Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/193

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
189
Class of Institutions. No. of Institu-
tions.
Total No. Pro-
fessors.
Total Amount
Salaries.
Average
No. in
Faculty.
Average
Pay-roll in
Institution.
Average
Pay of a
Professor.
Denominational 218 2,802 $3,305,930 13 $15,165 $1,180
State Institutions 58 1,461 2,617,210 25 45,120 1,787
Non-Denominational 51 1,944 3,708,220 38 72,710 1,907
327 6,207 $9,631,360

burdens that they have had to bear' 'from the shoulders of hundreds of hard-working and ill-compensated men' is more problematical. These hardworking and ill-compensated professors are not so badly off after all, and if their salaries have not increased in proportion to the greater cost and higher standards of living, they should themselves see to it that justice is done. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell and other universities already had pension systems as a matter of contract with their professors, and if it is intended that Mr. Carnegie's foundation shall be of benefit to the professors, their salaries should be increased by the amount of income set free. It is quite possible that professors will in the end be paid just so much the less, because pensions have been assured to them. The individual professor would probably have gained more and certain institutions would have gained less if the trustees had been professors instead of presidents.

President Pritchett says in his report: "It is evident to the trustees that, to better the profession of the teacher and to attract into it increasing numbers of strong men, it is necessary that the retiring allowance should come as a matter of right, not as a charity. No ambitious and independent professor wishes to find himself in the position of accepting a charity or a favor, and the retiring allowance system simply as a charity has little to commend it." But unfortunately the pensions of widows and for disablement are at present on a charity basis. They should either be abandoned, or made so that they will accrue as a matter of contract. In the German universities a professor receives his salary for life. He may cease lecturing if disabled by illness or old age, but he may continue to lecture as long as he sees fit to such students as care to hear him. In case of death a pension is provided for his widow and for each child. This is more satisfactory than the system proposed by the Carnegie Foundation. However, it might not be possible to adjust it to the American college. Certainly all professors and all scientific men should be sincerely grateful to Mr. Carnegie. But it is a misfortune that he did not make professors trustees of the Carnegie Foundation and scientific men trustees of the Carnegie Institution.

THE SAND-DUNES OF THE DESERT OF ISLAY

It is a familiar fact that sand-dunes are carried along by the winds. Much labor and expense have been incurred in many localities, especially near the sea, to prevent the damage which their movement inflicts on the neighboring country. These sand-hills are found in great numbers in nearly all the desert regions of the earth, and their forms and motions have been described by different writers. A recent volume of the Annals of the Harvard Observatory contains a somewhat elaborate discussion of the crescent-shaped sand dunes of the Desert of Islay in Peru, by Professor S. I. Bailey, who observed them during eight years.

The coast region of Peru is desert throughout its whole extent. In some places it is made up of barren hills, in others, of arid plains. The Pampa, or Desert of Islay, is bounded by the