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diff --git a/old/65492-0.txt b/old/65492-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 41332e4..0000000 --- a/old/65492-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,21482 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Goose-step, by Upton Sinclair - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Goose-step - A Study of American Education - -Author: Upton Sinclair - -Release Date: June 3, 2021 [eBook #65492] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: KD Weeks, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOOSE-STEP *** - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note: - -This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. -Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. - -Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are -referenced. - -Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please -see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding -the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. - - - - - - - - - THE GOOSE-STEP - - - - - - - - - THE - GOOSE-STEP - - A Study of American Education - - BY - UPTON SINCLAIR - - AUTHOR OF - “THE BRASS CHECK,” “THE PROFITS OF RELIGION,” - “THE JUNGLE,” ETC. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR - PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - - WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS - _THE ECONOMY BOOK SHOP_ - 33 SOUTH CLARK ST., CHICAGO, ILL. - - - - - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1922. 1923 - BY - UPTON SINCLAIR - - --- - - _All rights reserved_. - - --- - - First edition, February, 1923, 10,000 copies, clothbound. - Second edition, February, 1923, 8,000 copies, paperbound. - - - - - CONTENTS - - CHAPTER PAGE - INTRODUCTORY ix-x - - I. The Little Gosling 1 - - II. The College Goose 4 - - III. The University Goose 9 - - IV. The Goose-steppers 15 - - V. Interlocking Directorates 18 - - VI. The University of the House of Morgan 23 - - VII. The Interlocking President 29 - - VIII. The Scholar in Politics 34 - - IX. Nicholas Miraculous 40 - - X. The Lightning-change Artist 44 - - XI. The Twilight Zone 49 - - XII. The Academic Department Store 54 - - XIII. The Empire of Dullness 58 - - XIV. The University of Lee-Higginson 62 - - XV. The Harvard Tradition 67 - - XVI. Free Speech But— 72 - - XVII. Interference 77 - - XVIII. The Laski Lampoon 82 - - XIX. Raking the Dust-heaps 88 - - XX. The University of U. G. I. 91 - - XXI. Stealing a Trust Fund 97 - - XXII. Professor Billy Sunday 102 - - XXIII. The Triumph of Death 107 - - XXIV. The Tiger’s Lair 111 - - XXV. Peacocks and Slums 115 - - XXVI. The Bull-dog’s Den 121 - - XXVII. The University of the Black Hand 126 - - XXVIII. The Fortress of Medievalism 132 - - XXIX. The Dean of Imperialism 137 - - XXX. The Mob of Little Haters 141 - - XXXI. The Drill Sergeant on the Campus 145 - - XXXII. The Story of Stanford 152 - - XXXIII. The Wind of Freedom 157 - - XXXIV. The Stanford Skeleton 162 - - XXXV. The University of the Lumber Trust 168 - - XXXVI. The University of the Chimes 174 - - XXXVII. The Universities of the Anaconda 179 - - XXXVIII. The University of the Latter-Day Saints 184 - - XXXIX. The Mining Camp University 188 - - XL. The Colleges of the Smelter Trust 192 - - XLI. A Land Grant College 197 - - XLII. An Agricultural Melodrama 203 - - XLIII. The University of Wheat 206 - - XLIV. The University of the Ore Trust 209 - - XLV. The Academic Wink 216 - - XLVI. Introducing a University President 222 - - XLVII. Introducing a Board of Regents 227 - - XLVIII. The Price of Liberty 230 - - XLIX. The People and Their University 235 - - L. Education F. O. B. Chicago 240 - - LI. The University of Standard Oil 243 - - LII. Little Halls for Radicals 249 - - LIII. The University of Judge Gary 254 - - LIV. The University of the Grand Duchess 258 - - LV. The University of Automobiles 263 - - LVI. The University of the Steel Trust 271 - - LVII. The University of Heaven 277 - - LVIII. The Harpooner of Whales 282 - - LIX. An Academic Tragedy 287 - - LX. The Geography Line 291 - - LXI. A Leap into the Limelight 295 - - LXII. The Process of Fordization 302 - - LXIII. Intellectual Dry-rot 306 - - LXIV. The University of Jabbergrab 313 - - LXV. The Growth of Jabbergrab 319 - - LXVI. Jabbergrab in Journalism 323 - - LXVII. The City Colleges 329 - - LXVIII. The Large Mushrooms 334 - - LXIX. The Little Toadstools 339 - - LXX. God and Mammon 345 - - LXXI. The Orange-outang Hunters 351 - - LXXII. The Academic Pogrom 356 - - LXXIII. The Semi-Simian Mob 363 - - LXXIV. The Rah-rah Boys 370 - - LXXV. The Social Traitors 377 - - LXXVI. Prexy 382 - - LXXVII. Damn the Faculty 390 - - LXXVIII. Small Souls 395 - - LXXIX. The World of “Hush” 399 - - LXXX. The Foundations of Fraud 407 - - LXXXI. The Bolshevik Hunters 412 - - LXXXII. The Helen Ghouls 418 - - LXXXIII. The Shepard’s Crook 424 - - LXXXIV. Cities of Refuge 428 - - LXXXV. The Academic Rabbits 436 - - LXXXVI. Workers’ Education 440 - - LXXXVII. The Spider and the Fly 445 - - LXXXVIII. The Workers’ Colleges 450 - - LXXXIX. The Professors’ Union 454 - - XC. The Professors’ Strike 459 - - XCI. Educating the Educators 464 - - XCII. The League of Youth 470 - - XCIII. The Open Forum 473 - - - - - INTRODUCTORY - - -Six hundred thousand young people are attending colleges and -universities in America. They are the pick of our coming generation; -they are the future of our country. If they are wisely and soundly -taught, America will be great and happy; if they are misguided and -mistaught, no power can save us. - -What is the so-called “higher education” of these United States? You -have taken it, for the most part, on faith. It is something which has -come to be; it is big and impressive, and you are impressed. Every year -you pay a hundred million dollars of public funds to help maintain it, -and half that amount in tuition fees for your sons and daughters. You -take it for granted that this money is honestly and wisely used; that -the students are getting the best, the “highest” education the money can -buy. - -Suppose I were to tell you that this educational machine has been -stolen? That a bandit crew have got hold of it and have set it to work, -not for your benefit, nor the benefit of your sons and daughters, but -for ends very far from these? That our six hundred thousand young people -are being taught, deliberately and of set purpose, not wisdom but folly, -not justice but greed, not freedom but slavery, not love but hate? - -For the past year I have been studying American Education. I have read -on the subject—books, pamphlets, reports, speeches, letters, newspaper -and magazine articles—not less than five or six million words. I have -traveled over America from coast to coast and back again, for the sole -purpose of talking with educators and those interested in education. I -have stopped in twenty-five American cities, and have questioned not -less than a thousand people—school teachers and principals, -superintendents and board members, pupils and parents, college -professors and students and alumni, presidents and chancellors and deans -and regents and trustees and governors and curators and fellows and -overseers and founders and donors and whatever else they call -themselves. This mass of information I have turned over and over in my -mind, sorting it, organizing it—until now, I really know something about -American Education. - -I do not intend in this book to expound my ideas on the subject; to -argue with you as to what education might be, or ought to be; to -persuade you to any dogma or point of view. I intend merely to put -before you the facts; to say, this is what American Education now is. -This is what is going on in the college and university world. This is -what is being done to your sons and daughters; and what the sons and -daughters think about it; and what the instructors think about it. Here -is the situation: make up your own mind, whether it suits you, or -whether you want it changed. - - - - - THE GOOSE-STEP - - _A Study of American Education_ - - - - - CHAPTER I - THE LITTLE GOSLING - - -Once upon a time there was a little boy; a little boy unusually eager, -and curious about the world he lived in. He was a nuisance to old -gentlemen who wanted to read their newspaper; but young men liked to -carry him on their shoulders and maul him about in romps, old ladies -liked to make ginger cakes for him, and other boys liked to play -“shinny” with him, and race on roller skates, and “hook” potatoes from -the corner grocery and roast them in forbidden fires on vacant lots. The -little boy lived in a crowded part of the city of New York, in what is -called a “flat”; that is, a group of little boxes, enclosed in a large -box called a “flat-house.” Every morning this little boy’s mother saw to -his scrubbing, with special attention to his ears, both inside and back, -and put a clean white collar on him, and packed his lunch-box with two -sandwiches and a piece of cake and an apple, and started him off to -school. - -The school was a vast building—or so it seemed to the little boy. It had -stone staircases with iron railings, and big rooms with rows of little -desks, blackboards, maps of strange countries, and pictures of George -Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Aurora driving her chariot. -Everywhere you went in this school you formed in line and marched; you -talked in chorus, everybody saying the same thing as nearly at the same -instant as could be contrived. The little boy found that a delightful -arrangement, for he liked other boys, and the more of them there were, -the better. He kept step happily, and sat with glee in the assembly -room, and clapped when the others clapped, and laughed when they -laughed, and joined with them in shouting: - - Oh, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, - The—ee home of the Bra—ave and the Free—ee! - -The rest of the day the little boy sat in a crowded classroom, learning -things. The first thing he learned was that you must be quiet—otherwise -the teacher, passing down the aisle, would crack your knuckles with a -ruler. Another thing was that you must raise your hand if you wanted to -speak. Maybe these things were necessary, but the little boy did not -learn why they were necessary; in school all you learned was that things -were so. For example, if you wanted to divide one fraction by another, -you turned the second fraction upside down; it seemed an odd procedure, -but if you asked the reason for it, the teacher would be apt to answer -in a way that caused the other little boys to laugh at you—something -which is very painful. - -The teacher would give out a series of problems in “mental -arithmetic”—tricks which you had been taught, and you wrote the answers -on your slate, and then marched in line past the teacher’s desk, and if -you had done it according to rule, you got a check on your slate. You -learned the great purpose of life was these “marks.” If you got good -ones, your teacher smiled at you, your parents praised you at home, you -had a sense of triumph over other little boys who were stupid. You -enjoyed this triumph, because no one ever suggested to you that it was -cruel to laugh at your weaker fellows. In fact, the system appeared to -be designed to bring out your superiority, and to increase the -humiliation of the others. - -In this school everything in the world had been conveniently arranged in -packages, which could be stowed away in your mind and made the subject -of a “mark.” Columbus discovered America in 1492; the Declaration of -Independence was signed on July 4, 1776; Switzerland was bounded on the -north by Germany. This business of “boundings” appeared in little -diagrams; Switzerland was yellow and Germany pink, and no one burdened -your mind with the idea that these spots of color represented places -where human beings lived. At this same time the little boy was going to -Sunday school, where he learned something called “the creed,” with a -sentence declaring that “from Thency shall come to judge the quick and -the dead.” The little boy pondered hard, but never made sure whether -“Thency” was the name of a person or a place. - -Some thirty-five years have passed, but the little boy still remembers -the personalities of these teachers. There was a middle-aged lady, stout -and amiable, and always dressed in black; then one who was angular and -irritable; then one who had pretty brown eyes and hair, but to the -puzzlement of the little boy had also the beginnings of a mustache. Next -came a young man with a real mustache, and pale, washed-out eyes and -complexion; but he was dreadfully dull. The novelty had worn off the -school by this time, and the boy had got tired of stowing away packages -of facts in his mind. He had become so expert that he was able to do two -years’ work in one, and at the age of twelve was ready for what was -called the City College. But he was judged too young, and had to take -one year in the grammar school all over. The fates took pity on him, and -gave him as teacher for that year a jolly Irish gentleman, so full of -interest in his boys that he did not keep the rules. If you wanted to -ask him questions you asked, and without first raising your hand; you -might even get into an argument with him, as with any boy, and if he -caught you whispering to your neighbor, his method of correcting you was -novel, but highly effective—he would let fly a piece of chalk at your -head, and you would grin, and the class would howl with delight. - -In this strange, happy group the little boy went by the nick-name of -“Chappie”; for the school was located on the East side of New York, and -most of the boys were “tough,” and had never before heard the English -language correctly spoken by a boy. “Chappie” owned a collection of one -or two hundred story-books which had been given him by aunts and uncles -and cousins at a succession of Christmases and birthdays. The priceless -treasure, when he left the school, became the foundation of a class -library, to the vast delight of the other boys and of the Irish teacher. -So the boy ended his grammar-school life in a blaze of glory, and went -away thinking the public school system a most admirable affair. - - - - - CHAPTER II - THE COLLEGE GOOSE - - -The College of the City of New York at that time occupied an old brick -building on Twenty-third Street and Lexington Avenue. It gave a five -years’ course, leading up to a college degree; but the first two or -three years were the same as high school years at present. The boy went -there, not because he knew anything about it, nor because he knew what -he wanted, but because that was the way the machinery was built; he was -turned out of the grammar school hopper, and into the city college -hopper. In his earliest days it had been his intention to become the -driver of a hook-and-ladder truck; later on he had decided to follow his -ancestors to Annapolis; now he had in mind to be a lawyer; but first of -all he wanted to be “educated.” - -Most of the students in this college were Jews. I didn’t know why this -was; in fact, I hardly knew _that_ it was, because I didn’t know the -difference between Jews and Gentiles. They came from poor families, and -most of them worked hard; they lived at home, so there was little of -what is called “college life” about our education. There were feeble -attempts made to get up “college spirit”; now and then a group of lads -would run about the streets emitting yells, but their efforts were -feeble, and struck me as silly. In the course of time one of the better -dressed members of my class came to me with mysterious hints about a -“fraternity.” I didn’t know what a “fraternity” was, and anyhow, I had -no money to spare; I was living on four dollars and a half a week, and -earning it by writing jokes and sketches for the newspapers. - -I took six or eight courses each half year at the college, and as I -recall them, my principal impression is of their incredible dullness. -For example, the tired little gentleman who taught me what was called -“English”; I remember a book of lessons, each lesson consisting of -thirty or forty sentences containing grammatical errors. I would open -the book and run down the list; I would see all the grammatical errors -in the first three minutes, and for the remaining fifty-seven minutes -was required to sit and listen while one member of the class after -another was called on to explain and correct one of the errors. The -cruelty of this procedure lay in the fact that you never knew at what -moment your name would be called, and you would have to know what was -the next sentence. If you didn’t know, you were not “paying attention,” -and you got a zero. I tried all kinds of psychological tricks to compel -myself to follow that dreary routine, but was powerless to chain my mind -to it. - -Then there was “history”; first the history of the world, ancient and -modern, and then the history of England. I remember the tall, stringy -old gentleman who taught us lists of names and dates, which we recited -one hour and forgot the next. Here, if you were caught not paying -attention, it was possible to use your wits and “get by.” I remember one -bright moment when we were discussing the birth of the first prince of -Wales. Said the professor: “How did it happen that an English prince, -the son of an English king, was born on Welsh soil?” The student, caught -unawares by this singular question, stammered, “Why—er—why—his mother -was there!” - -Also there were the physics classes; rather less dull, because they -included “experiments,” which exhibited the peculiarities of natural -forces—sparks and smoke, and noises of explosions major or minor. But -why these things happened, or what they meant, was never understood by -anyone, and whether an explosion was major or minor was entirely a -matter of luck. I remember composing a poem for the college paper, -dealing with the effect of physics upon a poet’s mind: - - He learned that the painted rainbow, - God’s promise, as poets feign, - Was transverse oscillations - Turning somersaults in rain. - -And then there was drawing. We sat in a big studio, in front of plaster -casts of historic faces, and we made smudges supposed to resemble them. -On this subject, also, I wrote some verses, portraying the plight of a -student who forgot which cast he was copying, and paced up and down -before them, exclaiming: “Good gracious, is it Juno or King Henry of -Navarre?” - -I studied a number of complicated technical subjects—perspective and -mechanical drawing and surveying—though now, thirty years later, I could -not survey my front porch. I studied mathematics, from simple addition -to differential calculus. The addition I still remember; but if I were -asked to do the simplest problem in algebra I should not have an idea -how to set about it. - -I remember with vividness the men who put me through these various -torments; young men, some feeble, some impatient, but always -uninterested in what they were doing; old men, kind and lovable, or -irritable and angry, but all of them hopeless so far as concerned the -task of teaching anybody anything of any use. Every morning we spent -half an hour in what was called “chapel,” and the old men, the members -of the faculty, were lined up on the platform, and remain to this hour -the most vivid line of human faces stored in my memory. It was their -duty to listen to student oratory; and so perfect had been the -discipline of their lives that they were able to sit without moving a -muscle, or giving the least sign of what they must have felt. - -Sooner or later we came into the class-rooms of these old men, and each -in turn did what he could for us. I remember the professor of German, -lovable, genial, highly cultured. During the two years that I studied -with him, I learned perhaps two hundred words—certainly no more than I -could have learned in two days of active study under an intelligent -system. Little things he taught me that were not in the course, for -example by a slight frown when he saw me trimming my finger-nails in -class. - -And then the professor of Greek, a white-whiskered old terror. For three -years he had me five hours per week, and today I could not read a -sentence from a child’s primer in Greek, though I still know the letters -and the sounds. I suppose there are Greek words which I have looked up -in the dictionary a thousand times, yet it never occurred to any human -being to point out to me that I might save time and trouble by learning -the meaning of the words once for all. I marvel when I realize that it -was possible for me to read “The Acharnians” of Aristophanes, line by -line, and hardly once get a smile out of it, nor have it occur to me -that there was any resemblance between what happened in that play, and -the fight against Tammany Hall and the Hearst newspapers which was going -on in the world about me. - -And then the professor of Latin; he also was a terror, though his -whiskers were brown. He was a prominent Catholic propagandist, editor of -“The Catholic Encyclopedia,” and conceived a dislike for me because I -refused to believe things just because they were told me. I can see this -old gentleman’s knitted brows and hear his angry tones as he exclaims: -“Mr. Sinclair, it is so because I say it is so!” Five hours a week for -five years I studied with that old gentleman, or his subordinates, and I -read a great deal of Latin literature, but I never got so that I could -read a paragraph of the simplest Latin prose without a dictionary. I -look at a page of the language, and the words are as familiar to me as -my own English, but I don’t know what they mean, unless they happen to -be the same as the English. - -And then the professor of chemistry; an extremely irascible old -gentleman with only one arm. There was a rumor to the effect that he had -lost the other through the misbehavior of chemicals, but I never -investigated the matter. I learned that chemistry consists of mixing -liquids in test-tubes, and seeing that various colored “precipitates” -result. After you do this you write down formulas, showing that a part -of one chemical has got switched over to the other chemical; but why -these things happen, or how anybody knows that they happen, was -something entirely beyond my comprehension, and which neither the -professor of chemistry nor his three assistants ever explained to any -member of my class. My most vivid recollection of this class has to