work to one man, giving each instructor in this way an opportunity to participate in some few of the multitude of extraneous duties which under traditional systems are handled wholly by department heads or other executives. In filling a vacancy we might then emphasize the traits requisite for the successful carrying on of the more limited line of activities.

Unquestionably a more careful selection based upon scientific analysis of the requirements of each position and applying some standards of measurement to candidates would result in a more efficient selection of candidates with a tendency to reduce the annual turnover.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUCTION STAFF

Coming next to the question of development of employes, we find in progressive industrial centers and in large industrial corporations educational classes of salesmen, of accountants, of cost clerks, of time study men, of foremen and superintendents, of credit men, of traffic managers, etc., all engaged in studying the most recent literature and best information relating to their fields of work, the employing corporations for the most part meeting the expenses of securing lecturers and teachers for such classes. It would not be distinctly a new feature in educational practice to carry on this sort of training of instructors within the plant, and yet such practice is exceptional rather than the rule, as it should be. Educational traditions it is true prescribe a leave of absence of from one to three years to obtain a Ph.D. degree at some other educational institution, preferably in some foreign country. The financial expenditure involved in this procedure is such that only those who have private incomes, or are willing to suffer extreme privation for a number of years, are able to participate in this kind of development process. If the foremen's meetings or the cost accountants' club can be scheduled during work hours by factories, similar educational activities for the benefit of instructors can be scheduled as a regular procedure of colleges. Such training should aim to develop not only higher technical ability, but should consider the pedagogic methods and ideals of the individual subject, personal efficiency and fitness for the organization. In order to develop department heads, there should be a much wider extension of the practice of exchanging professors, accompanied by an extra stipend to cover the expenses of

travel and change of location. The heads of professional or industrial departments should be encouraged to take a year's leave of absence to work at their profession or in industry for pay with the idea that they would return full of knowledge as to the latest professional and industrial practices.

RETENTION OF INSTRUCTORS

Having considered now the selection and development of instructors, let us consider the matter of retention. In industries and the professions, tabulated income curves show that the capable man's earnings increase steadily up to the age of sixty and even beyond. In college teaching a man usually reaches a professorship somewhere between the age of thirty and forty, and thereafter his income curve remains a horizontal line until his death. It is no wonder therefore that we hear the term "blind alley" applied to the profession of college teaching. The remedy is self-evident. Boards of trustees of colleges should apply the same principles of compensation to their faculties as they would apply in industrial corporations of which they might be directors. Long tenure of office, accompanied by effective results, should be accompanied by periodic increases in salary even after professorial rank has been reached. There are many department heads in colleges who see young men graduating under them whom they have been instrumental in placing not only in their first positions, but later into better positions, earning salaries in from five to ten years after graduation aggregating fifty or one hundred per cent higher than the professor's salary.

I have laid particular stress upon the case of the professor, because the subject of the underpaid instructor and assistant is already well known, while very few persons realize that the professor or department head is also underpaid and that this fact encourages the men of the instructor class to seek other fields. Moreover, increasing demands are being made of the professor for traveling expenses, to attend conventions, to make contributions to a variety of worthy causes and to maintain a social and professional "front." From my knowledge of existing industrial and professional conditions, I should say that as industrial salaries rule at present, no college assistant or instructor should be employed at a starting pay of less than $1,200 for the academic year. In a first-class institution

he should have opportunity for regular annual advancement to a salary of $1,800. As an assistant professor, his salary should be regularly increased for efficient service until it reaches $3,000. In the associate professor's class, the range should be from $3,000 to $4,000. In the full professor's class, the range should be from $4,000 upward, with assured advancement, until the income curves of department heads in educational work are parallel with those of department heads in industry or of professional men of equal accomplishments. If Europe can pay college professors $10,000 a year, why not America?

