American Universities and Colleges

Abstract

THE seventh annual report of the president and treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching bears ample witness to the stimulating powers which come from the wise administration of an income of nearly 130,000l. a year in furtherance of a definite end. Here it is the provision or supplementing of pensions for the teachers of institutions of university rank. The trustees' report is as inter esting and informing as ever. The glimpses one gets into the heart of higher education in the States offer some comfort to the Englishman who is inclined to lament what he may call the mediævalism of our ancient universities. After all, there is in the States the Brown University, the governing body of which must contain a majority of Baptists; the same denomination also controls the destinies of the great University of Chicago, the president and two thirds of the trustees of which must conform. Neither of these institu tions can share in the benefits of the Carnegie fund because of their religious restrictions, but, as a result of the existence of that fund, Brown is saving 1,000,000 dollars and Chicago 2,000,000 dollars, each for its own pension purposes.