do -with the close of the hour, when a group of us would gather with our -various test-tubes, and each put up a nickel, and guess a color; then we -would mix the contents of the tubes in one big tube, and shake them up, -and the fellow who guessed the right color won the “pot.” - -And then the professor of literature. Perhaps you think I should have -had some success in classes of literature; but that only shows how -little you know about college. A new professor came in just as I reached -this class, and I learned in after years that he had got his appointment -through the Tammany machine. A bouncing and somewhat vulgar little man, -he was an ardent and argumentative Catholic, and his idea of conducting -a class of literature was to find out if there was anything in the -subject which could in any way be connected with Catholic doctrine and -history, and if so, to bring out that aspect of the subject. Thus I -learned that Milton, though undoubtedly a great poet, had cruelly lied -about the popes; also I learned that Chaucer was positively not a -Wyckliffite. I had not the remotest idea what a Wyckliffite was, but got -the general impression that it was something terrible, and I was quite -willing to believe the best of Chaucer, in spite of his perverse way of -spelling English words. As part of the process of disciplining our taste -in literature, we were required to learn poems by heart, and this -professor selected poems which had something to do with Catholicism. -Seeing that most of us were Jews, this was irritating, but we got what -fun we could out of our predicament. At that time there was a popular -music-hall song, with a chorus: “Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-ay”; so we used to -go about the corridors of our college chanting to this lively tune a -poem by Austin Dobson: - - Missal of the Gothic age, - Missal with the blazoned page, - Whence, O Missal, hither come, - From what dim scriptorium? - - Whose the name that wrought thee thus, - Ambrose or Theophilus, - Bending, through the waning light, - O’er thy vellum scraped and white! - -I hope you know the tune of “Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-ay,” so that you may -get the full cultural benefit from this recitation! - -However, my little Catholic professor of literature did one thing for -me; he let me know of the existence of a poet by the name of Shelley. We -read “The Skylark” and “The Cloud” in class, and there came over me a -realization of the ghastly farce I was going through in this college. I -was near the end of my senior year, but my store of patience gave out, -and I presented a letter to the faculty, stating that I was obliged to -earn my own living, and requesting that I be allowed two months’ leave -of absence. The statement was strictly true, but the implication, that I -was going to spend the two months in earning money, was not true; I -spent the two months sitting on the bed in an eight by ten hall bedroom -in a lodging-house, reading Shelley’s poetry and Emerson’s Essays and -the prose of Ruskin and Carlyle. I went back to college and made up my -lost months in a week or two, and passed my examinations without either -credit or discredit—ranking just in the middle of my class. - -I take it that the purpose of education is to discover the special -aptitudes of the student, and to foster them. And here was I, a man with -one special aptitude; here were a score of teachers, with whom I had -been in daily contact for five years; yet I am sure, if these teachers -had been told that one man in the class of ’97 would come to be known -throughout the civilized world in less than nine years, they would have -guessed more than half my class-mates before they guessed me. I am not -so egotistical as to imagine that I was the only man in that class who -had special aptitudes; if none of the others have developed any, I think -I know the reason—the machine had rolled them flat! - - - - - CHAPTER III - THE UNIVERSITY GOOSE - - -Columbia University at the time I went to it had just moved up to its -new buildings on Morningside Heights. The center of the group was a -magnificent white marble library, built almost entirely for display, and -with but little relation to books and those who were to use them. But of -this I had no suspicion; I had come now to the real headquarters of -education, and I studied the fascinating lists of courses, and my heart -leaped, because I was free to choose whatever I wished of all this -feast. I was a proud “bachelor of arts,” and declared my intention of -becoming a still prouder “master of arts.” To achieve the feat I must -complete a year’s course, consisting of a “major” subject and two -“minors,” and I must also compose a “thesis.” To register for all this I -paid a hundred and fifty dollars, earned by a newly discovered talent -for writing dime novels. - -My major subject was English; and as part of the work Professor George -Rice Carpenter undertook to teach me the art of composition. This was an -undergraduate course, taken by students of Columbia College, and so I -had a chance to see how they were taught. To my dismay I found it -exactly the same dreary routine that I had been through at my City -College. Our professor would set us a topic on which to write a “theme”: -“Should College Students Take Part in Athletics;” or perhaps, “A -Description of the Country in Winter.” My own efforts at this task were -pitiful, and I was angrily aware that they were pitiful; I did not care -anything about the matters on which I was asked to write, and I could -never in my life write about anything I did not care about. I stood some -six weeks of it, and then went to the professor and told him I wanted to -drop the course. - -So I discovered one of the embarrassments of the American college -system. Students are supposed to choose courses, but no provision is -made for them to sample the wares and make an intelligent selection. If -anybody finds he has made a mistake, he is in the same plight as if he -has married the wrong girl; he can not get out without hurting the -girl’s feelings, and I, unhappy blunderer in the undergraduate machine, -had to hurt the feelings of Professor Carpenter. “I don’t know what you -want,” said he, “or how you think you are going to get it; but this one -thing I can tell you positively—you don’t know how to write.” To which I -answered humbly, of course; that was why I had to come to him. But I had -become convinced that I wasn’t going to learn in that way, and my mind -was made up to drop the course. - -Also I took a course in poetry with William Peterfield Trent. The -predecessors of Milton were the subject of our investigation, I -remember, and perhaps they were uninteresting poets—anyhow, the lectures -about them certainly were. I stood it for a month or two, and then we -came upon a grammatical error in one of our poets. “You will find such -things occasionally,” said the professor. “There is a line in -Byron—‘There let him lay’—and I have an impression that I once came upon -a similar error in Shelley. Some day before long I plan to read Shelley -through and see if I can find it.” And that finished me. Shelley was my -dearest friend in all the world, and I imagined a man confronting the -record of his ecstasies, seeking a grammatical error! I quit that -course. - -Also I had started one in French. It was the same dreary routine I had -gone through for five years in Latin; translating little foolish -sentences by looking up words in the dictionary. I seriously meant to -read French, so stayed long enough to get the accent correctly, and then -retired, and got myself a note-book and set to work to hammer the -meaning of French words into my head. In another six weeks I had read -half a dozen of the best French novels, and in the course of the next -year I read all the standard French classics. I did the same thing with -German; having already got the pronunciation, I proceeded to teach -myself words, and in a year or two had got to know German literature as -well as English. - -Most of my experience at Columbia consisted of beginning courses, and -dropping them after a few weeks. At the end I figured up that I had -sampled over forty courses. I finished five or six, but never took an -examination in one. And this was no mere whim or idleness on my part; it -was a deliberate judgment upon the university and its methods. I had -made the discovery that, being registered for a master’s degree, and not -having completed the necessary courses, I was free to register for new -courses the second year, without paying additional tuition fees; and -failing to complete the courses the second year, I was free to register -for the third year, and so on. - -Thus I worked out my system—education in spite of the educators! I would -start a course, and get a preliminary view of the subject, and the list -of the required readings; then I would go off by myself and do the -readings. Almost invariably there was one book which the professor used -as a text-book, and his lectures were nothing but an inadequate résumé -thereof. At the beginning of his course on the drama Brander Matthews -would say “Gentlemen, I make it a point of honor with you not to read my -book—‘The Development of the Drama,’ until after you have finished my -course!” - -Brander Matthews was a new type to me, the literary “man of the world.” -His mind was a store-house of gossip about the theater and the -stage-world, and I was interested, and eagerly read the plays. I knew -that Brander was not my kind of man, that his world was not for me; but -what kind of world I was going to choose, or to make for myself, I did -not at that time know. As I dwell on these days, I see before me his -loose, rather shambling figure, with a queerly shaped brown beard and a -cigarette dangling from the lower lip. I do not know how this dangling -was contrived, but I doubt if I ever saw the professor at a lecture that -he did not have that cigarette in position as he talked. Brander is the -beau ideal of the successful college professor, metropolitan style; a -clubman, easy-going and cynical, but not too much so for propriety; -wealthy enough to be received at the dinners of trustees, and witty -enough to be welcome anywhere. He is a bitter reactionary, and has -become one of President Butler’s most active henchmen; his reputation as -author of more than forty books is made use of by the New York “Times” -for an occasional job of assassinating a liberal writer. - -With Nicholas Murray Butler I took a course in the critical philosophy. -At this time he was a modest professor, and his dazzling career lay in -the future. I shall have many impolite things to say about Butler, so -let me make it plain that there is nothing personal in my attitude; to -me he was always affable. He possesses a subtle mind, and uses it -thoroughly. With him I read “The Critique of Pure Reason” twice through -and as a work of supererogation I read also the impossible German. I had -had a little metaphysics before this, and was now pleased to have Kant -demonstrate that I had wasted my time. I took seriously what I read, and -assumed that my professor was taking seriously what he taught; so -imagine my bewilderment when shortly afterwards I learned that Professor -Butler had left the Presbyterian church, and had joined the Episcopal -church, as one of the steps necessary to becoming president of Columbia -University. It gave me a shock, because I knew he had no belief whatever -in any of the dogmas of the Christian religion, and had completely -demonstrated to me the impossibility of any valid knowledge concerning -immortality, free will or a First Cause. - -Another “man of the world” type of professor whom I encountered was -Harry Thurston Peck, who gave me a course in Roman civilization of the -Augustan age. It was so like America that it was terrifying, but -Professor Peck I am sure was entirely unterrified. He was widely read in -the literature of decadence, and from him I heard the names of strange -writers, from Petronius and Boccaccio to Zola and Gautier. It was a -world of grim and cruel depravity, but one had sooner or later to know -that it existed, and to steel one’s soul for a new endeavor to save the -race. Poor Harry Peck was not steeled enough, and he broke the first -rule of the “man of the world,” and got found out. A woman sued him for -breach of promise, and published his letters in the newspapers. There -were some who thought he should not have been assumed to be guilty, -merely because a blackmailer accused him; but the powers which ruled -Columbia thought otherwise, and Professor Peck was driven out, and -committed suicide. - -It was a peculiar thing, which I observed as time went on—every single -man who had had anything worth-while of any sort to teach me was forced -out of Columbia University in some manner or other. The ones that stayed -were the dull ones, or the worldly and cunning ones. Carpenter stayed -until he died, and Brander Matthews, and Butler, and Trent, who purposed -to read through the works of Shelley to find a grammatical error, and -John Erskine, whom I knew as a timid and conventional “researcher,” and -who, I am told, has been chosen by Butler as his heir-apparent. But Peck -went—and Hyslop, and Spingarn, and Robinson, and MacDowell, and -Woodberry. - -James Hyslop gave me a course in what he called “practical ethics,” and -this was a curious affair. In the first part he discussed abstract rules -of conduct—regardless of the fact that there can be no such things. In -the second part he attempted to apply these rules to New York City -politics, explaining the methods by which Tammany politicians got their -graft, and devising elaborate laws and electoral arrangements whereby -these politicians could be kept out of office, or made to be good while -in. The professor was a frail and ascetic-looking little man with a -feeble black beard. It was painfully clear to me that the politicians -were more clever than he, and would devise a hundred ways of countering -his program before he had got it into action. - -Now, as I look back upon this course, the thing which strikes me as -marvelous is that never once in a whole year of instruction did the -professor drop a hint concerning the economic basis of political -corruption. The politicians got money—yes, of course; but who paid them -the money, and what did the payers get out of it? In other words, what -part was Big Business playing in the undermining of American public -life? I took an entire course in “practical ethics” at Columbia -University in the year ’99 or 1900—two hours a week for nine months—and -never once did I hear that question mentioned, either by the professor -or by any of the graduate students in that class! - -You would have thought that this would have made James Hyslop safe for -life; but alas! the poor man became too anxious concerning the growth of -Socialism throughout the world, and decided that the way to counter it -was to renew the faith of the people in heaven and hell. You may find -his ideas on this point quoted in “The Profits of Religion,” page 224. -He took to studying spiritualism, and the newspapers took him up, and -the university authorities, who tolerate no sort of eccentricity, -politely slid him out of his job. - -After his recent visit to the United States, H. G. Wells wrote that the -most vital mind he had met was James Harvey Robinson, author of “The -Mind in the Making.” Twenty-two or three years ago I took with Professor -Robinson a course in the history of the Renaissance and Reformation. It -was a great period, when the mind of the race was breaking the shackles -of mediæval tyranny in religion, politics, and thought. I read with -eagerness about John Huss and Wyckliffe, Erasmus and Luther. I still -hope for such heroes and for such an awakening in my own modern world; -meantime, I observe that Professor Robinson, unable to stand the -mediævalism of Columbia, has handed in his resignation. - -Then MacDowell, the composer. Edward MacDowell was the first authentic -man of genius I met; he is the only American musician whose work has won -fame abroad. He was a man as well as an artist, and his courses in -general musical culture were a rare delight. After much urging, he -consented to play us parts of his own works, and discuss them with us. -Needless to say, this was not orthodox academic procedure, and the -college authorities, who do not recognize genius less than a hundred -years away, would not give proper credits for work with MacDowell. The -composer’s beautiful dream of a center of musical education came to -nothing, and he retired, broken-hearted. As I described the tragedy at -the time, he ran into Nicholas Murray Butler and was killed. - -Finally, George Edward Woodberry, who was in the field of letters what -MacDowell was in music, a master not merely of criticism but of -creation; also a charming spirit and a friend to students. He gave a -course in what he called comparative literature, and made us acquainted -with Plato, Cervantes, Dante, Ariosto, Spenser, and Shelley. He was a -truly liberalizing influence, and so popular among the men that the -Columbia machine hated him heartily. I was taking Brander Matthews’ -course at the same time as Woodberry’s, and would hear Matthews sneer at -Woodberry’s “idealism,” and at his methods of teaching. A year later -Woodberry was forced out, under circumstances which I shall presently -narrate. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - THE GOOSE-STEPPERS - - -In the year 1901 I was twenty-one years of age, and was ready to quit -Columbia. The great university had become to me nothing but a library -full of books, and some empty class-rooms in which to sit while reading -them. No longer was I lured by elaborate prospectuses, setting forth -lists of “courses”; I had tried forty of them, and knew that nine-tenths -of them were dull. The great institution was a hollow shell, a body -without a soul, a mass of brick and stone held together by red tape. - -But before I went out into the world, I made one final test of the -place. I knew by this time exactly what I wanted to do in the world; I -wanted to create literature. I had an overwhelming impulse, so intense -that it had completely ruined me as a hack-writer; my “half-dime” novels -had become impossible to me, and the question of how I was to earn my -living was a serious one. - -And here was a great university, devoted to the furthering of all the -liberal arts. This university had trained me to love and reverence the -great writers of the past; what was its attitude to the great writers of -the future? The university controlled and awarded a vast number of -scholarships and fellowships in all branches of learning; that is to -say, it offered support to young men while they equipped themselves to -understand and teach the writings of the past. But what about the -writings of the future? What aid would the university give to these? I -was planning to spend the summer writing a novel, and the idea occurred -to me: Would Columbia University accept a novel as a thesis or -dissertation, or as evidence of merit and of work accomplished, in -competition for any fellowship or endowment under its control? - -I made this proposition to the proper authorities at Columbia, the heads -of the various departments of literature, and to the president’s office -as well; and I received one unanimous decision: there was no fellowship -or endowment under the control of the university which could be won by -any kind of creative writing, but only by “scholarship”—that is to say, -by writing about the work of other people! - -I was not satisfied entirely. It occurred to me—maybe there was some -other university in this broad land of freedom which might have a more -liberal and intelligent policy than Columbia; so I set out on a campaign -to test out the question. I wrote to the authorities at Harvard, and at -Yale, and at Princeton, and Cornell, and Stanford, and the University of -Pennsylvania, and Chicago, and Wisconsin and California, and I know not -what others. I did not let up until I had made quite certain that among -all the hundreds of millions of dollars of endowment at the disposal of -the great American universities, there was not one dollar which could be -won by a piece of creative literature, nor one university president who -was interested in the possibility that there might be a man of genius -actually alive in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. - -So I went out into the world to make my own way, and to fight for the -preservation of my own talent. I had given the academic authorities nine -years in which to do what they could to me, so I might fairly lay claim -to be a completely educated man. I look back now, and see myself as I -was, and I shudder—not merely for myself, but for all other products of -the educational machine. I think of the things I didn’t know, and of the -pains and perils to which my ignorance exposed me! I knew nothing -whatever about hygiene and health; everything of that sort I had to -learn by painful error. I knew nothing about women; I had met only three -or four beside my mother, and had no idea how to deal with them. I knew -as much about sex as was known to the ancient religious ascetics, but -nothing of modern discoveries or theories on the subject. - -More significant yet, I knew nothing about modern literature in any -language; I had acquired a supreme and top-lofty contempt for it, and -was embarrassed when I happened to read “Sentimental Tommy,” and -discovered that someone had written a work of genius in my own time! I -knew nothing about modern history; so far as my mind was concerned, the -world had come to an end with the Franco-Prussian war, and nothing had -happened since. Of course, there was the daily paper, but I didn’t know -what this daily paper was, who made it, or what relation it had to me. I -knew that politics was rotten, but I didn’t know the cause of this -rottenness, nor had I any idea what to do about it. I knew nothing about -money, the life-blood of society, nor the part it plays in the life of -modern men. I knew nothing about business, except that I despised it, -and shrank in agony of spirit from contact with business people. All -that I knew about labor was a few tags of prejudice which I had picked -up from newspapers. - -Most significant of all to me personally, I was unaware that the modern -revolutionary movement existed. I was all ready for it, but I was as -much