
that with salaries little advanced in Il gen
Grafton and with prices realizing the fondest
dreams of the most impudent prOtteer, there
H.. thn
teachers in American colleges. The hand
of privation is verify upon them. The
result is obvious. Our most ambitious
young men for the most part do not teach:
the few whose altruism leads them into
teaching are driven out, the ablest going
soonest The colleges have long since given
up competing in salaries with high schools
and private schools for the best teachers. Our
universities even can afford only the second
best. and for the most part-save for some
honorable exceptions-that is all they get.
TN THE thrties of the last century a pro-
fessor. in most favored position, re-
ceived $2500 or $4,000 per annum in our
large centers. There was often a house
thrown in besides. His position financially,
and therefore socially in commercial Amer
lea. was on a level with the doctor, the min
lister. the lawyer. the judge. In fact, the
salaries of the last about tailed those of
the professor. At best in these eighty years
the college teachers salary has doubled: it
has certainly not increased 30 per cent,
taking the whole body of teachers. The
judges salary. in Philadelphia at least, has
quadruplcd, and there are even judges who
do not feel that they are excessively Overpaid
today. The administration of our law courts
is a practical utility. Is the selection, the
IL g .ho i,
our best youth for the struggle of life any
the less so?
TTNHE trouble with the professor, outside of
L the professional schools. lies in the cir
cumstance that he has but one employer.
The doctor, the chemist the lawyer, the en-
ginecr condescends as to wage if he teaches
at all for each is money getter potentially
in the markets of the world. The college
and the school is the teachers only market
Moreover, teacher is not functioning as
a teacher if his mind is on money and its
returns for his work. Scholarship is not
measurable in utilitarian terms; only its
applications can ever be paid for. The
actual compensation of the teacher lies in
recognition and in the following which he
evokes. But such impalpabilities do not
butter parsnips nor pay the lordly butcher
his bill.
TNHE Legislature of the state of Michigan
l. has just voted 500 900 to the University
of Michigan in two annual instalments of
$3.50, 900 each to be devoted wholly and
solely to the permanent increase Of the sal
aries of teachers in that institution. Three
years from now the charge thus created will
be included in the state levy of taxes. And
the adjustments are to be made from below,
in,n nende1
salary for any instructor will be $500, with
hopes of further amelioration An interest
ing feature Of this step in the amendment of
salaries at Michigan lies in the circumstance
that it was not on the program of authority
hut. once noted, appealed to the sense Of