University Salaries

A noble work isthat of training a&ddeveloping minds.and the pay thereof ghotild not be mugre, For n-ble work lltraimTÉ noble niind, and noble uiind isataprcniiiiin in dvery mart of trade, studio oí art or workshop of artisan. A feeliujr wide-spread atnong college profeMen exista that tlieir salaries are too olten inadequate to the requirements of thfir i'osition. Men of business and manual labor are apt to pooh-pooh tb is idea under the erroneous supposition or at least tbc argument, that college professors have easy work, small families and light expenses. Tuis plea is made so often that it is well enough to consider it. In the first place the ages of the artisan in all markets are governed mainly by the length of time required at an apprenticeshlp in learning the trade, and the latitude for the display of genius which the trade afl'ords after it Is once mastered. In an ordinary manual art oftentimes a boy begins at sixteen and is a workman at twenty. He gets common wages. Where the time of bis apprenUceship is extended to six, geven or eight years, bis earnings are, as a rule, greater. The justice of this, otber things 'being equal,iis indisputable. This matter we allow to stand by itself without taking into consideration the abillty and genius demanded for the position. Now if we turn to the literary man occupying a chair in a college oruniversity, we notice, first, that he hasto have a thorough education ; second, considerable time has to be spent in hard study after graduation, and tbird,- he must ;have shown marked ability in some special branch of sciencc, literature or art. To have gained this knowledge, this experience, this reputation, takes a man to the middle of bis life. To that time he has been unable to earn more that enough for bis own existence; he has rather belonged to the class of consumers and not to the producers. 80, now, that he has gained bis professorship- a thingby 110 means certain.even at terso long a probation - we expect hira to earn enough money to repay liim for bis large outlay of time and money. To do that he should get a higher salary than the head salesman, and book-keeper in a large tnercantile house, or a governmental clerlc, Rossiter Johnson in the current N. A, Review, in an article on College Endowments, gives a table of the average salaries paid to full professors in the various colleges of the country. From this we take the leading istitutions of learning : Amherat, Maas 12, 500 Brown, K. i 2,750 Columblü, N. Y., 7 500 Cornell, N. y.l 2,750 Dsrtmouth, K. H 2,000 Rutgera, N. J 2, 400 Jolina Hopklna, Md 5,000 Unlveraltjr o} Michigan, 2,200 Unlveraltjr of Virginia, 3,000 From this it is seen that the salaries in our own University are considerable lower than in the other leading colleges. Taking this fact into consideration in connection with the further fact that the best talent will naturally go where it is best rewarded, we flnd ourselres confronted with the danger that the University faculry will be a training school for the more liberal colleges which pay better salaries. Or Til ntlicr wmvla iti.it 1... .i . ,.!,... t ., our school will have to be practiced upon by younger professors until these professors acquire a reputation, when they will be taken from us, leaving their chair to be filled by novices or "sticks." It is an open secret among university men that some of the chaira of acting professors and assistants, at present are occupied by notorioiis incompetente, all because small pay hires small men. The times are good now, and it 8 a pity to see false economy ia so noble and responsible a work. We do hope the regents will respond to the demand of the times and vote to pay good men jood wiiges. Thirt policy would crowd out "sticks," now retainedonly by Influential friends, and it would retain the men of reputation and ability.