alone in the world as Shelley a hundred years before me. I knew, of -course, that there had been Socialism in ancient times, for I had read -Plato, and been amused by his quaint suggestions for the reconstruction -of the world. Also I knew that there had been dreamers and cranks in -America who went off and tried to found Utopian commonwealths. It was -safe for me to be told about these experiments, because they had failed. -I had heard the names of Marx and Lassalle, and had a vague idea of them -as dreadful men, who met in the back rooms of beer-gardens, and -conspired, and made dynamite bombs, and practised free love. That they -had any relationship to my life, that they had anything to teach me, -that they had founded a movement which embraced all the future—of this I -was as ignorant as I was of the civilization of Dahomey, or the -topography of the far side of the moon. - -I went out into the world, and learned about these matters, by most -painful experience; and then I looked back upon my education, and -understood many things which had previously been dark. One question I -asked myself: was all that deficiency accidental, or was it deliberate? -Was it merely the ignorance of those who taught me, or was there some -reason why they did not teach me all they knew? I have come to -understand that the latter is the case. Our educational system is not a -public service, but an instrument of special privilege; its purpose is -not to further the welfare of mankind, but merely to keep America -capitalist. To establish this thesis is the purpose of “The Goose-step.” - -And first a few words as to the title. We spent some thirty billions of -treasure, and a hundred thousand young lives, to put down the German -autocracy; being told, and devoutly believing, that we were thereby -banishing from the earth a certain evil thing known as Kultur. It was -not merely a physical thing, the drilling of a whole population for the -aggrandizement of a military caste; it was a spiritual thing, a regimen -of autocratic dogmatism. The best expression of it upon which I have -come in my readings is that of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Prussian -philosopher and apostle of Nationalism; I quote two sentences, from a -long discourse: “To compel men to a state of right, to put them under -the yoke of right by force, is not only the right but the sacred duty of -every man who has the knowledge and the power.... He is the master, -armed with compulsion and appointed by God.” I ask you to read those -sentences over, to bear them in mind as you follow chapter after chapter -of this book; see if I am not right in my contention that what we did, -when we thought we were banishing the Goose-step from the world, was to -bring it to our own land, and put ourselves under its sway—our thinking, -and, more dreadful yet, the teaching of our younger generation. - - - - - CHAPTER V - INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES - - -The first step toward the intelligent study of American education is to -consider the country in which this education grows. We are told upon -good authority that men do not gather figs from thistles; we are also -told that we cannot understand the cultural institutions of any country -unless we know its economic and social conditions. - -If you want to learn about America, the plutocratic empire, come with me -and meet the emperor and his princes and lords; come to the Customs -House in New York City, early in the year 1913. The memory of our busy -age is short, so perhaps it will mean nothing to you if I say that the -Pujo Committee of the House of Representatives is in session. They sit -in a solemn row, eleven solemn legislators; and into the witness chair -step one after another the masters of this plutocratic empire: J. P. -Morgan senior, a bulbous-nosed and surly-tempered old man whom everyone -in the room knows to be the emperor; George F. Baker, president of the -First National Bank of New York, the second richest man in the world; -William Rockefeller, brother of the richest man in the world; George M. -Reynolds, president of the Continental National Bank of Chicago, the -second largest bank in America; Henry P. Davison, Jacob Schiff—so on -through a long list. - -They are being questioned by a small, frail-looking Jewish lawyer named -Samuel Untermyer. All his life he has been one of them, he has been in -the game with them and made his millions; he knows every trick and turn -of their minds, every corner where their money is hidden—and now he -turns against them and exposes them to the world. They hate him, but he -has them at his mercy, and step by step he shows us the machinery of our -industrial and financial life, the thing which he calls the Money Trust, -and which I call the plutocratic empire. - -There is one phrase which makes the whole argument of the Pujo Report, -and that phrase is “interlocking directorates.” Interlocking -directorates are the device whereby three great banks in New York, with -two trust companies under their control, manage the financial affairs -and direct the policies of a hundred and twelve key corporations of -America. The three banks are J. P. Morgan and Company, the First -National Bank, and the National City Bank; and the two trust companies -are the Guaranty and the Equitable. Please fix these five concerns in -your mind, for we shall come back to them in almost every chapter of -this book. Their directors sit upon the boards of the corporations, -sometimes several on each board, and their orders are obeyed because -they control credit, which is the life-blood of our business world. Said -George M. Reynolds, in his testimony, speaking of the control of -American finance: “I believe it lies in the hands of a dozen men; and I -plead guilty to being one, in the last analysis, of these men.” - -Such was the situation in 1913; and now, America has fought and won a -war, and become the financial master of the world. The wealth of America -was estimated in 1912 at a hundred and twenty-seven billions; in 1920 it -was estimated at five hundred billions, greater than the combined wealth -of the British Empire, France, Italy, Russia, Germany, and Japan. At the -same time that wealth has increased, so has the concentration of its -control. If the Pujo Committee were to conduct another inquiry in the -year 1922, it would find exactly the same interlocking directorates, -only more of them; and it would find that the financial empire -controlled by three great banks and two trust companies has grown from -twenty-two billions to not less than seventy-five, and probably close to -a hundred billions of dollars. - -Just how do these interlocking directorates work? A picture of their -method was drawn in Harper’s Weekly by Louis D. Brandeis, at that time -an anti-corporation lawyer of Boston, and now a Justice of the United -States Supreme Court. Said Mr. Brandeis: - - Mr. J. P. Morgan (or a partner), a director of the New York, New Haven - and Hartford Railroad, causes that company to sell to J. P. Morgan and - Company an issue of bonds. J. P. Morgan and Company borrow the money - with which to pay for those bonds from the Guaranty Trust Company, of - which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director. J. P. Morgan and - Company sell the bonds to the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, of - which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director. The New Haven spends - the proceeds of the bonds in purchasing steel from the United States - Steel Corporation, of which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director. - The United States Steel Corporation spends the proceeds of the rails - in purchasing electrical supplies from the General Electric Company, - of which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director. The General Electric - Company sells the supplies to the Western Union Telegraph Company, a - subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and in - both Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is director. The Telegraph Company has - a special wire contract with the Reading, in which Mr. Morgan (or a - partner) is a director— - -So on to the Pullman Company and the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Mr. -Brandeis points out how “all these concerns patronize one another; they -all market their securities through J. P. Morgan and Company, they -deposit their funds with J. P. Morgan and Company, and J. P. Morgan and -Company use the funds of each in further transactions.” - -But Mr. Brandeis stops his story too soon; he ought to show us some of -the wider ramifications of these directorates. He ought to picture Mr. -Morgan (or a partner) falling ill, and being treated in St. Luke’s -Hospital, in which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a trustee, and by a -physician who is also a trustee, and who was educated in the College of -Physicians and Surgeons, of which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a -trustee. He ought to picture Mr. Morgan dying, and being buried from -Trinity Church, in which several of his partners are vestrymen, and -having his funeral oration preached by a bishop who is a stockholder in -his bank, and reported in newspapers whose bonds repose in his vaults. -Mr. Brandeis might say about all these persons and institutions just -what he says about the Steel Corporation and the General Electric -Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Baldwin -Locomotive Works—they all patronize one another and they all deposit -their funds with J. P. Morgan and Company. - -Men die, but the plutocracy is immortal; and it is necessary that fresh -generations should be trained to its service. Therefore the interlocking -directorate has need of an educational system, and has provided it -complete. There is a great university, of which Mr. Morgan was all his -active life a trustee, also his son-in-law and one or two of his -attorneys and several of his bankers. The president of this university -is a director in one of Mr. Morgan’s life insurance companies, and is -interlocked with Mr. Morgan’s bishop, and Mr. Morgan’s physician, and -Mr. Morgan’s newspaper. If the president of the university writes a -book, telling the American people to be good and humble servants of the -plutocracy, this book may be published by a concern in which Mr. Morgan -(or a partner) is a director, and the paper may be bought from the -International Paper Company, in which Mr. Morgan has a director through -the Guaranty Trust Company. If you visit the town where the paper is -made, you will find that the president of the school board is a director -in the local bank, which deposits its funds with the Guaranty Trust -Company at a low rate of interest, to be reloaned by Mr. Morgan at a -high rate of interest. The superintendent of the schools will be a -graduate of Mr. Morgan’s university, and will have been recommended to -the school board president by Mr. Morgan’s dean of education. Both the -board and president and the school superintendent will insure their -lives in the company of which Mr. Morgan’s university president is a -director; and the school books selected in that town will be published -by a concern in which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director, and they -will be written by Mr. Morgan’s university’s dean of education, and they -will be praised in the journal of education founded by Mr. Morgan’s -university president; also they will be praised by Mr. Morgan’s -newspaper and magazine editors. The superintendent of schools will give -promotion to teachers who take the university’s summer courses, and will -cause the high school pupils to aspire to that university. Once a year -he will attend the convention of the National Educational Association, -and will elect as president a man who is a graduate of Mr. Morgan’s -university, and also a member of Mr. Morgan’s church, and a reader of -Mr. Morgan’s newspaper, and of Mr. Morgan’s university’s president’s -educational journal, and a patron of Mr. Morgan’s university presidents’ -life insurance company, and a depositor in a bank which pays him no -interest, but sends his money to the Guaranty Trust Company for Mr. -Morgan to loan at a high rate of interest. And when the Republican -party, of which Mr. Morgan (or a partner) is a director, nominates the -president of Mr. Morgan’s university for vice-president of the United -States, Mr. Morgan’s bishop will bless the proceedings, and Mr. Morgan’s -newspapers will report them, and Mr. Morgan’s school superintendent will -invite the children to a picnic to hear Mr. Morgan’s candidates’ -campaign speeches on a phonograph, and to drink lemonade paid for by Mr. -Morgan’s campaign committee, out of the funds of the life insurance -company of which Mr. Morgan’s university president is director. - -Such is the system of the interlocking directorates; such is, in -skeleton form, that department of the plutocratic empire which calls -itself American Education. And if you don’t believe me, just come along -and let me show you—not merely the skeleton of this beast, but the -nerves and the brains, the blood and the meat, the hair and the hide, -the teeth and the claws of it. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE HOUSE OF MORGAN - - -The headquarters of the American plutocracy is, of course, New York -City. Here are the three central banks, and here the hundred and twelve -corporations have their offices, and the interlocking directors roll -about in their padded limousines and collect their gold eagles and -half-eagles with the minimum of trouble and delay. According to the Pujo -Committee, the banks and trust companies of New York, all interlocked -with the House of Morgan, had over five billion dollars’ worth of -resources, which was nearly one-fourth of the bank resources of the -country. This did not include the House of Morgan itself, which was, and -is, a private institution. These figures, of course, seem puny since the -world war; in that war the House of Morgan alone is reputed to have made -a billion dollars from its war purchases for the British government, and -if the Pujo Committee were to inquire at the present time it would find -the banking resources of New York City somewhere between fifteen and -twenty-five billions of dollars. - -It is inevitable that this headquarters of our plutocratic empire should -be also the headquarters of our plutocratic education. The interlocking -directors could not discommode themselves by taking long journeys; -therefore they selected themselves a spacious site on Morningside -Heights, and there stands the palatial University of the House of -Morgan, which sets the standard for the higher education of America. -Other universities, we shall find, vary from the ideal; there are some -which have old traditions, there are others which permit modern -eccentricities; but in Columbia you have plutocracy, perfect, complete -and final, and as I shall presently show, the rest of America’s -educational system comes more and more to be modeled upon it. Columbia’s -educational experts take charge of the school and college systems of the -country, and the production of plutocratic ideas becomes an industry as -thoroughly established, as completely systematized and standardized as -the production of automobiles or sausages. - -Needless to say, the University of the House of Morgan is completely -provided with funds; its resources are estimated at over seventy-five -million dollars and its annual income is over seven million. A -considerable part of its endowment is invested in stocks and bonds, -under the supervision of the interlocking directors. I have a -typewritten list of these holdings, which occupies more than twenty -pages, and includes practically all the important railroads and -industrial corporations in the United States. Whoever you are, and -wherever you live in America, you cannot spend a day, you can hardly -spend an hour of your life, without paying tribute to Columbia -University. In order to collect the material for this book I took a -journey of seven thousand miles, and traveled on fourteen railroads. I -observe that every one of these railroads is included in the lists, so -on every mile of my journey I was helping to build up the Columbia -machine. I helped to build it up when I lit the gas in my lodging-house -room in New York; for Columbia University owns $58,000 worth of New York -Gas and Electric Light, Heat and Power Company’s 4 per cent bonds; I -helped to build it up when I telephoned my friends to make engagements, -for Columbia University owns $50,000 worth of the New York Telephone -Company’s 4½ per cent bonds; I helped to build it up when I took a -spoonful of sugar with my breakfast, for Columbia University owns some -shares in the American Sugar Refining Company, and also in the Cuba Cane -Sugar Corporation. - -The great university stops at nothing, however small: “five and ten cent -stores,” and the Park and Tilford Grocery Company, and the Liggett and -Myers Tobacco Company. I have on my desk a letter from a woman, telling -me how the Standard Oil Company has been dispossessing homesteaders from -the oil lands of California; Columbia University is profiting by these -robberies, because it owns $25,000 worth of the gold debenture bonds of -the Standard Oil Company of California. Recently I met a pitiful human -wreck who had given all but his life to the Bethlehem Steel Company; -Columbia University took a part of this man’s health and happiness. -Crossing the desert on my way home, in the baking heat of summer I saw -far out in the barren mountains a huge copper smelter, vomiting clouds -of yellow smoke into the air. We in the Pullman sat in our -shirt-sleeves, with electric fans playing and white-clad waiters -bringing us cool drinks, but even so, we suffered from the heat; yet, -out there in those lonely wastes men toil in front of furnace fires, and -when they drop they are turned to mummies in the baking sand and their -names are not recorded. Not a thought of them came into the minds of the -passengers in the transcontinental train; and, needless to say, no -thought of them troubles the minds of the thirty thousand seekers of the -higher learning who flock to Columbia University every year. With serene -consciences these young people cultivate the graces of life, upon the -income of $49,000 worth of stock in the American Smelters Securities -Company. - -This University of the House of Morgan is run by a board of trustees. -Under the law these trustees are the absolute sovereign, the -administrators of the property, responsible to no one. They cannot be -removed, no matter what they do, and they are self-perpetuating, they -appoint their own successors. Their charter, be it noted, is a contract -with the state, and can never be altered or revised. Such was the -decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dartmouth case, way -back in 1819. - -Who are the members of this board? The first thing to be noted about -them is that there is only one educator, and that is the president of -the university, an ex-officio member. Not one of them is a scholar, nor -familiar with the life of the intellect. There is one engineer, one -physician, and one bishop; there are ten corporation lawyers, and eight -classified as bankers, railroad owners, real estate owners, merchants -and manufacturers. Without exception they are the interlocking directors -of the Pujo charts. The chairman of the board is William Barclay -Parsons, engineer of the subway, and director in numerous corporations. -The youngest member of the board is Marcellus Hartley Dodge, who was -elected when he was 26 years old, and was a director of the Equitable -Life while still an undergraduate at Columbia; he is a son-in-law of -William Rockefeller, and is chairman of the Remington Arms Company and -Union Metallic Cartridge Company. He is said to have cleaned up -twenty-four million in one deal in Midvale Steel, and in October, 1916, -he is credited with making two million by cornering the market in -munitions machinery. Frederick R. Coudert is one of the most prominent -attorneys of the plutocracy, a director in the National Surety and -Equitable Trust. Herbert L. Satterlee is a Morgan attorney and a Morgan -son-in-law. Robert S. Lovett is chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, -and director of a dozen other roads. Newcomb Carlton, president of the -Western Union Telegraph Company, guides the affairs of a great -university in spite of the fact that he is not a college man. Reverend -William T. Manning is an ex-officio member, one might say, being the -bishop of the church of J. P. Morgan and Company. You must understand -that Columbia is descended from Kings College, an Episcopal institution, -and the bishop, and three vestrymen of Old Trinity are on its board. -Pierpont Morgan, the elder, was on all his life, and Stephen Baker, -president of the Bank of Manhattan and the Bank of the Metropolis, is -still on. A study of those who have held office on the board of -Columbia, from 1900 to 1922, shows fifty-nine persons classified as -follows: bankers, railroad owners, real estate owners, merchants and -manufacturers, 20; lawyers, 21; ministers, 8; physicians, 6; educators, -1; engineers, 3. The six physicians were on because of their connection -with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, a branch of Columbia. - -How rich in their own right are the particular Money Trust lords who run -this great University it is not possible to determine, because these -gentlemen, for the most part, keep their affairs secret. But in the list -of those who have died during twenty-two years we have means for an -estimate, for the property of many of these was listed in the probate -courts of New York and appraised by the transfer tax appraisers. A study -of these records has been made by Henry R. Linville, president of the -Teachers’ Union, and he has courteously placed the manuscript at my -disposal. There are twenty-one trustees who have died and been -appraised, and the list of their stocks and bonds fills a total of -twenty-three typewritten pages, and shows that the total wealth on which -they paid an inheritance tax amounted to one hundred and seventy-three -million dollars, an average of over eight million each. I note among the -list five members of the clergy of Jesus Christ, and I am sure that if -He had visited their parishes He would have been delighted at their -state of affluence—He