Science: Pecuniary Rewards

The interests of Edward Lee Thorndike, famed psychologist and educational expert of Columbia University’s Teachers College, range from the pleasant and unpleasant sound of words to the “goodness of living” in various U. S. cities. Lately, while investigating “the pecuniary rewards of great abilities,” Professor Thorndike took a look at the pay of top-notch scientists employed in industry. In American Men of Science he found 72 industrial savants whose names were starred for distinguished research (by vote of their colleagues). He then hunted up as many of their salaries as he could find in the Treasury report to the Ways & Means Committee.

Of these, Dr. Thorndike reported last week in Science, 27 were employed by companies not listed in the Treasury report, and 29 others were unlisted presumably because they received less than $15,000 yearly. Of the remaining 16, ten got $25,000 or more, and four made more than $50,000. The top four were Photography Expert Charles E. K. Mees of Eastman Kodak Co. ($54,000); Physicist-Engineer Frank Baldwin Jewett of Bell Telephone Laboratories ($55,000); Chemist Charles M. A. Stine of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. ($65,000); Chemist George Henry Clowes of Eli Lilly & Co. (drugs) ($74,000).

Nobel Prizewinner Irving Langmuir and X-ray Expert William David Coolidge of General Electric Co. received $16.000 and $21,500 respectively. General Motors’ celebrated Charles Franklin (“Boss”) Kettering, acknowledged father of the automobile self-starter, did not figure in the investigation because he, curiously enough, has received no star for distinguished research.

Dr. Thorndike found it unnecessary to add that these emoluments are higher, on the whole, than those of distinguished scientists in universities and endowed institutions of pure science.