Evening journal., 1919-08-30
COLLEGE PROFESSORS AND THEIR PAY.

I
| furious weakening Of the faculty.
Unless that weakening process Is to continue, some
means must be found to to members OF the faculty
salaries which VIII induce them to remain year after
! year, growing in usefulness all the time
"Our colleges have done their Jobs too we'll They
have trained successfully that when they desire
to hold one OF those for their use, they no
longer do H. The teacher finds that there any num-
ber OF positions awaiting him in the world Of business
that very much greater than the maximum
that his college will be able to pay him."
So said William r. Foster president OF Reed College In
Portland Oregon, when interviewed in New York City
yesterday President Foster is watching with great In
erest the endowment campaigns Of the large colleges OF
the country, and particularly the campaign to get
siiOOOOOO for Harvard University lie took his A B. and
his A. NJ degrees from Harvard in 1901 and In 1901 re
spectlvely. But It not a student that Dr. Foster
became acquainted with the small salaries that were paid
at Harvard but rather a teacher During the summer
Of 1909 he lecturer in Cambridge "Ihe Principles
Of Education"
Dr. Foster took his Ph. D. degree from Columbia in
1911 and during the following summer he was lecturer
there. Within few years he was given Ii. d. degrees
by Colorado College aud Reserve University lie
has been an instructor in English at Bates and at Bow
don and at the latter college he for some years
professor Of English and Argumeniation, . ..,. -. 4.
In 1910 when he was but 81 years old, DR., Foster was
appointed president Of Reed College He was at that time
probably the youngest college president in the country
il they do not Immediately raise salaries that the 20
per cent, increase the cost Of living may be met.
when work begins his Fan at universities and
colleges they will be crippled in the one department OF
supreme imporlancethe teaching staff" says DR. Forter
"The simple reason that the industrial world and the
government have been calling the best from college
faculties larger salaries than colleges have ever been
able to pay
AT the beginning Of the war those who believed that
the colleges for the next few years woud be poorly at
tended thought perhaps That the teaching STATS would be
overcrowded that there would be difficulty in keeping
the large numbers Of professors and Instructors This
opinion has proved groundess. What has happened
is this Large numbers Of students who never thought
Of going to college before the are seeking higher
education and coming to schools of higher learn
ing in great numbers The teaching STATS, on the other
hand are smaller than they before the war Men
have left to enter all branches Of The service and they
are not coming back to the poverty OF a teacher.
"Our chemists who have gone into munitions plants
have new conception of what fair salary is aud they
feel they return to The meagre pay OF the
college professor. The same true OF the physicists VINO
have been drawn from faculties. Professor Pierce
of Harvard says that electrical and telegraph companies
are taking his students faster than they be trained
indeed they are taking them before the college has been
able 10 complete that training. They bring their men to
their own laboratories, rush them through further IN
sruclion and then pay them hish salaries. How can
college hope to keep It's professor Of science when hcy
pa, a third or quarter Of the amount tlml stlnent
Of that professor receives from manufacturing compahy2
"But il Is not the colleges practical scientists alone
that are being taken from IT, Those men whom some
thought were pure theorists with place in industry
are going too. For example young psychologists OF the
tspe available five years ago teachers at $500 year
are difficult to find today at twice that salary They are
offered larger inducements than before by industrial
concerns hospitals, courts and the army.
ut troubles me to Harvard in danger Of losing val
liable men her faculty To be teacher at Harvard
was always an honor, and men were willing to give up
their time for small salaries merely because elwurk MAS
pleasant and the opportunities FOR research were
great There is a love OF learning in the heart OF
the college professor which helps pay him in the coin
OF satisfaction AZ Harvard could name few men who
would be professors II there were salary at all
attached to the position. think Of one man on Har-
wards faculty who would teach if he had to pay to
do so.
the majority Of professors are not as comfortable
financially as these few men have in mind Harvard has
lost teachers during the and she will continue to
lose them doesn't pay larger salaries. Just few
days ago lost of her best who felt that he
could not stay longer for salary much smaller than one
that attracting him from outside
Even our socioogsts being taken from us+ouf
university trained socioogsts, who have always been
condemned by practical men, too theoretical Uni
verses have successfully prepared men to meet inn
mediate needs social service outside the university,
that few Of the rgh type to be had teachers
have recently looked up eight young socolgiss and
found every one of them obtaining salaries outside Of
teaching more than double the amount majority Of
colleges able to pay.
Last week found teacher OF engineering who had
just resigned his assistant proessorshp at $500 to ac
cept an Industrial position at $4,000. ~ ..
'vrhus by falling to pay enough TO retain our best
man at the founain-head steadily cutting Off our
sources Of future supply As Chancellor Elliott of the
University of Montana said to me the other day We are
thus killing the goose that lays the golden egg The
higher schools are all victims Of their success.
Partly on Of the great services rendered during
the war by college teachers and by coegebred and
women H is impossible for colleges to retain many OF
their students OF exceptional ability
Have colleges far failed their jobs That should
now as a penalty following the war reduce the salaries
OF all college teachers % TO 30 per cent? The question