could hardly have told it from His heavenly courts -with their streets of gold. The poorest of these clergy was Bishop -Burch, who left $37,840; second came the Reverend Coe, who left $80,683; -next came the Reverend Greer, who left $172,619; next came the Reverend -Dix, rector of Trinity, who left $269,637; and finally, Bishop Potter, -my own bishop, whose train I carried when I was a little boy, in the -solemn ceremonials of the church. I was dully awe-stricken, but not so -much as I would have been if I had realized that I was carrying the -train of $380,568. Such sums loom big in the imagination of a little -boy; but they don’t amount to so much on the board of a university where -you associate with the elder Morgan, who left seventy-eight millions, -and with John S. Kennedy, banker of the Gould interests, who left -sixty-five millions. - -You might possibly think that our interlocking directors would be so -busy with the task of managing our industries and our government that -they would not have time to superintend our education; but that would be -underestimating their diligence and foresight. They do the job and they -do it personally, not trusting it to subordinates. In the office of the -Teachers’ Union of New York I inspected a chart, dealing with the -interlocking directorates of Columbia University; and except by the -label, you could not tell it from the charts in the three volumes of the -Pujo Reports. It is the same thing, and the men shown are the same men. -They serve J. P Morgan and Company as directors in the coal trust, the -steel trust, the railroad trust; they serve also on the boards of -schools, colleges, and universities through the United States. You could -not tell a chart of the Columbia trustees from a chart of the New York -Central Railroad, or the Remington Arms Company. You could not tell a -chart of Harvard University from a chart of Lee, Higginson and Company, -the banking house of Boston. You could not tell a chart of the -University of Pennsylvania from a chart of the United Gas Improvement -Company. You could not tell a chart of the University of Pittsburgh from -a chart of the United States Steel Corporation. You could not tell a -chart of the University of California from one of the Hydro-Electric -Power Trust, one of Denver University from the Colorado Fuel and Iron -Company, one of the University of Montana from the Anaconda Copper -Company, one of the University of Minnesota from the Ore Trust. These -corporations are one, their interests are one, and their purposes are -one. - -Evans Clark, a preceptor in Princeton University—until he made this -survey—collected the facts as to the financial interests of governing -boards of the largest American universities—seven of which were -privately controlled and twenty-two state controlled. He found that the -plutocratic class, or those intimately connected therewith—bankers, -manufacturers, merchants, public utility officers, financiers, great -publishers and lawyers—composed 56 per cent of the membership of the -privately controlled boards, and 68 per cent of the publicly controlled -boards. Says Mr. Clark: “Of the other two great economic groups in -society there is little or no representation. The farmers total between -6 per cent in private and 4 per cent in public boards, while no -representative of labor has a place on any board, public or private. And -finally, no college professor is a trustee of the college in which he -serves, while only fourteen out of 649 are professors in other -institutions. Of these, six are Harvard professors on the Radcliffe -board (the women’s college connected with Harvard). We have allowed the -education of our youth to fall into the absolute control of a group of -men who represent not only a minority of the total population but have, -at the same time, enormous economic and business stakes in what kind of -an education it shall be.” - -And this condition prevails right through the list of our colleges, -regardless of size, or where they are located or how financed. This was -shown by Scott Nearing in an exhaustive study, reported in “School and -Society” for September 8, 1917. He wrote to the governing bodies of all -colleges and universities in the United States having more than five -hundred students. There are 189 such institutions, and 143 of these -supplied the lists of trustees with their occupations. The total number -of trustees was 2,470. There were 208 merchants, 196 manufacturers, 112 -capitalists, 6 contractors, 32 real estate men, 26 insurance men, 115 -corporation officials, 202 bankers, 15 brokers, and 18 publishers, -making for the plutocratic group a total of 930. There were 111 doctors, -514 lawyers, 125 educators, 353 ministers, 8 authors, 43 editors, 70 -scientists, 13 social workers and 32 judges, making a total for the -professional group of 1,269. For the miscellaneous group there were 94 -retired business men, 3 salesmen, 123 farmers, 46 home-keepers, 3 -mechanics, and 2 librarians, making a total of 271. For the purpose of -this inquiry the lawyers belong, not with the professional class, but -with the commercial and financial class, whose retainers they are. That -makes a total of 1,444 of that class, or 58 per cent. In the state -universities the commercial class had a total of 477 out of 776, or 61 -per cent. And this, you will note, without counting the retired business -men, who are certainly no less plutocratic in their mentality than the -active ones; without counting the many doctors, ministers, editors, and -educators who are just as plutocratic as the bankers. How plutocratic an -educator can be when he is well paid for it is the next proposition we -have to prove to you. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - THE INTERLOCKING PRESIDENT - - -We have investigated the governing board of the University of the House -of Morgan. We have next to investigate the president they have selected -to carry out their will. Naturally, they would seek the most plutocratic -college president in the most plutocratic country of the world. They -sought him and they found him; his name is Nicholas Murray Butler, -abbreviated by his subordinates to “Nicholas Miraculous.” I am going to -sketch his career and describe his character; and as what I say will be -bitter, I repeat that I bear him no personal ill-will. If I pillory him, -it is as a type, the representative, champion and creator of what I -regard as false and cruel ideals. His influence must be destroyed, if -America is to live as anything worthwhile, kindly or beautiful. For this -reason I have made a detailed study of him, and present here a full -length portrait. If some of it seems too personal, bear in mind the -explanation; you will understand every aspect of our higher education -more clearly, if you know, thoroughly and intimately, one specimen of -the ideal interlocking university president. - -Nicholas Murray Butler was born in Paterson, N. J., and his father was a -mechanic. This is nothing to his discredit, quite the contrary; the only -thing to his discredit is the fact that he is ashamed of it, and tries -to suppress it. When he was candidate for vice-president in 1912 it was -given out that he was descended from the old Murray family of New York, -which gave the name to aristocratic Murray Hill; and this I am assured -is not the fact. He has been all his life what is called a “climber.” -Ordinarily I hate puns on people’s names, but the name of Butler seems -to have been a special act of Providence. His toadying to the rich and -powerful is so conspicuous that it defeats its own ends, and brings him -the contempt of men whose intimacy he wishes to gain. George L. Rives, -former corporation counsel of New York City, and chairman of the board -of Columbia University for many years, said of him: “Butler is a great -man, but the damnedest fool I know; he values himself for his worst -qualities.” - -Here is a man with a first-class brain, a driving, executive worker, -capable in anything he puts his mind to, but utterly overpowered by the -presence of great wealth. He serves the rich, and they despise him. The -rich themselves, you understand, are not in awe of wealth; at least, if -they are, they hide the fact. They are sometimes willing to meet plain, -ordinary human beings as equals, and when they see a man boot-licking -them because of their wealth they sneer at him behind his back, and -sometimes to his face. At the Union Club they joke about Butler, with -his crude talk about “the right people.” They observe that he will never -go anywhere to a dinner party unless there are to be prominent people -present, unless he has some prestige to gain from it. He has been -married twice, and both times he has married money; his present wife is -a Catholic, and she and her sister are tireless society ladies, “doing -St. James’ and that kind of thin.” - -Butler became a teacher, then school superintendent, then instructor in -Columbia College, then professor of philosophy in the university, then -dean, and now president. This would seem to most men a splendid -career—especially considering the perquisites which have gone with it. -The interlocking trustees built for their favorite a splendid mansion, -costing over three hundred thousand dollars—paying for it out of the -trust funds of the university. This mansion is free from taxation, upon -the theory that it is used for educational purposes; but Professor -Cattell publishes the statement that Butler uses it “for social climbing -and political intrigues.” No one has ever been able to find out what -portion of the trust funds of the university is paid to its president as -salary. In addition, it is generally rumored at Columbia that Butler has -accepted gifts from his trustees and other wealthy admirers. - -But all this has not been sufficient for our ambitious educator. He has -craved political honors; seeking them tirelessly, begging for them with -abject insistence. He has been candidate for vice-president with Taft, -and has been several times candidate for the Presidential nomination. -All these things he has taken with the most desperate seriousness, -utterly unable to understand why the politicians tell him he cannot be -elected. He would go down to Washington to plead, and Jim Wadsworth, -young aristocrat who runs the up-state political machine of New York, -would “kick him about.” He would travel over the country addressing -banquets of the “best people,” telling them how the country should be -saved, and how he was the man to save it; at the same time he would go -down to the common people, and pose as one of them. If you want to -succeed in America, you must be what is called a “joiner”; so Butler -joined the Elks, and a man who was present at this adventure told me -about it. The Elks gathered, a vast herd; they had come to hear a great -educator, and it was to be a highbrow affair for once in their lives, -and they were solemn about it, expecting to be uplifted from their -primitive Elkhood. Instead of which, the great educator flopped to their -level, or below it. He tried to “jolly” them, telling them that he was -“a regular fellow,” “one of the boys,” and that it was “all right for a -man to have a good time now and then.” Of course, the Elks were -disgusted. - -In one of President Butler’s published speeches I find him sneering at -the progressives as “declaimers and sandlot orators and perpetual -candidates for office.” What this refers to is men like Roosevelt and -LaFollette, who go out to the people and seek election. It does not -apply to those who go in secret to the homes and offices of political -corruptionists and wire-pullers, there to plead, almost on their knees, -for nominations and favors. A prominent Republican politician of New -York said to me: “He begged in my office for two hours. He told me he -had the support of this man and that, and then I inquired and found it -was not so.” - -It is embarrassing to find so many people asserting that the president -of Columbia University does not always tell the truth. It will be still -more embarrassing to have to state that most of the presidents of -colleges and universities in the United States do not always tell the -truth. A curious fact which I observed in my travels over the -country—there was hardly a single college head about whom I was not -told: “He is a liar.” I believe there are no effects without causes, and -I have tried to analyze the factors in the life of college heads which -compel them to lie. I shall present these to you in due course; for the -present suffice it to say that a man who has held the highest offices in -New York state told me how Butler had assured him that Pierpont Morgan -had promised to “back Butler to the limit for President,” and later this -politician ascertained that no such promise had been given. Butler -stated that he had the unqualified endorsement of another man; the -politician questioned him closely—the matter had been settled only -yesterday afternoon, so Butler declared. As soon as Butler left, this -politician called up the man on the telephone, and ascertained that the -man had not seen Butler for a month, and had made no promise. - -Also, my informant had attended a caucus of the Republican party at the -Republican Club in New York City, when President Butler was intriguing -for the nomination for President. Butler came out from that caucus and -was surrounded by a group of reporters, who asked him: “Was Theodore -Roosevelt’s name proposed?” Roosevelt, you understand, was Butler’s most -dreaded rival, and to keep him from getting the nomination was the first -aim of every reactionary leader in the country. Said President Butler to -the assembled reporters: “Gentlemen, you can take this one thing from -me—Theodore Roosevelt’s name was positively not mentioned in this -caucus.” But, so my informant declared, Roosevelt’s name had been -mentioned only a few minutes before in the caucus, and President Butler -had opposed it! It is worth noting that Butler denounced Roosevelt and -abused him with almost insane violence; but when Roosevelt died he made -lovely speeches about him, and hailed himself as the true heir of the -Roosevelt tradition. He sought the support of one of Roosevelt’s close -relatives on this basis, and the report was spread among newspaper men -that he had got it. - -Nicholas Murray Butler considers himself the intellectual leader of the -American plutocracy; he takes that rôle quite frankly, and enacts it -with grave solemnity, lending the support of his academic authority to -the plutocracy’s instinctive greed. There has never been a more complete -Tory in our public life; to him there is no “people,” there is only “the -mob,” and he never wearies of thundering against it. “In working out -this program we must take care to protect ourselves against the mob.” -Socialism “would constitute a mob.” “Doubtless the mob will prefer -cheering to its own whoopings,” etc.—all this fifteen years ago, in one -speech at the University of California. President Wheeler of that -university remarked to a friend of mine that this speech might have been -made by Kaiser Wilhelm; and Wheeler ought to have known, for he had been -the Kaiser’s intimate. - -And the fifteen years that have passed have made no change in our -miraculous Nicholas. As I write, Senator LaFollette addresses the -convention of the American Federation of Labor, and says: “A century and -a half ago our forefathers shed their blood in order that they might -establish on this continent a government deriving its just powers from -the consent of the governed, in which the will of the people, expressed -through their duly elected representatives, should be sovereign.” - -And instantly our interlocking president rushes to the rescue. Before -the convention of the New Jersey Bar Association he exclaims: “Our -forefathers did nothing of the sort. They took good care to do something -quite different.” And the Associated Press takes that and sends it all -over the United States, and ninety-nine out of a hundred good Americans -read it, and say, reverently: “A great university president says so; it -must be true.” - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS - - -What is the function of an American university president? Apparently it -is to travel about the country, and summon the captains and the kings of -finance, and dine in their splendid banquet halls, and lay down to them -the law and the gospel of predation. I consult the name of Nicholas -Murray Butler in the New York Public Library, and I find a long list of -pamphlets, each one immortalizing a plutocratic feast; the Annual -Luncheon of the Associated Press, 1916; the Annual Dinner of the -Commercial Club of Kansas City, 1908, the Annual Dinner of the -Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, 1917, the Annual Dinner of the -Association of Cotton Manufacturers, Springfield, Mass., 1917, the -Annual Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, -1911, the Annual Dinner of the American Bankers’ Association—and so on. -In addressing these mighty men of money there is no cruelty which our -interlocking president will not endorse and defend, no vileness of -slander he will not perpetrate against those who struggle for justice in -our commercial hell. “Political patent medicine men,” he calls us; and -he tells the masters of the clubs and bayonets, the gas-bombs and -machine-guns that we seek our ends “by some means—violent if possible, -peaceable if necessary”; he tells about Socialists “whose conception of -government is a sort of glorified lynching.” - -And all this, you understand, not referring to the Bolsheviks; this in -the days of the “Bull Moose”! In his speech before the Republican State -Convention in 1912 President Butler portrayed the struggle with the -Progressives as one “to decide whether our government is to be -Republican or Cossack”! He discussed proposals to amend the -constitution, saying it was like “proposing amendments to the -multiplication table”! In the year 1911 we find him before the 143d -Annual Banquet of the New York Chamber of Commerce, stating that “our -business men are attacked,” and that this constitutes “civil war.” Our -political conventions are being besieged “by every crude, senseless, -half-baked scheme in the country”—a terrifying situation, and what is to -be done about it? The orator is ready with the answer: “Why should not -the associated business men of the United States unite to demand that -the next political campaign be conducted with a view to their oversight -and protection?” - -The associated business men of the United States thought this was fine -advice, so through the agency of their Grand Old Party they nominated -Nicholas Murray Butler for the office of vice-president of the United -States. In that campaign Butler called one of his opponents, Theodore -Roosevelt, a demagog, and the other, Woodrow Wilson, a charlatan; and he -triumphantly polled the electoral votes of the states of Utah and -Vermont, a total of eight out of a possible four hundred and ninety-one. - -But did that end the political ambitions of our interlocking president? -It did not. He gave an honorary degree to the senator who had helped him -carry the state of Utah, and continued diligently to cultivate the rich -and powerful. In 1916 we find him in the field again, and this time his -ambitions have swelled, he wishes to be President of the United States. -In 1920 he wishes it still more ardently; his campaign managers solemnly -assure the world that he will take nothing less. The “Literary Digest” -conducted a straw vote in the spring of 1920 to find out what the -American people wanted; 211,000 of them wanted General Wood, 164,000 -wanted Senator Johnson, 20,000 of them wanted poor old Taft, and how -many of them do you think wanted Nicholas Miraculous? 