Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/370

366 In many colleges attendance at daily chapel is not compulsory, and no penalty is imposed for non-attendance. In such institutions there often exists a "custom" which has almost the same effect as the written rule. The libraries and reading-rooms are closed during the chapel hour, and instructors are officially requested to lock their class-rooms, so that no place for work or recreation is left to the students during the session of chapel. Students who in spite of this arrangement fail to appear with due regularity at chapel are made the subject of unpleasant comment among their fellow students and often directly, while instructors who do not feel the impulse toward worship at precisely the same hour of the day as their colleagues receive from the president or some other official a gentle reminder that their presence at this "voluntary" chapel is advisable.

The last clause in our definition is an important one. The reader will doubtless think at once of one of the greatest and best universities of our country, the president of which must always be of a certain religious denomination. His personal preference as to Tennyson or Browning is not inquired about, nor is he asked whether he believes in high tariff or free trade, or is a prohibitionist or a socialist. But investigation is made as to whether he has formally subscribed to a certain creed of a certain religion, although no one thinks for a moment that he will make a better executive on this account, or even did think so when the ruling was made. That all or a certain number of the trustees of a college shall be members of a specified church is likewise a familiar state of things, hardly needing illustration. For instance in the historical sketch of a certain college founded by a private citizen, it is mentioned that this gentleman was of a certain religious denomination "and he provided that the trustees of the institution should be members of that body." In the catalogue of another college we find this statement concerning its charter: "It provides that the number of trustees shall never be greater than seventeen, seven of whom shall be clergymen and ten laymen."

No one who has given the matter slight attention would be inclined to believe that the point in our definition concerning church membership of the instructional force applies to but an inconsiderable number of institutions, and is the exception rather than the rule. The contrary, however, is the case. Proof from a different source than the college catalogue is at hand, and has the advantage of being absolutely disinterested in its origin. Such proof consists in the blanks of teachers' agencies. These blanks almost invariably, and probably always, contain the items "church membership" and "church affiliation" in the list of "qualifications for teaching" to be filled out by the prospective teachers. This information would not be asked for were it unnecessary. Moreover, the writer has the opportunity of quoting from letters written in a most kindly attitude by teachers' agencies of high standing,