Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/211

Rh has given these gentlemen the extraordinary position they hold in higher education and in the community. In The Educational Review, for November, President Eliot, whose ability, persistence, personality and long tenure of office have been important factors in developing the autocracy of the presidential office in the university and its function as general adviser on all subjects in the community, writes pleasantly about "The University President in the American Commonwealth." He says: "Most American professors of good quality would regard the imposition of duties concerning the selection of professors and other teachers, the election of the president, and the annual arrangement of the budget of the institution as a serious reduction in the attractiveness of the scholar's life and the professorial career." The question arises how one who knows so little about the thoughts of professors can adequately fulfill the paternal function, and whether the kind of persons the president thinks the professors