2,369! But did -that trouble our interlocking president? It did not; because, you see, -he knows that the politicians nominate what the interlocking directorate -bids them nominate, and the people choose the least bad of the two -interlocking candidates—if they can find out which that is. - -So President Butler’s campaign continued, and with the help of D. O. -Mills, the banker, and Elihu Root, the fox, and Bill Barnes, the -infamous, he corralled the sixty-eight delegates of the New York state -machine, and a few days before they departed for the Chicago convention -we find President Butler giving them a dinner and making them a speech -at the Republican Club. They went to Chicago, and in the hotel rooms -where the wires were pulled President Butler argued and pleaded and -fought, but in vain. One of the most prominent Republicans in the United -States described these scenes to me, and told of the pitiful, impotent -fury of Butler when finally Harding was nominated. He stormed about the -room, denouncing this man and that man. “Look what I did for him, this, -that and the other thing—and what he has done for me!” And when the -delegation returned from Chicago, Butler received the newspaper -reporters and poured out his balked egotism in a statement which -startled the country. He denounced the campaign backers of General Wood, -“a motley group of stock-gamblers, oil and mining promoters, munition -makers, and other like persons.” These men, he said, had “with reckless -audacity started out to buy the Presidency.” He went on to picture the -New York delegation, the heroic sixty-eight who had stood by President -Butler and saved the nation’s honor. - -Then, of course, there was the devil let loose! General Wood came out in -the next day’s paper, denouncing Butler’s statement as “a vicious and -malicious falsehood.” It was necessary, said General Wood, “to brand a -faker and denounce a lie.” And also there was Procter, Ivory Soap -magnate, and General Wood’s principal backer, denouncing “this -self-seeking and cowardly attack.” President Butler was interviewed by -the New York “Times,” and was dignified. “I am sorry that General Wood -lost his temper. It does not sound well.” He went on to point out that -the New York “World” had exposed the corruptionists who were putting up -the money for General Wood; and this made lively material for the -Democratic campaign—you can imagine! - -There was a hurried session of the trustees of the University of the -House of Morgan a day or two after that break of President Butler’s. I -have been told on the best authority what went on there; but you don’t -need to be told, you can imagine it. The interlocking president had -denounced “stock-gamblers,” and here on his board was one who had made -two million by cornering the market! He had denounced “mining -promoters,” and here was a director in three mining companies! He had -denounced “munition makers,” and here was the chairman of Remington Arms -and Union Metallic Cartridge! The trustees laid down the law, either an -apology or a resignation; and so, a couple of days later, the New York -newspapers published a statement from President Butler as follows: - -“I am convinced that my word, spoken under the strain, turmoil and -fatigue of the Chicago convention, and in sharp revolt against the power -of money in politics, was both unbecoming and unwarranted and that I -should, and do, apologize to each and every one who felt hurt by what I -said.” - -The American people may have failed to appreciate the services of the -president of their greatest university, but the plutocracy has -appreciated him, and has showered upon him all the honors at its -command. He has received honorary degrees from no less than twenty-five -universities; he is a trustee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, -and of the New York Life Insurance Company—the interlocking directorate! -He is a member of fifteen clubs, and author of eight books of speeches. -He has traveled abroad, and has been honored at Oxford and Cambridge, at -Strassburg and Breslau. He is a Commander of the Red Eagle (with star) -of Prussia, this honor dating from the year 1910. - -In 1917-18 Nicholas Murray Butler was, of course, a vehement Hun-hunter; -he was also vehement in denouncing American Socialists, on the basis of -their supposed pro-Germanism. But let us go back ten years, to the time -when the seeds of the World War were being sown. What then was the -attitude of American Socialists, and what was the attitude of President -Butler? - -In the year 1907 the author of “The Goose-step” published a study of -world conditions, “The Industrial Republic,” in which he showed how the -German Kaiser was drilling his people to make war on the world. The -English edition of this book was barred from Germany by the Kaiser’s -government. The book showed how the German Socialists were struggling -against their autocrat, and appealed to Americans to give their sympathy -and support. I quote: - - I do not think that we shall sleep forever; I do not think that the - memories of Jefferson and Lincoln will call to us in vain forever; but - assuredly there never was in all American history a sign of torpor so - deep, of degeneration so frightful, as this fact that in such a - crisis, when the down-trodden millions of the German Empire are - struggling to free themselves from the tyranny of military and - personal government, there should come to them not one breath of - sympathy from the people of the American Republic! And all our - interest, all our attention, is for that strutting turkey-cock, the - war-lord whose mailed fist holds them down! That monstrous creature, - with his insane egotism, his blustering and his swaggering, his curled - mustachios and military poses! An epileptic degenerate.... - -And so on. It was strong language, but it seemed stronger than it does -now. And let us ask, who were the American glorifiers of the Kaiser at -whom these words were aimed? Head and front among them was Nicholas -Murray Butler! In that same year of 1907 President Butler was spending -the summer in Germany—arranging for the “epileptic degenerate” to send a -“Kaiser professor” to Columbia University, to heighten his prestige with -the American people! I have taken the trouble to look up this errand of -President Butler in Germany, and I quote one sample of what our -representative told the German people about their ruler. In the -“Norddeutscher Allgemeine Zeitung,” October 4, 1907, I read as follows: - - A second more spirited honorer (Verehrer) of the Kaiser, Professor N. - M. Butler, the president of Columbia University, returns home today, - after a long sojourn in Germany. He explained among other things: “I - was twice invited to the Imperial table, and I can only explain that - the idea prevailing in America that the Kaiser is undependable is - entirely erroneous. On the contrary, his personality has something - uncommonly winning, and he possesses at the same time a democratic - streak in his nature. The industrial and political activity, not - merely of his own land, but of the entire world, awakens his most - eager interest. He is a genuine statesman, and if he were not Kaiser - he would surely become president.” - -And then President Butler came home, and when some one jeered at the -Kaiser in the New York “Times,” he rushed to the rescue with a letter -full of glowing and eloquent praise; detailing all the virtues which a -great ruler and statesman might possess, and pointing out the Kaiser as -the sum of them all. It culminated with the sentence: “He would have -been chosen monarch or chief executive by popular vote of any modern -people among whom his lot might have been cast.” - -In enthusiasm for Wilhelm our Miraculous Nicholas had been forestalled -by Harvard University, which had already established an exchange -professorship, and had got another Kaiser professor in the person of -Muensterberg, the eminent psychologist of the plutocracy, who used to -delight his employers by analyzing labor agitators in jail, and proving -by up-to-date psychological tests that they had done whatever crimes -they were accused of. There was bitter rivalry between these two Kaiser -professors, and still more bitter rivalry between the Harvard professor -and the Columbia professor in Berlin. For, of course, these exalted -scholars did not go to represent the American people, they went to -represent the plutocratic empire, and they did not appeal to the German -people, they appealed to the Kaiser’s court. The wives of these two -professors got into a scrap over the question of court precedence, and -denounced each other in the newspapers, and a Frenchman, writing a book -about Germany, described the Kaiser’s court chamberlain as “bewailing in -disgust the presence of increasing numbers of rich and well-gowned -American women who got on their knees to royalty, and on all occasions -betrayed their total lack of breeding and good manners.” - -But, you see, a German court chamberlain fails to realize the drabness -of life in America, where the wives of eminent scholars have no way to -demonstrate their superiority over one another, and when they come to -places where there are courts and ceremonials they can hardly be blamed -if the glory goes to their heads. We can hardly blame President Butler, -because, after having had an eight-hour session with Kaiser Wilhelm, he -hailed his host as one of the greatest statesmen of all time; but I -think we may blame him just a little because he failed to imitate any of -the good things which the Kaiser had done, and chose only the despotic -things for his praise. For example, Kaiser Wilhelm had established -old-age pensions and unemployment insurance in Germany, and had -abolished child labor from the country; but President Butler came home -and in a telegram to the Illinois Bankers’ Association denounced the -child labor law in such ferocious terms that even the interlocking -directors were shocked, and refused to read the telegram at their -meeting, or to give it to the press! - - - - - CHAPTER IX - NICHOLAS MIRACULOUS - - -We are now familiar with the social and political career of Nicholas -Murray Butler; we have next to observe him as an educational -administrator. We shall devote generous space to the study, for the -reason already explained—that Columbia University is the largest and -richest educational institution in the United States, and the model for -all others that wish to grow large and rich. The author of its success -is President Butler; and by observing him at work we learn how a -university succeeds in the plutocratic empire, and what its success -means to the faculty, the students, and the general public. - -In David Warfield’s play, “The Auctioneer,” there is a scene in a -second-hand clothing shop. The clerk comes up to the proprietor with a -coat in his hand, and whispers: “How much?” “Eleven eighty-five,” says -the proprietor. But the clerk whispers, “Buying, not selling.” “Oh!” -says the proprietor, with a sudden change of tone. “Two dollars!” I am -reminded of this when I follow President Butler from the great world of -public affairs to the inside of his university. When he is interviewing -political statesmen and millionaire backers and trustees, he values them -at eleven eighty-five, but when he is talking to his professors and -instructors, he values them at thirty cents. I have talked with some -twenty men who have been or still are, under him, and I have their -adjectives in my note-book—“hard, insensitive, vulgar, materialistic.” -“Insolence in conversation and letters” is the phrase used by Professor -Cattell, while one of Butler’s deans said to me: “Men of refinement -cannot stand his air of extreme prosperity and power.” - -He rules the university as an absolute autocrat; he permits no slightest -interference with his will. He furiously attacks or cunningly intrigues -against anyone who shows any trace of interference, nor does he rest -until he has disgraced the man and driven him from the university. His -“Faculty Council” is a farce, because it has only advisory powers, and -he overrides it when he sees fit. He makes promises to his faculty, to -allow them this and that and the other kind of freedom and authority, -but when the time for action comes he does exactly what he pleases. - -One of his favorite devices is to use the trustees as a club over the -heads of his faculty. Whatever is done, it is the trustees who have done -it; but no one ever knows what Butler has said to the trustees, or what -he has advised them to do. No member of the faculty has a seat on the -board, or ever gets near the board except he is summoned to be -browbeaten for his opinions. Says Professor Joel E. Spingarn, in a -pamphlet on this subject: - - Moreover, all the officers of the university hold their positions “at - the pleasure of the trustees.” This phrase has not as yet received - final adjudication by any court of highest resort, but it is - interpreted by the trustees to mean that the tenure of the - professorial office is absolutely at their whim. No personal hearing - is ever given by them to any member of the teaching staff, and a - professor may learn of their intentions only after they have made - their final decision of dismissal. This further increases the immense - power of the president, since it is possible for him to prejudice the - minds of the trustees against any officer toward whom his own feelings - are unfriendly or of whom, for any reason, he entertains an - unfavorable opinion. - -And Professor Spingarn goes on to show how the problems of academic -freedom are handled by a committee of the trustees, whose meetings only -three or four attend. These are Butler’s intimates, in one or two cases -his creatures. Says Professor Spingarn: - - Under such a system, it is small wonder that the president is - surrounded by sycophants, since sycophancy is a condition of official - favor; small wonder that intellectual freedom and personal courage - dwindle, explaining, if not justifying, the jibe of European scholars - that there are three sexes in America, men, women and professors; - small wonder that permission to give utterance to mild theories of - parlor Socialism is mistaken by American universities for superb - freedom of action. But whatever may be the defects or the virtues of - this system, it fails utterly unless the president is, as it were, a - transparent medium between the teaching corps and the trustees. If he - misrepresents the conditions of the university; if he distorts the - communications entrusted to him for presentation to the trustees; if - he uses his position to serve the ends of spite or rancor or his own - ambition, hapless indeed (in Milton’s words) is the race of men whose - misfortune it is to have understanding. - -The gravest offense which a man can commit at Butler’s university is to -interfere in any way with the administration, to criticize it even -privately; the safe thing is to have no ideas about this or anything -else, and to be a perfect cog in the machine. At luncheon, in the -Faculty Club, if you have criticisms you make them to your most intimate -friends, and in whispers; and whoever and whatever you may be, you make -your reports on schedule time, you perform your duly and precisely -appointed functions. You are in a great education factory, with the -whirr of its machinery all about you. It makes no difference if you are -the foremost musician of genius that America has ever produced; you may -be in the midst of composing your greatest sonata, but you must come at -a certain hour to make your reports, and also you must not expect that -an ornamental subject like music will be taken seriously, or its -students granted full credits. If you protest about these matters you -will receive cruel and insulting letters from the president, and if you -don’t like that, out you go. - -Nor does it make any difference if you are a great poet, an inspired -critic and teacher of youth, like George Edward Woodberry. You will be -forbidden to give courses at convenient hours and on interesting -subjects, because you will draw all the students away from rival -professors in your department, who do not happen to be teachers of -genius, but are henchmen and political favorites of the president. If -you persist in having your own way, you will have your assistant taken -from you and your undergraduate courses abolished; and if your students -revolt and raise an uproar in the newspapers, the ring-leaders will be -expelled. But you will not get back your assistant—no, not even though -your students may offer to subscribe the money to pay for the assistant -out of their own pockets! Not even though a Standard Oil millionaire may -offer to endow the chair of the assistant in perpetuity! - -Consider the experience of Professor Joel E. Spingarn, a distinguished -poet and scholar, who took Professor Woodberry’s place in the department -of comparative literature, and filled it for many years acceptably. A -member of the department of Latin, Professor Harry Thurston Peck, was -sued by a woman for breach of promise, and his letters were given to the -newspapers. Professor Peck declared that the woman was a blackmailer, -and most of the faculty at Columbia thought that he should not be judged -guilty until the charge was proven; but Butler got rid of Peck, -incidentally publishing statements about him which caused Peck to sue -him for libel. Professor Spingarn was outraged at Butler’s proceedings, -and introduced in the faculty of philosophy a resolution testifying to -the academic services of Professor Peck, who had been twenty-two years -with Columbia. This, of course, was a declaration of war upon the -administration, and Butler made to Spingarn the threat: “If you don’t -drop this matter you will get into trouble.” Within ten days thereafter -he notified Spingarn that a committee of the trustees had voted to -abolish his chair. Professor Spingarn published a pamphlet, in which he -gave the history of the case, and the entire correspondence with Butler. -I quote from his comments: - - It would be disheartening to a proud son of Columbia to linger over - all the details of official trickery and deception, of threat and - insult, of manners even worse than morals; but it would be unjust to - those who love Columbia’s honor to hide from them the fact that, in - the course of this single incident, the president of their alma mater - told at least five deliberate falsehoods, broke at least three - deliberate promises, and denied his own statements whenever it served - his purpose to do so. It is without rancor, and with deep regret, that - Professor Spingarn feels obliged to state these facts, and to express - his mature conviction that the word or promise of President Butler is - absolutely worthless unless it is recorded in writing and that even a - written document offers no certain safeguard against evasion or - distortion. It is to this executive, with this code of honor, that - Columbia entrusts all avenues of communication between the subservient - faculties and the governing trustees. - - This is not a history or an estimate of President Butler’s - administration of Columbia; it is merely the record of a single abuse. - But the record would be incomplete if it were not clearly made known - that the facts, so far from being exceptional, are typical of his - executive career. It is not merely that Columbia’s greatest teachers, - poets, musicians, have been lost to the university from the very - outset as a result of his methods and his policies. The real scandal - is worse than this. It is that in the conduct of its affairs a great - university, so far from being above the commercialism of its - industrial environment, actually employs methods that would be spurned - in the humblest of business undertakings. Even the decencies of - ordinary business are not always observed; and the poor scholar, - unfamiliar with methods such as these, falls an easy prey. No device, - however unworthy, is regarded as forbidden by custom or by honor. A - professor may be asked to send in a purely formal resignation as a - compliment to the prospective new head of his department, and then be - dumbfounded to have his letter acted upon by the president immediately - upon its receipt, and before the new head is actually appointed. A - professor may be induced to come to Columbia by the assurance of the - president that the usual contract, “for three years or during the - pleasure of the trustees,” involves an actual obligation for three - years on the part of the university, while another professor holding - the same contract with the university may find his chair abolished, on - the recommendation of the president, at the end of two years. These - are actual cases. - -Shortly after this Spingarn incident President Butler completed the -tenth year of his administration at Columbia, and a banquet was held at -the Hotel Astor, attended by some two hundred members of the faculty. -“It was an evening of much felicitation,” the New York “Times” reported -(May 16, 1911), but there were “almost imperceptible references” to the -recent conflicts. The “Times” report goes on to quote some jovial -remarks by Professor Seligman, head of the department of political -science. I quote: - - Prof. Seligman regaled the diners with some anecdotes of the days when - Dr. Butler was an undergraduate. He told of a student to whom was - spared the embarrassment of reciting by pulling the gong and getting - the class dismissed. He said he did not know who that student was, but - admitted that he had his suspicions, as he did in the case of the same - student getting to the head of his class by making a ten out of his - zero on the professor’s record. - -The above anecdote proves once more the ancient truth, that the child is -father to the man; it would seem that by careful watching of one’s -classmates one can pick out those students who are destined to grow up -into college presidents who do not always tells the truth. - - - - - CHAPTER X - THE LIGHTNING-CHANGE ARTIST - - -President Butler’s career at Columbia has been like that of a drunken -motorist in a crowded street; he has left behind him a trail of corpses. -In the course of twenty years of office he has managed to expel or force -to withdraw some two score men, including most of the best in the place. -The cases of MacDowell and Woodberry occurred in 1902, the cases of Peck -and Spingarn in 1910 and 1911. Beginning in 1917 there was a sudden -series of casualties; but before these can be clearly explained, it is -necessary that the reader should be made acquainted with another aspect -of the career of Nicholas Miraculous—as pacifist and prophet of the -Capitalist International. - -Butler’s friend, Carnegie, put up ten million dollars to establish a -foundation in the cause of universal peace; and Butler became a trustee. -The pointed question has been asked whether the Carnegie Peace -Foundation pays for the elaborate banquets which President Butler serves -to peace delegates in his home. Needless to say, when you have half a -million dollars a year to administer, you can hire a great many -secretaries, and print a great deal of literature, and give a great many -champagne banquets, and make a great splurge in the world. Butler -engaged a young man, Leon Fraser, to organize a peace movement in the -colleges, and had him made an instructor in the department of political -science at Columbia. We shall see in a minute what happened to this -young man. - -In the summer of 1914 Butler went to Europe to continue his peace -work—but not with entire success. He came home in September, very much -horrified at what had happened in Europe, and to the students at the -opening of the university he made a speech in which you find him at his -best, with his clear, keen mind and driving energy. He denounced the -war-makers in language which left nothing to be desired. One thing this -war had done, he said; it had “put a final end to the contention, always -stupid and often insincere, that huge armaments are an insurance against -war and an aid in maintaining peace. This argument was invented by the -war-makers who had munitions of war to sell.... Since war is an affair -of governments and of armies, one result of the present war should be to -make the manufacture and sale of munitions of war a government monopoly -hereafter.... How anyone not fit subject for a madhouse, can find in the -awful events now happening in Europe a reason for increasing the -military and naval establishments and expenditures of the United States -is to me wholly inconceivable. Militarism—there is the enemy!” - -Good for Nicholas Miraculous, you say! That is the sort of college -president we want in America! But in the cold light of the morning after -our pacifist orator thought it over. Perhaps he remembered his -interlocking directorate—the grim-visaged, growling wild boar, old -Pierpont Morgan, preparing to make his billion dollars out of the -British government; young Marcellus Hartley Dodge, chairman of Remington -Arms and Union Metallic Cartridge, getting ready to clean up his -millions by cornering the market in munitions