HANDICAPS TO EFFICIENCY

Thus far I have discussed the question of assured prospects of promotion and adequate pay, which employment managers tell us are essential for retention of desirable employes. These same employment managers tell us also that we must provide agreeable working surroundings and conditions leading toward contentment and happiness. Several prominent industrial employment managers emphasize the importance of according freedom of speech and opinion to all men. The progressive department head in a college will heed this note as a sign of the times and encourage wider participation by all of his men in council which should be held to determine not only matters of policy and methods, but also such as relate to appointments.

Lack of the customary facilities provided in ordinary business and industrial practice for clerical, drafting and stenographic assistance is one of the conditions of academic inefficiency widely prevalent. In this respect, our colleges might well follow the example of corporation schools who do all they can to develop the real educational powers of their teachers by providing them all of the clerical, drafting and stenographic assistance needed. Academic traditions sanction the purchasing of a $200 scientific instrument, used two or three times a year, as a necessity, while the purchase of a dictaphone to increase the efficiency of an instructor twenty per cent would be looked on as an unpardonable luxury.

Another condition affecting the efficiency of instructors is the lack of provisions for private study. A recent book on efficient living claims that the home life of college professors is made far from ideal by the necessity imposed on them of carrying the day's work

into the home and the maintenance of a private study-a sort of a sanctum sanctorum in the residence. Even this safe retreat may not exist if the family has happened to grow considerably in number. Rooms should be provided in college buildings in which instructors might secure genuine privacy for study purposes, being entirely free from business routine or interviews during such periods.

This discussion would not be complete without some mention of old age or retirement pensions. It has been argued that although such pensions might be entirely proper for teachers in primary and secondary schools, it would be letting down caste bars to admit that college professors really required such pensions. Andrew Carnegie intimated that while he would take care of certain institutions, he considered it the duty of the states to take care of the matter of pensions in state institutions. There does not seem to be any valid reason why a railway conductor, engineer or fireman should be entitled to an old age pension any more than a college professor.

I have endeavored to list such analogies between industrial and academic conditions relating to turnover as present themselves to a man who has come into academic work after having filled a position as factory superintendent and production manager.

BOOK DEPARTMENT

THE BUSINESS MAN'S LIBRARY

ACCOUNTING, AUDITING AND COST KEEPING

SCOVELL, CLINTON H. Cost Accounting and Burden Application. Pp. xiv, 328. Price, $2.00. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916.

In some promising books on cost accounting which have appeared, an attempted summary of a great variety of opinion has left the reader at sea as to the opinion held by the writer. Scovell's treatise is clear and definite. On all the crucial points he states his opinion clearly and gives a reason for it. As a text in the classroom it would need amplification and discussion, supplemented by exercises and problems. It will, however, prove valuable for reference and classroom use as well as for the practicing accountant.

Among the controversial subjects which the author treats most fully are the subjects of Interest Charged to Cost, and Unearned Burden. He believes that interest should be charged to cost because this treatment proves useful both from the point of view of managerial policy and price setting. He believes in charging interest both on capital owned and borrowed, but he is not in favor of making separate charges for these two classes of interest. The offsetting credit for the interest charges is an account called Interest Charged to Cost. The rate for such an interest charge is to be set by the reasonable expectation of return from the capital if invested in high grade securities where no manufacturing or trading risk is taken.

The author would probably feel, however, that his chief contribution lies in his treatment of Unearned Burden. He works out a machine rate for all production centers on the basis of their operation for a standard number of hours each year. This standard is worked out on the basis of the experience of the plant. "But with a curtailment of production, resulting in idle equipment not used in production, there will be an accumulation of burden charges which is not charged to the cost of the product. This expense is known as unearned burden and is not properly a part of manufacturing cost, although it must be recognized in the determination of a proper selling price. . . . . Unearned burden, known as a separate total, serves as a true barometer to indicate the effect of the industrial situation outside the shop on the business in question" (p. 176). Mr. Scovell would charge the unearned burden to the profit and loss account but not to the manufacturing account. The author indicates a significance of unearned burden for competitive costs. He has really laid the foundation for a complete and critical statement of competitive costs, but he does not perform this larger task. In the latter part of the book Scovell applies the principles he has developed to the accounting of several industries.