the higher learning in america-第18章
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substitution of businessmen in the place of ecclesiastics; they
have ceased to exercise any function other than a bootless
meddling with academic matters which they do not understand。 The
sole ground of their retention appears to be an unreflecting
deferential concession to the usages of corporate organization
and control; such as have been found advantageous for the pursuit
of private gain by businessmen banded together in the
exploitation of joint…stock companies with limited liability。(1*)
The fact remains; the modern civilized community is reluctant
to trust its serious interests to others than men of pecuniary
substance; who have proved their fitness for the direction of
academic affairs by acquiring; or by otherwise being possessed
of; considerable wealth。(2*) It is not simply that experienced
businessmen are; on mature reflection; judged to be the safest
and most competent trustees of the university's fiscal interests。
The preference appears to be almost wholly impulsive; and a
matter of habitual bias。 It is due for the greater part to the
high esteem currently accorded to men of wealth at large; and
especially to wealthy men who have succeeded in business; quite
apart from any special capacity shown by such success for the
guardianship of any institution of learning。 Business success is
by common consent; and quite uncritically; taken to be conclusive
evidence of wisdom even in matters that have no relation to
business affairs。 So that it stands as a matter of course that
businessmen must be preferred for the guardianship and control of
that intellectual enterprise for the pursuit of which the
university is established; as well as to take care of the
pecuniary welfare of the university corporation。 And; full of the
same naive faith that business success 〃answereth all things;〃
these businessmen into whose hands this trust falls are content
to accept the responsibility and confident to exercise full
discretion in these matters with which they have no special
familiarity。 Such is the outcome; to the present date; of the
recent and current secularization of the governing boards。 The
final discretion in the affairs of the seats of learning is
entrusted to men who have proved their capacity for work that has
nothing in common with the higher learning。(3*)
As bearing on the case of the American universities; it
should be called to mind that the businessmen of this country; as
a class; are of a notably conservative habit of mind。 In a degree
scarcely equalled in any community that can lay claim to a
modicum of intelligence and enterprise; the spirit of American
business is a spirit of quietism; caution; compromise; collusion;
and chicane。 It is not that the spirit of enterprise or of unrest
is wanting in this community; but only that; by selective effect
of the conditioning circumstances; persons affected with that
spirit are excluded from the management of business; and so do
not come into the class of successful businessmen from which the
governing boards are drawn。 American inventors are bold and
resourceful; perhaps beyond the common run of their class
elsewhere; but it has become a commonplace that American
inventors habitually die poor; and one does not find them
represented on the boards in question。 American engineers and
technologists are as good and efficient as their kind in other
countries。 but they do not as a class accumulate wealth enough to
entitle them to sit on the directive board of any self…respecting
university; nor can they claim even a moderate rank as 〃safe and
sane〃 men of business。 American explorers; prospectors and
pioneers can not be said to fall short of the common measure in
hardihood; insight; temerity or tenacity; but wealth does not
accumulate in their hands; and it is a common saying; of them as
of the inventors; that they are not fit to conduct their own
(pecuniary) affairs; and the reminder is scarcely needed that
neither they nor their qualities are drawn into the counsels of
these governing boards。 The wealth and the serviceable results
that come of the endeavours of these enterprising and temerarious
Americans habitually inure to the benefit of such of their
compatriots as are endowed with a 〃safe and sane〃 spirit of
〃watchful waiting;〃 of caution; collusion and chicane。 There
is a homely but well…accepted American colloquialism which says
that 〃The silent hog eats the swill。〃
As elsewhere; but in a higher degree and a more cogent sense
than elsewhere; success in business affairs; in such measure as
to command the requisite deference; comes only by getting
something for nothing。 And; baring accidents and within the
law; it is only the waiting game and the defensive tactics that
will bring gains of that kind; unless it be strategy of the
nature of finesse and chicane。 Now it happens that American
conditions during the past one hundred years have been peculiarly
favourable to the patient and circumspect man who will rather
wait than work; and it is also during these hundred years that
the current traditions and standards of business conduct and of
businesslike talent have taken shape and been incorporated in the
community's common sense。 America has been a land of free and
abounding resources; which is to say; when converted into terms
of economic theory; that it is the land of the unearned
increment。 In all directions; wherever enterprise and industry
have gone; the opportunity was wide and large for such as had the
patience or astuteness to place themselves in the way of this
multifarious flow of the unearned increment; and were endowed
with the retentive grasp。 Putting aside the illusions of public
spirit and diligent serviceability; sedulously cultivated by the
apologists of business; it will readily be seen that the great
mass of reputably large fortunes in this country are of such an
origin; nor will it cost anything beyond a similar lesion to the
affections to confirm the view that such is the origin and line
of derivation of the American propertied business community and
its canons of right and honest living。
It is a common saying that the modern taste has been unduly
commercialized by the unremitting attention necessarily given to
matters of price and of profit and loss in an industrial
community organized on business principles; that pecuniary
standards of excellence are habitually accepted and applied with
undue freedom and finality。 But what is scarcely appreciated at
its full value is the fact that these pecuniary standards of
merit and efficiency are habitually applied to men as well as to
things; and with little less freedom and finality。 The man who
applies himself undeviatingly to pecuniary affairs with a view to
his own gain; and who is habitually and cautiously alert to the
main chance; is not only esteemed for and in respect of his
pecuniary success; but he is also habitually rated high at large;
as a particularly wise and sane person。 He is deferred to as
being wise and sane not only in pecuniary matters but also in any
other matters on which he may express an opinion。
A very few generations ago; be fore the present pecuniary era
of civilization had made such headway; and before the common man
in these civilized communities had lost the fear of God; the like
wide…sweeping and obsequious veneration and deference was given
to the clergy and their opinions; for the churchmen were then; in
the popular apprehension; proficient i