Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/506

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

relations of the teaching and corporate boards" (J. J. Stevenson). "Unless American college teachers can be assured that they are no longer to be looked upon as mere employees paid to do the bidding of men who, however courteous or however eminent, have not the faculty's professional knowledge of the complicated problems of education, our universities will suffer increasingly from a dearth of strong men, and teaching will remain outside the pale of the really learned professions. The problem is not one of wages; for no university can become rich enough to buy the independence of any man who is really worth purchasing" (J. P. Munroe). The prevailing system "does not attract strong men to the profession of teaching, nor does it foster a vigorous intellectual life in the universities. And occasionally a gross and tyrranical abuse of authority reminds the world how far America is behind Germany in the freedom of its university life" (Springfield Republican: editorial).

It is quite proper that the professor should be called to account for his meek submission to the situation that is oppressively thrust upon him. "Now the idea of professionalism lies at the very core of educational endeavor, and whoever engages in intellectual work fails of his purpose in just so far as he fails to assert the inherent prerogatives of his calling. He became a hireling in fact, if not in name, when he suffers, unprotesting, the deprivation of all initiative, and contentedly plays the part of a cog in a mechanism whose motions are all controlled from without" (Dial: editorial). "Young men of power and ambition scorn what should be reckoned the noblest of professions, not because that profession condemns them to poverty, but because it dooms them to a sort of servitude" (J. P. Munroe). "But there is real danger that the existing system may prove repulsive to men of the highest intelligence and character and that mediocrity and time-serving may be developed where we need the most vigorous ability and independence" (Popular Science Monthly: editorial). "The degrading tenure" of the professor is spoken of as forming a "nursery of abject cowardice" (W. C. Lawton). How oppositely the protest of the professor is met when the academician summons courage enough to protest, appears in these two comments: "Truly the academic animal is a queer beast. If he can not have something at which he can growl and snarl, he will growl and snarl at nothing at all" (Educational Review: editorial). "At any rate American professors have come to feel that their independence is imperilled and their proper influence in the university organization seriously impaired by the activities of deans, presidents, and trustees." "Whatever-organization may be necessary in a modern American university, the institution will not permanently succeed unless the faculty as a group of independent personalities practically control its operation" (J G. Schurman). And here the call to arms!" The professor must teach the nation to respect learn-