The Chapel Hill weekly., 1931-02-06
Howard Mumford Jones Sends an
Open Letter to Governor Gardner

| support IL IN the 1uure as IL mas
been supported in the past. But the
University of North Carolina is more
than state institutions; it belongs to
the South; it has been up to the last
two years one of the two or three
educational institutions in the South
which are leading that region to q
newer and better civilization; and al
ready that leadership is checked. It
is now proposed. by making it un-
attractive to scholars and scientists
through the proposed salary cut, to
reduce it once more to the position of
petty provincial university. Is the
gain worth the loss? Is there no
other way the state can reduce ex-
penditure than by crippling the finest
product of its intellectual life?
1t may be argued that the salary
cut is temporary measure, and that
when the revenues of the state are
restored to their former level, the
salaries at the university will like
wise be restored. 1t is a specious
argument. For a measure Of this
kind is far-reaching in its effects;
news of it gets abroad; the institu-
tion is Immediately thought of as a
bad place to go to, and good place
to leave; and even if the proposed
cut lasted only year or two, the
damage done to the reputation and
attractiveness of the state university
cannot be repaired in the same length
of time, Quite literally, years must
elapse before confidence in the insti-
tuition is restored among those upon
whom it mostly depends for its repu-
tation; that is, the scholars and scien-
fists of the nation.
Or it may be argued that in view
of the reduced income of the state
in view of the financial losses which
its citizens have sustained, and are
sustaining, the salaries paid at Chapel
Hill are out of proportion to what
they should be. Well, the salaries
paid at any educational institution are
not to be measured by this standard
alone; if the institution is to grow,
| they must be measured by a national
standard; and measured by nation
al standard, the salaries paid at
Chapel Hill have been for years too
low, and if men have been attracted
there, they have been attracted as
we'll by the security offered them in
their professional careers as by the
supposed high salaries. The Univer-
sity Of Virginia pays higher salary
scale than does the University of
North Carolina. The University of
Texas pays higher salary scale than
does the University of North Caro-
lima, Every northern state univer-
sity of any standing whatsoever pays
higher salary scale than does the
University of North Carolina. Every
institution in the United States Of the
standing to which the University Of
North Carolina aspires pays a salary
scale better than that paid at Chapel
Hill. If the University Of North
Carolina is to be anything but petty
second-rate school, it is not salary
cut, but a salary increase that is i'm
peratively demanded. To cut the
salaries now paid is an act Of suicidal
folly. This is not the language to use
to the conscientious governor of a
great state, for believe you to be
conscientious, and | believe you are
sincerely desirous of preserving the
University Of North Carolina. 1t is
not language which takes into account
the economic depression from which
the state if suffering. But it is the
only language which adequately
characterizes a policy, however con-
scientious in intention, compounded Of
penny-wise and pound-foolish think
ing I frankly say that the Univer-
sity Of North Carolina is one Of the
most precious possessions Of the state;
and that most honest and sober obser-
vers of the life Of the state believe
that whatever else must go, the Uni
versity Of North Carolina must be
maintained fully and completely.
Your predecessors in the guberna-
torial office have been pioneers, not
only in state education, but in the
educational progress of the South.
What pressures are being brought to