machinery! How awkward to -meet Marcellus Hartley on the board, after talking about “the -contention, always stupid and often insincere ... invented by war-makers -who have munitions of war to sell!” Also, Butler was expecting to be -Republican candidate for president two years from date; and it would not -be easy to carry Elihu Root and Bill Barnes and Jim Wadsworth for a -government monopoly of Remington Arms and Union Metallic Cartridge, to -say nothing of Bethlehem and Carnegie Steel! - -So President Butler sat himself down and edited his eloquence. The -passages I have quoted are from the speech as given to the newspapers, -September 24, 1914; but now see how it reads as published in Butler’s -book, “America in Ferment.” “The contention, always stupid and often -insincere,” is softened to “the contention, always made with more -emphasis than reasonableness.” The argument which was “invented by the -war-makers who have munitions of war to sell” now becomes an argument -which was “invented by those who really believe in war and in armaments -as ends in themselves.” That lets out Marcellus Hartley, you see; in -fact, it lets out Butler’s friend the Kaiser, and everybody in the world -since Genghis Khan. The proposed plank for the Republican party’s -presidential platform, providing for a government monopoly of the -manufacture and sale of munitions of war, has been dropped overboard and -lost forever; while the phrase about “increasing the military and naval -establishments and expenditures of the United States” has been deftly -turned into “asking the United States to desist from its attempts to -promote a new international order in the world!” Let nobody expect that -Nicholas Miraculous will abandon his charge of that half million dollars -a year of Carnegie money! - -After this you will be prepared for any amount of hedging. President -Butler had for ten years been conducting with President Wheeler of the -University of California an ardent rivalry for the affections of the -Kaiser; but now the interlocking directorate is going to “can the -Kaiser,” and their university president is going to enlist in the -speech-making brigade. Wheeler of California is three thousand miles -away from the seat of authority, but Butler gets the “tip” in time, and -saves himself by climbing out on the faces of those who took seriously -his belief in universal peace. - -For example, Leon Fraser, the young instructor who has been set to work -organizing peace societies in American colleges, including Columbia! -President Butler had sent a dean to ask Professor Beard to take Fraser -into his department; now he sent the dean to ask Beard to drop Fraser -again. Professor Beard, who has a capacity for indignation, told the -dean that Fraser had done what he had been employed to do, and had done -it sincerely and capably, therefore it was his intention to propose -Fraser for a full professorship; and then Beard showed the dean to the -door. Beard took the matter to the members of his department, and they -agreed unanimously that Fraser should be promoted. - -Knowing Butler as you now do, you will understand that he marked two -more victims on his blacklist. One was Fraser and the other was Beard. -Fraser was got rid of quickly; as soon as America entered the war, -Butler announced that Columbia would not need so many professors, so he -dropped three, Fraser among them. Subsequently he took back the other -two; but Fraser meantime had enlisted. The dean remarked to a friend of -mine, a Columbia professor, how fortunate it was that Fraser had gone to -the war, so that a scandal over the question of his dismissal had been -avoided. “Yes,” replied my friend, “and wouldn’t it be fortunate if he -were shot to pieces, so that he could never come back and tell how -Columbia treated him?” - -The next experience in order of time is that of Professors Cattell and -Dana; but since we have seen Beard put on the blacklist, perhaps we had -better finish his story. Charles A. Beard is a sincere and determined -fighter; incidentally, he is one of America’s leading economists and -scholars. There was an uproar in the newspapers over the charge that a -labor leader, speaking at a civic center in a New York public school, -had said: “To hell with the stars and stripes.” He didn’t really say it, -as you may read in “The Brass Check,” page 344. But the New York papers -reported that he said it, so it was proposed to close all the civic -centers in the schools. Professor Beard at a public meeting stated that -he did not think it was wise to close all the schools to the public, -just because one labor leader was reported to have said, “To hell with -the stars and stripes.” So next morning one of the New York newspapers -reported that Professor Beard of Columbia University had defended a -labor leader for saying “To hell with the stars and stripes.” - -So now behold our professor summoned before the interlocking trustees in -solemn conclave! They demanded to know what he had said, and he told -them, and then, thinking that the incident was closed, he started to -leave the room. But one of them called to him, and to the consternation -of this leading economist and scholar, he was grilled for half an hour -concerning his beliefs and teachings, by two members of the -board—Frederick R. Coudert, lawyer, and director of a trust company, a -safe deposit company and a surety company; and Francis S. Bangs, lawyer, -and director in five express companies, a trust company, a savings bank, -and a water power corporation. They demanded his views on war and peace, -on Americanism and the constitution, on capitalism and the rights of -property; and when they had satisfied themselves that he did not believe -anything for which he could be arrested, they dismissed him, with orders -to warn all others in his department “against teachings likely to -inculcate disrespect for American institutions.” Professor Beard went -back to his colleagues, and reported this extraordinary scene, and the -members of his department burst into roars of laughter; asking whether -among the “American institutions” for which they were to “teach respect” -the trustees included Tammany Hall and the pork barrel! - -Shortly after this it was announced that the trustees had appointed a -special committee to investigate the ideas which were being taught at -Columbia. “The Committee on the State of Teaching,” it was called, and -its members were four lawyers and one banker. The response of the -faculty was to meet and protest, and appoint a committee of nine to -defend themselves. The Faculty Council adopted a very strong resolution -on the subject of academic freedom—which resolution, be it noted, was -afterwards suppressed. - -The Columbia faculty at this time was preparing for real action, and -Butler had his hands full smoothing them down. He sent one of his deans -to see Professor Beard, and plead with him not to push the issue; the -trustees had learned their lesson, said Butler, the incident would never -be repeated. Also, if Beard forced the matter he would greatly -inconvenience Butler, who was just then in trouble with his trustees -because of his pacifist activities. No more professors would be -dismissed from Columbia, except with the consent of their departments, -so Butler promised; but he kept this promise no more than he kept -others. Soon afterwards he got rid of Leon Fraser, and after that of -another member of the faculty. Butler had promised that all nominations -for promotion should come from the faculty; but soon afterwards he sent -an ambassador to Beard, to say that a certain man whom the department -proposed to promote would be refused promotion by the trustees; so the -man was not named for promotion—and Butler was able to go on saying that -all moves for promotion in Columbia came from the various departments! -Professor Beard had had enough, and handed in his resignation, in which -he paid his respects to “the few obscure and willful trustees who now -dominate the university and terrorize the young instructors.” Discussing -the subject of academic tenure, he said: “The status of a professor in -Columbia is lower than that of a manual laborer.” - - - - - CHAPTER XI - THE TWILIGHT ZONE - - -A well known American scientist made to me the statement that there has -not been a man of distinction called to Columbia in ten years, nor has -one arisen there. To attribute so much to Butler and his interlocking -trustees might seem to credit them with superhuman maleficence; but the -scientist explained the phenomenon, as follows: American university -teachers are greatly underpaid; there is no first class man who could -not get more money if he turned his energies to other pursuits. If he -stays as a teacher it is because he loves the work, and is willing to -accept his reward in other forms—in the respect of his fellow men. But -if he finds that he has no standing and no power; if he sees himself and -his colleagues browbeaten and insulted by commercial persons; if he -knows that all the world pays no attention to his opinions, assuming him -to be the puppet of commercial persons—then the dignity of the academic -life is gone, and nothing is left but an inadequate money reward. - -What you have at Columbia is a host of inferior men, dwelling, as one -phrased it to me, in “a twilight zone of mediocrity”; dull pedants, -raking over the dust heaps of learning and occupying their minds with -petty problems of administration. They have full power to decide whether -Greek shall be given in nine courses or nine and one-half, also whether -it shall count for four credits or four and a quarter. “And we love -that,” said one to me, with a bitter sneer. - -The standing of Columbia University in the field of science under the -regime of the interlocking president was interestingly revealed by a -study published in “Science” in 1906, and continued in 1910: “A -Statistical Study of American Men of Science,” by J. McKeen Cattell, -Professor of Psychology in Columbia University. It so happens that -Professor Cattell has become President Butler’s most vigorous opponent; -but this investigation had no special reference to Columbia, and the -method of conducting it was such as to preclude favoritism. A list of -the thousand leading men of American science was obtained by writing to -ten leading men in twelve different branches of science, and asking them -to name the most eminent representatives of their science in the -country. The one thousand leaders thus selected were studied from -various points of view, their ages, the countries from which they came, -the institutions at which they studied, the institutions with which they -were connected. Of these leaders it appeared that thirty-eight had taken -their doctorate degrees at Columbia, while 102 had taken their degrees -at Johns Hopkins; 78 had studied at Columbia, while 237 had studied at -Harvard. In 1905 Columbia had 60 of the thousand leaders on its faculty, -while Harvard had 66 and Yale 26; but in 1910 Columbia had 48, a loss of -12, while Harvard had 79, a gain of 13 and Yale had 38, a gain of 12. In -the listing of 1910 it appeared that 238 scientific men had gained a -place among the leaders, while 201 had lost their standing in that -group. A study of the institutions with which these men were connected -revealed an extraordinary state of affairs. Among the Harvard men 22 had -won their way to the first thousand; among the Chicago men 13 had won; -while among Columbia men, with a much larger faculty, only 8 had won. On -the other hand, 6 Harvard men had lost their standing, and 3 Chicago -men, while 12 Columbia men had lost—more than in any other institution -in the United States! So much for academic autocracy! - -Another table presented a study of the ratio between the number of -distinguished men at each institution and the total number of the -faculty at that institution. Disregarding fractions, it appeared that -one man in every seven at Harvard belonged among the first thousand, one -man in every six at Chicago, one in every five at Johns Hopkins, one in -every two at Clark—and one in every thirteen at Columbia! Taking the -ratio of distinguished men to the number of students, it appeared that -there was one distinguished scientist for every twenty-one students at -Johns Hopkins, and one for every ninety-six students at Columbia. -Considering the matter in relation to the value of buildings and -grounds, it appeared that Massachusetts Institute of Technology had a -distinguished scientist for every $53,000 worth of buildings and -grounds, while Columbia had one for every $259,000 worth. Considering -the matter in relation to income, it appeared that Johns Hopkins had a -distinguished man for every $10,000 of income, while Columbia had one -for every $45,000. Before I finish with this book I expect to show you -that all the colleges in the United States are plutocratic; but there -are some which are less plutocratic than others, and the above figures -will show you exactly what the plutocratic policy does, when it has its -way completely, to crush the life of the intellect, and turn a great -institution of learning into a thing of bricks and mortar without a -soul. - -There are some fifteen hundred men on the Columbia faculty; but you can -count upon the fingers of one hand the men of any originality and force -of character. John Dewey has stayed on; being the foremost educator in -the country, it would make a terrible fuss if he were to go. Butler -notes that Dewey takes no part in the internal politics of the -university, but politely resigned from a faculty committee to supervise -expulsions, when he discovered that this committee was to have no power. -There is one other professor at Columbia who is known to be a Socialist; -a very quiet one, who has retired from the Socialist party, and is -writing an abstract work on metaphysics. He is useful to Butler and the -whole crowd of the interlocking directorate, because whenever the -question of academic freedom is raised, they can say: “Look at Montague, -he is a Socialist!” - -Similarly, in the worst days of reaction in Germany, they used to have -in their universities what were called “renommir professoren,” that is -to say, “boast professors,” or, as we should say in vulgar American, -“shirtfronts.” In the same way, whenever Bismarck was conducting his -campaigns against the Jews, he was always careful to have one Jew in the -cabinet. I count over these “renommir professoren” in American -universities; two at Columbia, one at Chicago, two at Wisconsin, one at -Stanford, and one at Clark, expecting to be fired; a very young man at -Johns Hopkins, and two old ladies at Wellesley. That is the complete -list, so far as my investigations reveal; ten out of a total of some -forty thousand college and university teachers—and that shows how much -American colleges and universities have to make a pretense of caring -about freedom! - -Exactly how does the plutocratic regime operate to eliminate originality -and power? The process is perfectly shown in the case of Professor -Goodnow, now president of Johns Hopkins University. Goodnow taught -administrative law at Columbia, and when Professor Burgess withdrew, -Goodnow was the choice of the faculty for the Ruggles professorship, one -of the most important chairs in Columbia. Butler had promised the -faculty that each department should decide its own promotions, but he -was worried about Goodnow, because Goodnow had published a book in which -he set forth the dangerous idea that the constitution of the United -States as it now exists is not final. Goodnow studied the constitution -as the product of a certain social environment, and that maddens Butler. -“Don’t you think there are some things we can call settled?” he -remarked, irritably, to one of my informants. So the trustees, without -consulting the faculty of political science, passed over Goodnow, and -appointed one of the interlocking directors! William D. Guthrie, law -partner of one of the trustees, a corporation lawyer, rich, smooth, -hard, and ignorant, was selected to come once a week during half a -semester, and give a lecture interpreting the constitution as the -interlocking directorate wants it interpreted—a permanent bulwark -against any kind of change in property relations. He did none of the -work of an ordinary college professor, but conferred upon the university -his plutocratic prestige for the sum of seventy-five hundred dollars a -year. - -Or consider the testimony of Bayard Boyesen, who was a member of the -Columbia faculty for several years, and whose father was one of -Columbia’s oldest and most honored professors. Says young Boyesen, in a -letter to me: - - You speak of whispering at the Faculty Club. It was worse than that. I - have on several occasions seen professors, after beginning luncheon at - one table, rise and go to another because the talk had turned, not to - radical propaganda, but to a purely intellectual discussion of such - subjects as Socialism, Syndicalism and the like. I was on at least - twenty occasions asked by different professors and instructors to hold - as confidential the ideas they had expounded to me as their own. - - To show the utter cowardice of many of the professors, I will relate a - personal incident. During my third year as instructor at Columbia, I - resigned in order to have all my time for other work, but was - persuaded by a senior professor of my department to remain. He wrote - me a very strong letter in praise of my work and guaranteed me a full - professorship for the following year. When, however, I got into - trouble with the trustees because of radical speeches made before - audiences of laboring men, and because of a pamphlet I had written on - education, the professor came to me and asked me to return the letter - he had sent me. Very evidently, he feared that I might jeopardize his - position if I quoted from it. And this man had told me that he could - hardly see his way to remaining at Columbia unless I was there to help - in building up a department sadly in need of rejuvenation. - - An illustration of how Columbia gets rid of its “undesirables.” I was - told by Professor Ashley Thorndike of my department (English) that a - charge had been preferred against me by Dr. Butler acting for the - trustees, and that therefore I could not be recommended for - appointment the following year. He refused to tell me what the charge - was, on the ground that he was pledged not to reveal it. I thereupon - wrote to Dr. Butler requesting an interview. His secretary wrote that - the president was too busy to see me. I then threatened to bring the - matter to court, for though an instructor’s tenure of office is for - one year only, I felt sure that the trustees had no right to make a - charge of any kind against me without giving me an opportunity to - answer it. After this, I obtained an interview with the president, - during which he said that no charges of any sort had been made and - that it was purely a departmental matter. He refused, however, to put - this into writing, though he several times reiterated it. I returned - to Professor Thorndike, and told him, as politely as circumstances - would allow, that either he or Dr. Butler had “misinformed” me. He - replied evasively that a man of my intelligence should have understood - the whole matter from the beginning, and added significantly that I - had been warned before in regard to my outside activities. I finally - obtained from him an oral statement that there were no charges against - me, as well as a grudging apology for the “misunderstanding.” - - - - - CHAPTER XII - THE ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT STORE - - -I have several times mentioned in this narrative Professor Cattell and -his opinions of Columbia. My story would not be complete without an -account of his adventures, for he was the one man who gave the -interlocking directors a real fight. - -James McKeen Cattell was a teacher at Columbia for twenty-six years. He -was the first professor of psychology in any university in the world; he -is the editor of four leading scientific journals. Cattell objected to -some of Butler’s methods, such as the appointment of an unfit professor -in his division, because this man brought with him a gift of a hundred -thousand dollars. Cattell was left to learn of this appointment from the -newspapers, and when he protested, Butler wrote him insolent letters, -trying to force him to resign, as he had done with MacDowell and -Woodberry. But Cattell stuck, whereupon Butler took from him the use of -six rooms, a laboratory of psychological research which had been built -with funds obtained by Cattell. The income of a trust fund of one -hundred thousand dollars, which Cattell had got “to increase the -facilities of his department,” was taken to pay Cattell’s own salary. - -Cattell then withdrew as head of his department, and took no more part -in Columbia’s politics. But he published articles criticizing the -Carnegie pension scheme, in which Butler was a leading spirit. He showed -how it was used to control the university professor, as seniority rights -and pensions are used to keep employes in order. So in 1910 a resolution -proposing to dismiss Cattell was before the trustees. In 1913 he -published a book on “University Control,” in which he demonstrated that -85 per cent of the members of college and university faculties are -dissatisfied with the present system of the management of scholars by -business men. In punishment for this the trustees voted to retire him on -a pension—taking the step without the knowledge of the faculty. There -was unanimous protest, and the trustees yielded. In 1917 Professor -Cattell wrote a letter to members of the Faculty Club, referring to “our -much-climbing and many-talented president.” This, of course, was lese -majesté, and for the third time a resolution proposing to dismiss -Professor Cattell was presented to the trustees; but action was -postponed, on the recommendation of a committee of deans and professors. - -Nicholas Miraculous bided his time, and several months later came the -chance to get rid of Cattell and at the same time to exhibit his new -patriotism. Cattell wrote a letter to a congressman, in support of -pending legislation exempting from combatant service in Europe -conscripts who objected to war. The interlocking trustees, who had -already conscripted themselves to make money out of the war, took the -position that in writing this letter Cattell had committed a crime, and -they suddenly dismissed him from the university. In spite of his -twenty-six years’ service, they did not even take the trouble to notify -him what they proposed to do, but left him to learn of their action from -a newspaper reporter who waked him in the middle of the night. The -trustees declared that a professor could not take a stand on any public -question as his own personal opinion; to which Cattell replied: “When -trustees announce that no statement can be made by a teacher that is not -affirmed by Columbia University, they challenge the intellectual -integrity of every teacher.” - -These ferocious old men who had conscripted themselves to make money out -of the war were not content to get rid of a too-independent professor; -they wished to brand him for life, so they rushed to the press with a -statement charging him with “treason,” “sedition,” and “obstruction to -the enforcement of the laws of the United States.” And this although -Professor Cattell was actively engaged in psychological work for the -army, and his only son who was of war age had already volunteered! -Professor Cattell, in his counter-statement, referred to the trustees as -“men whose horizon is bounded by the two sides of Wall Street with -Trinity Church at the end.” He described the university as a place -“overrun with intrigue and secret diplomacy.” He said of President -Butler: “He has run the university as a department store, playing the -part of both proprietor and floor walker to the faculty, while an errand -boy to the trustees.”