Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/188

184 are scarcely suited for such positions, nor are good men for the work likely to be drawn to them. The salaries vary somewhat from place to place, and according as the incumbent lives within the institution or out of it; but a fair average compensation for work of this nature has been $1,200 a year plus maintenance. The teaching positions which psychologists ordinarily enter do not, of course, provide training of any particular technical value for these research activities; in some cases they might even lessen fitness for research. As Wallin put it, the only adequate training in this respect is an apprenticeship with one of the experts in the field, which is very rare at present. On the other hand, much might be said for the value of direct experience in allied fields, and their additional contacts with the broader problems of social psychology. In Titchener's ever-apt phraseology "the best work will always be done by the best men," who, with a mature outlook upon the psychological situation and its problems, enter the pathological field because of exceptional interest, or are selected at the outset of their careers through evidence of fitness and promise in these special questions of research. With the above reservation, the candidate is the fitter for the position the less the time since his Ph.D., and the positions should be made attractive to those at the outset of the psychological career.

If qualified men are to be drawn to these positions, they must be given a standing in keeping with the class of work expected of them. It should be commensurate with that accorded to the pathologist, who forms an integral part of the institution staff. Discrimination will simply exclude the more competent men. It is doubtful if the scale of salaries needs to be altered greatly. The additional cost of carrying on such work would include not less than $150 for annual library expenses, the remainder being dependent on the sort of work done, and the special equipment it requires. Many fruitful lines of inquiry require but little apparatus beyond stationery; some important problems, e. g., those concerned with the expressive movements, require elaborate and somewhat costly installations. Administrative direction of the precise subjects of research is not usually advisable, however, since it can seldom be guided by an adequate knowledge of the limitations of methods. In no case should the attempt be made to equip a general laboratory, but only to provide such equipment as is necessary for the investigations in hand. At some time in most investigations a certain amount of clerical assistance is an all but absolute requirement, and no holder of such a position should be expected to do his work properly without it. The greatest possible latitude should exist in regard to questions of printing; if an investigator is not to be trusted to publish when, where and what he thinks best, something is wrong with him or his position.