第 16 节
作者:青涩春天      更新:2021-02-27 02:38      字数:9322
  connection; their sole effectual function being to interfere with
  the academic management in matters that are not of the nature of
  business; and that lie outside their competence and outside the
  range of their habitual interest。
  The governing boards  trustees; regents; curators; fellows;
  whatever their style and title  are an aimless survival from
  the days of clerical rule; when they were presumably of some
  effect in enforcing conformity to orthodox opinions and
  observances; among the academic staff。 At that time; when means
  for maintenance of the denominational colleges commonly had to be
  procured by an appeal to impecunious congregations; it fell to
  these bodies of churchmen to do service as sturdy beggars for
  funds with which to meet current expenses。 So that as long as the
  boards were made up chiefly of clergymen they served a pecuniary
  purpose; whereas; since their complexion has been changed by the
  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; proficien