[A] Cattell brought suit for libel and threatened -to sue for the pension to which he was entitled. The trustees waited -several years, until the libel case was about to come up for trial, and -then admitted their guilt by paying forty-five thousand dollars of the -university’s money. - ------ - -Footnote A: - - The statements concerning Columbia University in the above paragraph - were contained in a confidential statement sent by Professor Cattell - to some of the Columbia faculty. In fairness to Professor Cattell, I - wish to state that he did not furnish me with this statement, either - directly or indirectly, and I have not asked his permission to quote - from it. - ------ - -With Professor Cattell there went out Professor H. W. L. Dana, a -grandson of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and of Richard Henry Dana; his -crime was that he had belonged to the People’s Council—with the -knowledge of President Butler. Shortly after this went Beard, and Henry -Mussey, one of Columbia’s most loved professors; also my old teacher, -James Harvey Robinson. - -I write the above, and then the door-bell of my home rings, and there -enters another man who went out—Leon Ardzrooni, an Armenian with an -irrepressible sense of humor, who for two years was a professor of -economics. I do not have to ask Ardzrooni about his success as a -teacher, because his reputation has preceded him. He brought Columbia -twelve thousand dollars a year in tuition fees, of which they paid him -three thousand to lecture on labor problems; and every now and then they -would send for him and make anxious faces over the fact that he taught -the realities of modern industry. Professor Seligman, his dean, heard -the distressing report that he made some of his young ladies—graduate -students out of Barnard—“unhappy.” “It would be all right for older -people,” said Professor Seligman; “but not for the young, who are so -impressionable.” Said Ardzrooni; “What’s the use of teaching them when -they’re so old that I can’t make any impression?” - -The students asked him about an I. W. W. strike, and he told how such a -matter appeared to the strikers. “Don’t they get enough to eat?” asked -one, a young army officer. “Yes, I suppose so,” said the professor; “but -so do the owners get enough to eat. That isn’t the only issue.” -Professor Ardzrooni gave that answer at ten o’clock in the morning, and -at twelve he went to the Faculty Club for lunch, and there on the faces -of his colleagues he saw written the dreadful tidings—he had been -reported! The busy telephone system of the university had informed the -whole campus that the genial Armenian had been discovered to be a member -of the I. W. W.; he had boasted to his classes of carrying a red card, -and all his colleagues were so sorry for him! - -Ardzrooni was summoned before Butler, and instead of taking it meekly, -he demanded a showdown. Who was it that accused him of belonging to the -I. W. W. and of carrying a red card? Butler refused to tell him, evading -the issue, so the professor went on the warpath. It happens that he is a -rich man, not dependent upon anybody’s favor, so he went to Woodbridge, -dean of the faculty, announcing that he was going to bring suit against -the university that very day; he would put Butler on the witness stand, -and find out whether a college professor has any rights, or can be -slandered at will! - -Instantly, of course, the whole machinery of intimidation collapsed; it -had never occurred to anyone that a college professor might act like a -man! They would drop the whole matter, say nothing more about the red -card, give Ardzrooni promotion and increase his salary—anything to keep -out of court! The professor of labor problems laughed at them, and -following the example of all other self-respecting men, went out into -the free world. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - THE EMPIRE OF DULLNESS - - -Those who have stayed in the great academic department-store have stayed -under the shadow of disgrace; branded as men who love their pitiful -salaries more than they love their self-respect and dignity as scholars, -more than they love the cause of democracy and justice throughout the -world. They stay on the terms that the voice of democracy and justice is -silent among them, while the voice of reaction bellows with brazen -throat. - -I have shown you the plutocratic president storming the banquet halls of -merchants and manufacturers and bankers, pouring out what Gutzon -Borglum, the sculptor, described as “his sweeping intolerance of free -speech and of organization by those not of his belief.” And everything -in Columbia or connected with Columbia has been stamped with the impress -of Butler’s hard materialism, his cold and calculating snobbery. He uses -the prestige of his university to confer honors on reaction both at home -and abroad. In 1912 he honored Senator Underwood, praising him to the -skies as the leader of democracy—this in the hope of keeping Woodrow -Wilson from getting the Democratic nomination for president. In 1922 we -find him glorifying an Episcopal bishop, the rector of Trinity Church, -the governor of the Federal Reserve Board, a Belgian baron, a Portuguese -viscount, the Chinese ambassador, and Paderewski, apostle of Polish -militarism! - -With the help of his millionaire trustees Butler has built up an alumni -machine, and the alumni paper is the organ of his personal glory. He has -built up a faculty machine, of men who understand that they are free so -long as they agree with their president, and who go forth to carry out -the president’s will wherever the Columbia influence reaches—which is -throughout the entire school and college system of our plutocratic -empire. - -Butler, you understand, was head of the department of education at -Columbia; he fixed the policy of this department, making it a machine -for the turning out of “educational experts,” trained to see life as a -battleground of money-ambition, and to run the schools as efficient -factories. Butler edited the “Educational Review,” and the present -editor is a Columbia man, and his puppet. I shall take you with me -before long for a trip over the United States, and show you the Tammany -Hall of education; the league of superintendents, and the politicians of -the National Educational Association, financed by the book companies and -other big grafters, and combining with the chambers of commerce and -professional patriots to drive out liberalism in education as in -politics, and resist every new idea in every department of human thought -and activity. They are backed by the political machines of special -privilege, and protected and glorified by the “Brass Check” press; and -everywhere you find Columbia men the leading advocates of routine, red -tape, and reaction. - -I turn over my notes; the people of New York are struggling in the grip -of rapacious landlords, and here comes Samuel McCune Lindsay, Professor -of Social Legislation at Columbia University, with a pamphlet to -demonstrate that there is really no shortage of apartments, but on the -contrary a surplus of thirty thousand. The Lockwood Commission puts the -professor on the stand and draws out the fact that he was paid five -hundred dollars by the Real Estate Board for the writing of this -pamphlet. Samuel Untermyer, counsel of the commission, characterizes -Prof. Lindsay’s figures as “absurd,” and forces the professor to admit -that he made no actual investigation, and has “no practical knowledge.” - -I turn to another page. Dr. Albert Shiels is superintendent of the -public schools of Los Angeles in the year 1919, and at the height of the -White Terror in America he publishes in President Butler’s “Educational -Review” an article denouncing the Soviet government. At a mass meeting -in Los Angeles the chairman states that he has made count of the errors -of fact in this article, and they total one hundred and twenty-four. -Louise Bryant, just returned from Russia, is at the meeting, and the -audience votes to send a challenge to Dr. Shiels to debate with her. -Someone in the audience puts up a two hundred dollar Liberty Bond to pay -Dr. Shiels, and the audience contributes over twelve hundred dollars to -give publicity to the debate. Dr. Shiels is invited to appear, and his -answer is: “I believe it is contrary to good public policy to place -Bolshevism and its practices on a par with debatable questions”—an -answer which so delights President Butler that he calls Dr. Shiels to -New York, to become Associate Director of the Institute of Educational -Research of Columbia University! - -Yet another case: The people of North Dakota are trying to take over the -education of their own children and liberalize the school system of -their state; and here comes George D. Strayer, professor of Educational -Administration at Columbia University, addressing the legislative -committee of the state educational committee, Minot, North Dakota, April -18, 1919, attacking the proposed new laws, and laying out a complete -program of pedagogical toryism. No violation of academic propriety for a -Columbia professor to take part in politics—provided it is on the side -of special privilege! - -Nor is it a violation of academic propriety if a Columbia professor -rushes into the capitalistic press, provided he rushes in in defense of -his masters. In the New York “Times” for May 22, 1922, I find Professor -James C. Egbert, Director of University Extension and Director of the -School of Business of Columbia University, spreading himself to the -extent of three columns on the subject of “labor education.” There was -no slightest occasion for this professor to spread himself; nobody asked -his opinion, he did not even have the pretext of a public address before -some bankers’ association. The only camouflage which the Times provides -is the phrase, “in a recent interview”—that is, in this precise present -interview with the Times! After which the Times goes on to publish -nearly three columns of the professor’s manuscript, with nothing but -quotation marks to keep up the pretense that it is an “interview.” Says -the professor: “The educational system devised by the labor unions has -virtually broken down”—which is a plain lie. The professor then goes on -to say that the proper place for the labor unions to come for their -education is to the established universities. I read the professor’s -three columns of eloquence, and realize that I learned the whole thing -when I was three years old, in two lines of nursery rhyme: - - “‘Won’t you come into my parlor?’ - Said the spider to the fly.” - -What is the final product of all this system we have been studying? It -may be stated in one word, which is dullness. Some men are hired, and -they are hired because they are dull, and will do dull work; and they do -it. The student comes to college, full of eagerness and hope, and he -finds it dull. He has no idea why it should be so; it is incredible to -him that men should be selected because they are dull, and should be -fired if they prove to be anything but dull. All he sees is the -dullness, and he hates it, and “cuts” it as much as he can, and goes off -to practice football or get drunk. I quote one more paragraph from the -letter of Bayard Boyesen: - - There is nothing tending to make a teacher so enthusiastic and - optimistic as any average class of freshmen, the great majority of - whom come to Columbia eager, alert and responsive to every contact - with beauty, nobility, aspiration and high endeavor; and there is - nothing tending to make the teacher so disappointed and pessimistic as - to see these same young men, after they have been blunted and - flattened, go out with smiles of cynical superiority, to take their - allotted places in the world of American business. - -All this wealth, all this magnificence, stone and concrete and white -marble—and inside it dullness and death! You read about the millions -given for education, and rejoice, thinking it means progress; but all -that the millions can buy is—dullness and death! Look at Nicholas Murray -Butler, with a ten million dollar peace foundation, which he uses to -finance the writing of a history of the war! Half a million dollars a -year, donated to bring peace to mankind, and now, in the greatest crisis -of history, Butler sets a man to writing a history of a war! - -If you think I exaggerate when I state that the Columbia system means -the deliberate exclusion of new ideas, and of living, creative -attitudes, listen to our plutocratic president himself, laying down the -law on the subject of education: “The duty of one generation is to pass -on to the next, unimpaired, the institutions it has inherited from its -forbears.” Just so! To keep mankind as it has been, forever and ever, -world without end, amen! Is it anybody’s duty to discover new truth and -complete man’s mastery over nature? Is it anybody’s duty to inspire us, -that we may cease to be the bloody-handed savages that history has left -us? Is it anybody’s business to bring order out of our commercial -anarchy, and use the collective powers of mankind for the making instead -of the destroying of life? It is nobody’s business to do these things; -what we go to college for is to learn about our ancestors, and become -what they were—the pitiful victims of blind instincts. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - THE UNIVERSITY OF LEE-HIGGINSON - - -There is a saying that when you go to Philadelphia they ask you who your -grandfather was, and when you go to New York they ask you what you are -worth, and when you go to Boston they ask you what you know. We are now -going to the hub of America’s intellectual life, and make ourselves -familiar with our most highly cultured university. - -We shall begin, as before, by investigating those who run it; and -straightway we shall get a shock. We shall find not merely the -interlocking directorate—the princes, and the dukes, and the barons; we -shall find the emperor himself, none other than J. Pierpont Morgan! I -was puzzled when I studied the affairs of Columbia, for I knew that the -elder Morgan had been on the board until his death, and I could not -imagine how President Butler managed to overlook his son and heir. When -I came to study Harvard I discovered the reason; the younger Morgan was -graduated from Harvard in 1889. The purpose of such interchanges of -royalty is, of course, to cement the bonds of empire. - -The house of J. P. Morgan & Company is closely allied with the Boston -banking house of Lee, Higginson & Company. Mr. Morgan was reelected to -the Harvard board in 1917, along with Francis Lee Higginson, Jr., of -Lee, Higginson & Company; Eliot Wadsworth, representative of Stone & -Webster, an allied banking house; Howard Elliott, then president and now -chairman of the New Haven, a Morgan railroad; and, finally, a prominent -corporation lawyer in San Francisco, representing the interlocking -directorate in that city. - -In his discussion of the Pujo report Justice Brandeis wrote that -“Concentration of banking capital has proceeded even farther in Boston -than in New York.” He goes on to tell of three great banking concerns, -with their interlocking directorates, controlling ninety-two per cent of -Boston’s money resources. These concerns competed in minor and local -matters, said Mr. Brandeis, but they were all allied with Morgan. -“Financial concentration seems to have found its highest exemplification -in Boston.” And exactly the same thing is true of the concentration of -control of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of -Technology, and the group of smaller colleges located in Eastern -Massachusetts. They are all “State Street”—this being the Boston -equivalent of “Wall Street.” - -In 1916 the New York Evening Post, at that time in rebellion against the -House of Morgan, published an interesting study of the financial -connections of the governing board of Harvard. There are six members of -the Harvard corporation, known as the “fellows,” and these are appointed -for life. In addition, there are thirty “overseers,” elected by the -whole body of graduates. The New York “Evening Post” examined these -latter, and found eleven capitalists and seven lawyers, a generous -majority for the plutocracy. Nor was there much danger to the plutocracy -from some of the others; those classified as “public men” including -Senator Lodge and F. A. Delano, ex-president of several railroads. - -A year later the “Evening Post” made a further examination, considering -not merely the fellows and the overseers, but the nine directors of the -Harvard Alumni Association, the nine members of the Association’s -nominating committee, twenty candidates for overseers who had just been -called, and six who had just been called as candidates for directors of -the Association. That made a body of eighty Harvard graduates, forty of -them Boston men, and twenty-nine of these forty being financial men, or -attorneys for the State Street houses. All but six were connected with -the three interlocked financial institutions; twenty were connected with -Lee, Higginson & Company or its institutions—nine with the Old Colony -Trust Company, the great Lee-Higginson bank, five with Lee, Higginson & -Company itself, four directors in another Lee-Higginson bank, six -directors in a Lee-Higginson savings bank, six in another Lee-Higginson -savings bank, four in a Lee-Higginson insurance company, and six -attorneys for these. “State Street,” you see, is like Virginia; the old -families have been intermarrying for so long that everybody is related -to everybody else. - -A Harvard graduate wrote to the New York “Evening Post,” “Harvard has -assets to be invested of about thirty-four million dollars. Is that the -reason why practically five-sixths of the Boston business representation -(of Harvard) is affiliated with investment banking concerns, or is it -because they wish to use Harvard as a knighthood for their friends?” The -“Evening Post” went on politely to say that it did not believe this was -the case; the financial domination of Harvard had resulted by accident! -But this bit of humor did not save the “Evening Post” from the wrath of -the interlocking directorate. The paper offended also by opposing -America’s entry into the war—and so the valuable advertising business of -Lee, Higginson & Co. was withdrawn, and shortly afterwards the owner of -the paper was forced to sell out to Mr. Lamont, a partner of the House -of Morgan. This story is in “The Brass Check,” page 248. To complete it -we should note the part played by Harvard in the swallowing. It was a -Harvard overseer who bought the “Evening Post”; another overseer is now -president and trustee of the “Evening Post” company, and a third -overseer is also a trustee of the “Evening Post” company! - -Also, it will be worth while to notice the Massachusetts Institute of -Technology, until recently a part of Harvard. This is one of the most -marvelous collections of plutocrats ever assembled in the world; it -includes the president of the Powder Trust, and his cousin Mr. Coleman -du Pont, who is emperor of the State of Delaware; also Mr. Eastman, the -kodak king; two of our greatest international bankers, Mr. Otto Kahn and -Mr. Frank Vanderlip; Mr. Howard Elliott, chairman of the New Haven, Mr. -Elisha Lee, vice-president of the Pennsylvania; both members of the firm -of Stone and Webster, with all of its enormous electrical interests; -also nine other electrical bankers, two officials of the General -Electric Company, one big electrical manufacturer, and six others who -are interested in electric railways. Make particular note of this mass -of electrical connections, because in succeeding chapters you will find -several amusing instances of the influence of electric light and -electric railway interests upon the policy and teaching of both Harvard -and Massachusetts Tech. - -As we have seen, the endowment of Harvard was estimated at thirty-four -millions of dollars in 1917, and since then there has been a campaign in -which nearly fifteen millions was raised. This money is under the -direction of the Morgan-Lee-Higginson directorate, and needless to say -is largely invested in Morgan-Lee-Higginson enterprises. We are told by -some friends of Harvard that Harvard stands for “liberalism” in American -education; do you suppose that Harvard stands for “liberalism” in -American industry? Do you suppose that the votes of Harvard -administrators are cast for policies of justice and democracy in the -enterprises it exploits? If you suppose that, you are extremely naive. -The Harvard votes are cast, just as any other votes of any other -business concerns are cast, for the largest amount of dividends for -Harvard. For example, Harvard owns twenty-five hundred shares in a -Boston department store; has Harvard done anything to humanize the -management of that store? It has not. Harvard likewise operates a mine. -Harvard has a graduate