Besides the possible but not always probable motives for making large gifts referred to above every other conceivable influence has affected educational benefactions. George Ade’s breezy Chicago magnate who slaps the college president on the back and says: “Have a laboratory on me, old fellow,” is slangy, to be sure, but not altogether fabulous. It is a very common misconception that financial assistance is the only thing needful in higher educational work. President Schurman of Cornell University expressed the views of many of his colleagues among the great university executives of the country when he lamented that “rich men who give their money to educational institutions cannot be induced to give also their time and energy to the management of them.”[49] So neglectful an attitude on their part, by the way, is hardly consistent with the theory that they are engaged in a conspiracy to pollute the wells of knowledge. When we consider the immense number of contributors, large and small, to the cause of higher education it is impossible to escape the conviction that behind many of their generous acts lay real sacrifice, an adequate conception of the great function of university teaching, and the purest and most humanitarian motives. Often, too, there has been full realisation that “the gift without the giver is bare,” and patient, unstinted, intelligent service has accompanied money benefactions. In the same fine spirit nearly all our colleges and universities have accepted and employed the resources so generously placed at their disposal.
While due weight should be given to the honourable influences ordinarily accompanying benefactions, candour also compels the frank discussion of those cases where constraint of professorial opinion has been attempted. There have been a few flagrant instances of the dismissal of teachers on account of utterances displeasing to men who have been drawn upon heavily for financial support. One can readily understand the feeling of the latter that, considering their large gifts, they have been most ungratefully and unjustly abused, and also the action which they accordingly instigate, although it is as silly in most cases as the Queen of Hearts’ peremptory command:—“Off with his head!” Men in other walks of life frequently behave in the same way. There is, for example, the very commonplace case of the church member who, disgruntled because of pulpit references—no matter how impersonal—to his pet sin, cuts down his contribution and seeks to drive the minister from his charge. The consequences of the dismissal of a professor because of conflict between his teachings and the outside interests of college benefactors are so widespread and dangerous, however, that they cannot be passed over lightly simply because occurrences of this sort are relatively infrequent in the academic world.
In the first instance, of course, the teacher himself may seem the chief sufferer from such controversies. Few of the clear cases of this sort, uncomplicated by any personal defect on the part of the man who is dismissed, have resulted, however, in the destruction of a promising career. On the contrary, positions have been opened up in other more liberal and often more important institutions to the teachers who have been persecuted for truth’s sake. Indeed there is some danger that the halo of false martyrdom, with its possible accompanying rewards, may mislead the younger and less judicious holders of professorships to indulge in forms of blatherskiting quite inconsistent with their office. In the great majority of cases, however, the effect of such individual assaults upon the tenure of academic position is to threaten the independence of every department in the same or related subjects the country over. Here we have the most serious evil resulting from such unfortunate occurrences. It is certainly great enough to justify the intervention of the national scientific association to which the professor belongs at least to the extent of the most searching and impartial investigation of all the circumstances involved in his dismissal, and their subsequent publication as widely as possible whether or not they justify the professor concerned. A powerful and most welcome auxiliary to the restraining influence which such investigations are bound to exercise is likely to be supplied by the Carnegie Foundation if one may judge from tendencies exhibited by its most recent report.[50] Thus in the last analysis the evil consequences of attempts to interfere with liberty of teaching are likely to fall most severely upon the institution which is so weak as to permit such manipulation. It risks exposure and loss of prestige, it loses men of worth and suffers in its capacity to attract others to take their places. All things considered there is every indication that the few institutions which have offended in this way have learned well their lesson, and are quite in the penitent frame of mind of the pious Helen:—
“... dies will ich nun
Auch ganz gewiss nicht wieder thun.”
Amid the manifold influences that environ university teaching it is impossible for any one writer to set down all the guiding professional ideals. That they are easily corruptible and frequently corrupted is, as we have seen, absurd. Of both the press and higher education it may be said that they are in the grip of forces greater than themselves, of forces mighty to restrain any tendency to be unfaithful to their own better ideals. The rapidly growing attendance and influence of universities and colleges would appear to constitute a vote of confidence on the part of the public which may be interpreted as a general denial of the charges made against them. In the great majority of institutions the writer believes that the teaching of the social sciences is dominated by the ideals of scientific honesty, thoroughness, and impartiality. No instructor is worthy of university or college position who deliberately seeks to make converts to any party or cause, however free his motives may be from the taint of personal advantage. Rather is it his duty to present systematically all moot questions in all their aspects. Like the judge summing up a case he should attempt further to supply a basis for the critical weighing of testimony by the class,—his jury. He is by no means to be inhibited from expressing an opinion, indeed he should be strongly encouraged to express it, stating it however as opinion together with the reasons that have led him to form it. But active proselyting should be rigorously barred. It is certainly no part of the duties of a professor of political science, for example, to attempt to make voters for either the Democratic or Republican ticket in a given campaign. If he attempts to do so he will certainly and deservedly fail, and in addition cripple his own influence and that of the institution which he represents. The higher duty is his of presenting all the evidence and the opinions on the points at issue and of exhibiting in his procedure the methods which will enable his students to investigate and decide for themselves not merely the political questions of the day but also the political questions they will have to meet unaided throughout their later active lives. Not voters for one campaign or recruits for one cause, but intelligent citizenship for all time and every issue,—such as is the ideal which the teacher should pursue.
Naturally this attitude does not please everybody. All sorts of interests, not only corrupting but reforming in character, are constantly endeavouring to secure academic approval in order to exploit it in their own propaganda. When this is denied, recourse to the charge of corruption by an adverse interest lies very close to a hand already habituated to mudslinging. Although the prevailing opinions of college teachers on labour legislation, to cite a specific example, are certainly not those of the manufacturer’s office, just as certainly they are broader and more progressive than the opinions of the man in the street. Of course radical labour leaders will take up still more advanced positions. In the partisanship natural to men in their situation they may even regard academic suggestions for the solution of the question as mere palliatives. It is difficult for them to appreciate the motives or the value to the cause of labour of the tempered advocacy of disinterested persons who are able to appeal to the great neutral public which in the end must pass on all labour reforms and all labour legislation. And the socialists are accustomed to go much farther than labour leaders, insinuating that capitalistic influence lurks behind every university chair in economics. Mr. W. J. Ghent puts their view of the situation as follows:
“Teachers, economists, in their search for truth, too often find it only within the narrow limits which are prescribed by endowments.”
“The economic, and, consequently, the moral, pressure exerted upon this class [i.e., “social servants,” including college teachers] by the dominant class is constant and severe; and the tendency of all moral weaklings within it is to conform to what is expected from above.”
“Educators and writers have a normal function of social service. Many of these, however, are retainers of a degraded type, whose greatest activity lies in serving as reflexes of trading-class sentiment and disseminators of trading-class views of life.”