"Productive Scholarship in America."

The "Atlantic Monthly" for May contains a very interesting article by Professor Hugo Munsterberg on "Productive Scholarship in America," a brief synopsis of which follows:

"The idea of continental Europe in regard to the productive scholarship in the New World can be as easily as briefly stated: there is none. A widely read German history of civilization says this about American scholarship: American universities are hardly more than ordinary schools in Germany. It is true they receive large sums of money from rich men; but they cannot attain to anything, because the institutions either remain under the control of the Church, or the professors are appointed on account of their political or personal connections, not on account of their knowledge. The professors therefore have, naturally, more interest in money making than in the advancement of science. Not a single one of these institutions has reached a scientific position.

"A well known naturalist of Switzerland, whose voice is often heard in German magazines, came here for scientific purposes and spent his vacation in various places. When he returned, he gathered his impressions in an essay published in the most widely read review, and condensed his opinions on American universities as follows: 'The American universities are of unequal value; some are simply humbug. They are all typically American, illustrating in every respect the American spirit: they have an essentially practical purpose. The American wishes to see quick returns in facts and successes; he has scarcely ever any comprehension of theory and real science. He has not yet had time to understand that scholarly truth is like a beautiful woman, who should be loved and honored for her own sake, while it is a degradation to value her only for her practical services: a Yankee brain today cannot grasp that . . . ' "

In the same magazine Professor Munsterberg publishes an extended reply in which he shows how institutions that are really only colleges are often mistaken abroad for "universities"; that the opportunities offered students here are not inferior to those abroad; that the theoretical courses especially flourish; that the doctor's degree of the best American universities is superior to the average degree in Germany; that the output of new books in every field is very large.

Professor Munsterberg does not believe, however, that American scholarship is "all that it ought to be." One reason for this belief offers itself at once: "In Germany the very idea of a university demands productive scholarship as the centre and primary interest of all university activity; in America it is an accessory element, a secondary factor, almost a luxury, which is tolerated but never demanded as a condition." This is because in America there is no sharp line drawn between university work and college work as is the case in Germany. The regular college work does not require and even rather hinders productive scholarship. In Germany the requirements for teaching in the "gymnasium" and in the university are wholly different.

Again, a young scholar here has no opportunity before him other than to enter as instructor in a college where small salaries and press of routine duties discourage productive scholarship. In Germany these men could, as privatdocents, teach as much as they pleased and what they pleased, and devote their attention to productive thought.

Further, the insufficiency of the salaries given to American scholars, discourages productive scholarship by making it necessary that scholars without means go outside their proper field of work to earn money, and the social distinction of scholars is not high enough to attract the best men in the country.