Professor's Salaries

Thb Coldwtaer Republican protesta at greai length against increasing the pay ƒ the University professors. He Bays : The (Iemands now constantly made jrcw out of an utieasiness occasioneel by the amonnts paitl professors in a few etber institutions üke Harvard, Yale, Cbniell, Colambia and especially the nvm Chicago university. No more or tettsi service ia proposed." The Hst of ïnetkntrons paying better salaries than aie paid at the TT. of M. might be very ocsklerably increased but the last statement qnoted is entirely erroneous, "ketter service is exactly what is The Univereity is confrontad by a atiïons problem; how not to become a training school where yonng teachers amy gain expericnce and efficiency onïyt carry their ripened powers to ether institutions. Otber colleges in caitr to get and keep their iinoly eQOipped teachers have been forced to Snort to increased salaries. The TT. of M.must do the same or soe its best nea i;radaally called away to more reHniáP-'.tiv't! fields, and accept eecond ná service in their Btead. It is emiacnt teachers that tnake an emineDt ïSÏTereity. Only the highest grade of instructor can uive Uie highest grade of instruction. Most decidedly better service is the very thing that the increase in salaries is intended to secure. After the following statement from the same pen it would be entirely unnecessary for the perpetrator to make affidavit to possessing a most colossal ignorance of a college professor's duties and hours of labor. "Are there not men now employed in the University who are receiving a good salary for an hour or two a day, perhaps three days in a week, who spend the balance of their time in outside work wbich provides them with a munificent salary and said outside work is obtained on account of the reputation which their connection with the University brins theinV" No, dear boy, we haven'l of those fellows in our midst oui way. The only t-tyle of professor th comes anywhere nearanswerinu: to tl description is connected with onr d( ..■ tal and medical colleges. But you have the thing inverted. They were made professors becauso of their eminence in their profession, they didn't become eminent by being professors. And their professor's salaries are but a poor return in most cases for the time they spend for the college compared to what that same time wculd bring them in if spent in the regular practice of their profession. Connection with a ereat University will add lustre to any man's reputation perhaps, but men of no standing are not inviled to such iustitutions. The statements quoted have not the remoteHt application to the Academie professor. The degree of scholarsbip requisite is attained only as the result of years of painstakini: assiduity. The labor of keeping abrenst of the times is by no means light, and the train o f attending to the thousand and one details incident to his business is as severe as that resting upon any man in any regular employment. The few hours in the class room are freq'iently the least arduous part of his round of daily duties. Somewhat in the nature of a parting shot comes this: "But we wish to assure our University faculty that they are indebted to theUniversity fully as much as the University to them. It has been a mutual benefit and the University can take bright young scholars anti bring them to the same level as that now occupied by the present members of the faculty." Could the University without the aid of its eminent teachers- i. e. divorceil from the minds that inspire and guide these bright young scholars - bring the young men to that same high level? Thequestion answers itself.