Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/324

320 has now but little hope of winning the position of college teacher. The professor's refuge, therefore, is found in his doctorate.

But in this free country, made up of forty-five separate states with varying grades of civilization, each with its legislature able and willing to incorporate colleges with standards suited to local demands and local ideals, or absence of ideals, there is little hope of outgrowing the tendency to degradation of titles. If the dancing master was professor a third of a century ago, he is equally free in the early future to advertise himself as D.D., which for him means Doctor of Dancing. Our only hope is in the gradual elevation of educational standards, causing the people to become intolerant of such dishonesty. Titles received from universities should be protected by law in America as they are in Europe. The corrupt purchase and sale of professional degrees and of honorary degrees, which is now practised secretly, is to some extent punishable by law, but there is little vigilance in ferreting out offenders, and we seldom hear of prosecutions. Charlatanry will continue to be practised so long as there are gulls to be fooled in this world. Legislatures will continue to incorporate colleges without endowment, and these colleges will give degrees that imply no scholarship. With full knowledge that present evils will not be removed during the lifetime of any one now living, each educational institution that has a faculty of honest men can do its share toward the attainment of a higher moral standard of titles and distinctions by setting an example of truthfulness and moderation.