Читать книгу The Goose-step: A Study of American Education онлайн

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The provost thought he knew how to handle this matter. He said to one of his henchmen: “Load him with administrative work, so that he can’t lecture. ‘Squeeze’ him.“ This is a term which they understand at plutocratic universities; to “squeeze” you is to make changes in your curriculum, so as to make your courses less important; to take them out of the required list, or to give required French at the same hour, so that nobody will be free to come to your courses; or to put them at inconvenient hours, say at three o’clock in the afternoon, when nobody likes to come. If you are a professor, they will “squeeze” your young men; you will be unable to get promotions and proper salaries for your subordinates, or equipment or proper supplies for your department.

You may find the adventures of Scott Nearing set forth in a book called “The Nearing Case,” by Lightner Witmer, a professor at the university. It is interesting to note that Professor Witmer paid for the publication of this book by being “squeezed” himself, and by having his young men “squeezed.” Scott Nearing, ring-leader of the agitation, they kept on a salary of fifteen hundred dollars—and at the same time they delicately called his attention to an opening which presented itself at another university, where he might get three thousand dollars! “What a shame about that nice young Nearing fellow!” said Professor Lingelbach of the department of history. “He might have been getting seven or eight thousand dollars now, if he had held his tongue!” But on another occasion this venerable professor argued in a faculty discussion that there was no suppression of free speech at the University of Pennsylvania. Somebody put to him the question, suppose he wanted to join in municipal research work, to take up gas or street railways. Yes, everybody present admitted, that might make a difference!