business school and trains executives to run -mines—on the basis of getting the maximum production at the lowest cost, -and maintaining the present system of industrial feudalism. - -I take these facts concerning the Harvard investments from a paper by -Harry Emerson Wildes, a Harvard graduate. It is interesting to note that -Mr. Wildes at the time he made this study was doing voluntary publicity -work for the alumni group which was raising Harvard funds in -Philadelphia; and Mr. Wildes was “dropped” immediately after this study -saw the light! - -We have seen how Columbia owns stocks and bonds in American railroads, -public service corporations, and industrial corporations of all sorts. -Exactly the same thing is true of Harvard. Says Mr. Wildes: - - Twelve separate cities feed the Harvard purse from their traction - lines, and more than half a hundred pay tribute from their lighting, - heating, gas and power plants. Harvard has two million dollars in the - traction game. The two-cent transfer charge on New York City trolleys - goes to pay the interest on three-quarters of a million dollars’ worth - of traction bonds in Harvard ownership, and Boston ten-cent fare goes - partially to Harvard’s third of a million in Boston traction bonds. - -Mr. Wildes goes on to study the effect of these investments upon -Harvard, and the effect which Harvard, through the power of these -investments, might have upon the industrial life of the country. I -cannot present the subject better than he has done, so I quote his -words: - - With rapid transit lines throughout the nation in a state of rising - fares, and continual labor strife taking place, the intervention of a - conciliatory investor holding any such amounts might aid in bringing - better harmony between the companies on the one hand and the public - and the workmen on the other. But nothing has been done by Harvard - University, nor by any educational body in the land, to work for the - friendship of either public or labor towards the transit lines.... - - How strenuously the influence of Harvard will be thrown on the side of - limitation of armaments and the ending of war may be gauged by the - total of more than a million dollars’ worth of ordnance bonds and - munitions stock owned by the corporation. And, as these are largely in - great steel corporations such as Bethlehem, Midvale and Illinois, the - attitude of the college heads towards the move for unionizing workers - can be clearly understood. - - When railroad brotherhoods put forth a plan for guild operation of the - lines, they face a mighty opposition from security investors. The - eight million dollars which Harvard holds in railroad stock and bonds - would be affected by victory for the Plumb Plan. The professors of - economics and particularly of railroad operation and finance can - scarcely be expected to imbue their scholars with a holy zeal for the - securing of the Brotherhood aims.... - - Evidence of the patriotic ardor of the financiers directing Harvard’s - investments may be readily seen in the fact that only one per cent of - the funds of the university is invested in the Liberty Loans. The - total of United States bonds held is less than half of that spent for - bonds of five foreign nations. Intervention in Mexico would perhaps be - pleasing to the authorities, since they hold a total of nearly one - hundred thousand dollars in Mexican government bonds. So, also, is the - pacification of Central America through the stationing of American - marines and blue-jackets in those lands. Meddling of our State - Department in the internal affairs of Costa Rica, Honduras, San - Salvador and the rest helps to uphold the value of another one hundred - thousand dollars’ worth of United Fruit Company bonds.[B] This company - notoriously controls entire nations in Central America and sets up or - deposes presidents at its whim. There is scarcely a large community - north of Panama that is not in some degree tapped by the Harvard - treasury. The American college is becoming the strongest single force - in the world. Its management is almost entirely in the hands of - international bankers or men dependent upon that group. - ------ - -Footnote B: - - These bonds have just been paid off, but the ability to pay them off - was of course assured by American intervention. - ------ - -Such are the business facts underlying Harvard University; such are the -roots of the plant, and we shall now examine its flowers. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - THE HARVARD TRADITION - - -Harvard has a tradition, which is a part of the tradition of New -England; it is one of scholarship, of respect for the dignity of -learning. Money counts in New England, but money is not enough, so you -will be told; you must have culture also, and the prestige of the -intellectual life. More than that, in New England is found that quality -which must necessarily go with belief in the intellectual life, the -quality of open-mindedness, the willingness to consider new ideas. - -Such is the tradition; and first, it will pay us to ask, how did the -tradition originate? Was it made by Harvard University? Or was it made -by Charles Sumner, anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts, who was -found unfit to be a professor in the Harvard Law School, and wrote to -his brother: “I am too much of a reformer in law to be trusted in a post -of such commanding influence as this has now become.” Was it made by -Harvard, or by Wendell Phillips, who, according to his biographer, -Sears, denounced “the restraint of Harvard, which he attributed to -affiliation with the commercial interests of Boston, and the silence -they imposed on anti-slavery sentiments.” Was it made by Harvard or by -William Lloyd Garrison, who was dragged through the streets of Boston -with a rope about his neck, by a silk-hatted mob of State Streeters, -many of them of course from Harvard? - -Sumner, Phillips and Garrison were extremists, you may say; and the best -traditions are not made by such. They are made by scholars, who lead -retired lives and guide others by the power of thought. Very well; New -England has had no more revered scholar, no more keen thinker than -Emerson. Emerson was gentle, Emerson was dignified, and you will find -Emerson a part of the Harvard tradition—one of its halls bears his name. -So let us see what Emerson had to report about the Harvard of his time; -how much credit he gives it for progress in the anti-slavery days. -Writing in 1861, in “The Celebration of the Intellect,” Emerson said: -“Harvard College has no voice in Harvard College, but State Street votes -it down on every ballot. Everything will be permitted there, which goes -to adorn Boston Whiggism—is it geology, astronomy, poetry, antiquities, -art, rhetoric? But that which it exists for, to be a fountain of -novelties out of heaven, a Delphos uttering warning and ravishing -oracles to lift and lead mankind—that it shall not be permitted to do or -to think of. On the contrary, every generosity of thought is suspect and -has a bad name. And all the youths come out decrepit citizens; not a -prophet, not a poet, not a daimon, but is gagged and stifled or driven -away.” - -And precisely that is what we have to report about the Harvard of the -time of capitalistic reaction, which is 1922. For thirteen years Harvard -has been under the administration of a cultured corporation lawyer of -Boston, who has generally carried out the politics of his State Street -associates in all essential matters, and has preserved just as much -reputation for liberalism as can be preserved—safely. - -A. Lawrence Lowell is not, like Nicholas Murray Butler, a climber and a -toady; he could not be a climber, because he was born on a mountaintop, -and there was no place to climb to—he could only stay where he was or -descend. He belongs to the Lowell family, who are among the Boston -Brahmins, and it would not occur to him that any millionaire could -confer a favor upon Harvard University, or upon the president of Harvard -University. On the other hand, it does occur to him that Harvard is a -close corporation, a family affair of the vested interests of New -England, which cover an enormous financial power with a decorous coating -of refined exclusiveness. - -Before the days of President Lowell, Harvard was presided over by -Charles W. Eliot, a scholar who believed to some extent in a safe and -reasonable freedom of opinion—using his own freedom to glorify the -“great American hero” known as the “scab.” President Lowell has -inherited the Eliot tradition, and in my travels about the country I -heard many rumors as to how he had stood by his professors in time of -stress. When I got to Harvard, and turned these rumors into fact, I -found an amusing situation. No circus rider who keeps his footing on two -horses has ever done a more deft and delicate feat of balancing than -President Lowell, with one foot on the Eliot tradition and the other -foot on the House of Lee-Higginson. - -They will tell you proudly that professors are not let out of Harvard -because of their opinions; and that is sometimes true. One reason is, -because the Harvard teaching staff is selected with meticulous care, and -because, when the new man comes to Harvard he comes under the influence -of a subtle but powerful atmosphere of good form. It is not crude -materialism, as in Columbia; it is cleverly compounded of high -intellectual and social qualities, and it is brought to the young -educators’ attention with humor and good fellowship. A friend of mine, a -Harvard man who knows the game, described to me from personal experience -how the State Street pressure operates. Somebody in Lee-Higginson calls -President Lowell on the telephone and says: “How can we get So-and-so to -put up the money for that chair, if young This-or-that gets his name in -the newspapers as lecturing to workingmen?” President Lowell smiles and -says he will see about it, and the young instructor is invited to dinner -and amiably shown how the most liberal university in America cannot run -entirely without money. The young instructor sees the point, and the -president goes away, thinking to himself: “Thank God we are not as -Columbia!” - -Even down to the humblest freshman such pressure is conveyed. There are -things that “are not done” at Harvard; and you would be surprised to -know how minute is the supervision. You might not think it was a grave -offense for a student, wearing a soft shirt in summer-time, to leave the -top button unfastened; but a student friend of mine, who had ideas of -the simple life—going back to nature and all that—was coldly asked by -Dean Gay: “Is the button of your shirt open by mistake, or is the button -missing?” And when he did not take this delicate hint, Professor Richard -C. Cabot told another student that he might help the young man by -advising him to close the top button of his shirt. I am advised that -Harvard men will call this story “rot”; therefore I specify that I have -it in writing from the man to whom it happened. - -And if they are so careful about shirt-buttons, they would hardly be -careless about public speeches. A couple of years ago the Harvard -Liberal Club made so bold as to invite Wilfred Humphries, a mild little -gentleman who served with the Y. M. C. A., to tell about his experiences -in Russia; whereupon the president of the Liberal Club received a letter -from the secretary to the Corporation of Harvard, politely pointing out -that there was likely to be embarrassment to the university, and would -the president of the club kindly call upon the secretary, in order to -provide him with arguments, “in case the press takes the thing up in a -way which might embarrass the progress of the Endowment Fund Campaign.” -Just as deftly as that, you see! - -I found that Harvard’s reputation for liberalism was based upon the -custom of President Lowell to take into his institution men who had been -expelled from other colleges. I was impressed by this, until Harvard men -explained to me how it is managed. The basis of it is a painstaking -inquiry into the character and opinions of those men, to make sure there -is nothing really dangerous about them. In some cases they are men who -have offended local interests, with which “State Street” has little -concern. Others are men of ability who have offended religious -prejudices in the provinces; the tradition of Harvard is Unitarian, and -nobody is shocked by the idea that his ancestors swung from the -tree-tops by their tails. The State of Texas has just passed a law -providing for the expulsion of professors who teach that idea, so in due -course you may hear of Harvard taking over some Texas scholar. - -How men are investigated before they are taken into Harvard is a matter -about which I happen to know from a man who underwent the ordeal. I will -call my informant Professor Smith, and he was head of a department in a -leading university. Appointed on a public service commission, he -discovered that the local gas company was engaged in swindling the city. -The facts got into the newspapers, and this public spirited professor -was on the verge of being expelled by his trustees, several of whom were -“in gas.” Some friends of his put the matter before President Lowell, -and Lowell made inquiry, and ascertained that Smith was a liberal of the -very mildest sort, well connected and affable, in every way worthy to -associate with the best families, and to train their sons; so Professor -Smith received a letter, asking him if he would come to Cambridge and -make the acquaintance of President Lowell. He made the journey, and -found himself a guest at a dinner party in the home of one of the -interlocking directorate. President Lowell was seated next to him, and -they chatted on many subjects, but only once did they touch on the -subject of Smith and his qualifications. - -“By the way,” said Lowell (I reproduce the conversation from careful -notes). “I understand you had some little unpleasantness in your home -city.” - -“Quite a good deal of it,” replied Smith. - -“I’m not quite clear about it,” said Lowell. “It had something to do -with the gas company, did it not?” - -“Yes,” replied Smith. - -“It was merely gas? It had nothing to do with electricity?” - -“Oh, no,” said Smith. “Nothing whatever.” - -“You are sure the electric light company was not involved?” - -“Quite sure. They are separate concerns.” - -“I see,” said Lowell, and talked about the European situation. - -So Professor Smith went home, and told a friend about the matter; the -friend made him repeat it over, word for word, and then burst out -laughing. “Don’t you see the point?” he asked; but Smith saw no point -whatever. - -“Don’t you know that gas companies and electric light companies are -sometimes rivals?” inquired the friend. “You can light your house with -either gas or electricity; you can cook with either gas or electricity, -you can heat with either gas or electricity.” - -“Yes, of course,” said Smith, still unenlightened. - -“Well, you attacked the gas company,” said the friend. “You did not -attack the Edison Electric Company of your city, which happens to be a -part of the electric trust which covers the entire United States. -Harvard is all tied up with this electrical trust, and Massachusetts -Tech still more so, and Lee, Higginson & Company are its bankers. -President Lowell was perfectly willing for you to fight your local gas -company, but he wanted to make sure that you hadn’t trod on the toes of -Harvard’s leading industry! You will get your invitation to Harvard, -I’ll wager.” - -And, sure enough, the invitation came a few days later! To complete the -humor of the story, the fact of the invitation became known at once -among the faculty of Professor Smith’s university, and had the effect of -instantly killing the talk of Professor Smith’s being asked to resign! - -I tell this incident as it was told to me. Standing by itself it might -not mean much; but before we finish with Harvard we shall have plenty of -evidence to prove that when the electric men play a tune, the -Lee-Higginson university dances. President Lowell, I am told, did not -know the difference between a mathematician and an astronomer; when -Pickering died, he proposed to put in a mathematician, and was naively -surprised when it was explained to him that modern astronomy has gone so -far that an observatory cannot be run by a mathematician, however -expert. But ignorant as our Boston Brahmin may be about the stars of the -milky way, it is certain that he knows all about the stars of State -Street, he has them carefully charted and plotted, and neither he nor -any member of his faculty ever bumps into them. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - FREE SPEECH BUT— - - -We have referred to the Harvard Liberal Club, an organization formed by -some graduates who sympathized with the cause of social justice. This -club brought speakers to Harvard, and got itself into the newspapers -several times; for example, during the anti-red hysteria they heard an -address from Federal Judge Anderson, who denounced the Palmer raids as -crimes against the constitution. This caused President Lowell great -annoyance, but he could not control the club, because it was a graduate -organization. He demanded that it abandon the name Harvard, saying it -might cause people to get a wrong idea of the university. Inquiries were -made to ascertain if legal measures could be taken; and when he found -that such measures wouldn’t work, he came to one of its meetings, very -courteous and deeply interested, trying to steer it into ways of -academic propriety. “We are all liberals at Harvard,” he said—an old, -old formula! For a generation the British labor party has been hearing -from the Tories: “We are all Socialists in England.” - -Just how much of a liberal President Lowell is, of his own impulse and -from his own conviction, was shown at the time that Louis D. Brandeis -was nominated by President Wilson for the Supreme Court. Brandeis is a -graduate of the Harvard Law School, and was a prosperous corporation -lawyer in Boston; a man of European culture and charming manners, he was -the darling of Harvard, in spite of the fact that he is a Jew. The Lees -and the Higginsons took him up—until suddenly he ran into the New Haven -railroad! Then the other crowd, the Kidders and the Peabodys, took him -up—until he ran into the gas company! After that everybody dropped him, -and if he had not been a man of wealth he would have been ruined. When -he was proposed for the Supreme Court, a committee of lawyers, with -Austen G. Fox, a Harvard man, at their head, took up the fight against -him in the United States Senate. This fight didn’t involve Harvard, and -there was no reason for President Lowell to meddle in it; but he made it -his personal fight, and a fight of the most determined and bitter -character. - -In 1918 there was a great strike in the Lawrence textile mills, and this -made a delicate situation, because Harvard holds six hundred thousand -dollars’ worth of woolen mill loans and mortgages, and an equal amount -of bonds and stocks. It seemed natural, therefore, to the overseers that -Harvard students should go out as militiamen to crush this strike; it -did not seem natural to them that members of the Liberal Club should -call meetings and invite strike leaders to tell the students of the -university their side of the case. But the members of this Liberal Club -persisted, and when the district attorney accused the strikers of -violence, they appointed a committee to interview him and get his facts. -They gave a dinner, to which they invited the directors of the mills to -meet the strike-leaders; they appointed a committee to consider terms of -settlement, and in the end they forced a compromise. - -Things like this caused most intense annoyance to the interlocking -directorate. This was voiced to a Harvard man of my acquaintance, one of -the organizers of the Liberal Club, by a Harvard graduate whose father -has been a Harvard overseer, and is one of Massachusetts’ most -distinguished jurists. In the Harvard Club of Boston my friend was -challenged to say what he meant by a liberal; and when his definition -was not found satisfactory, the Harvard graduate exclaimed: “A liberal? -I’ll tell you what a liberal is! A liberal is a —- —— —— —— —— ——!” In -order to reproduce the scene you will have to fill these blanks, not -with the ordinary terms of abuse used by longshoremen and lumber-jacks, -but with the most obscene expletives which your imagination can invent. - -Such is the present attitude of the ruling class of Harvard toward the -issue of free speech. The attitude of the students was delightfully set -forth by an editorial in the Harvard “Crimson,” at the time of the -Liberal Club lecture of Wilfred Humphries, Y. M. C. A. worker from -Russia. The “Crimson” was for Free Speech—But! What the “Crimson” wished -to forbid was “propaganda”; and it made clear that by this term it meant -any and all protest against things established. Said the cautious young -editor: “Not prohibited by law, propaganda creeps in and is accepted by -many as an almost essential part of freedom of speech!” This is as -persuasive as the communications of the Harvard Union to the liberal -students, barring various radicals from the platform, on the ground that -the Union did not permit “partisan” speakers: the Union’s idea of -non-partisan speakers being such well-poised and judicious conservatives -as Admiral Sims and Detective Burns! As the old saying runs: “Orthodoxy -is my doxy, heterodoxy is your doxy!” There is a standing rule at -Harvard barring “outside” speakers who discuss “contentious -contemporaneous questions of politics or economics”; and this rule was -used to bar Mrs. Pankhurst! - -I tell you of these petty incidents of discrimination; and yet, if we -are to keep our sense of proportion, we must state that in the totality -of American universities, Harvard ranks, from the point of view of -academic liberalism, among the three or four best. There was no -interference with its professors during the war hysteria—and I found but -one other large institution, the University of Chicago, of which this -statement may be made. Also, Harvard has to its credit one post-war -case, in which academic freedom was gravely involved, and in which the -Harvard tradition proved itself still alive. This is a curious and -dramatic story, and I will tell it in detail. - -In the summer of 1918 the United States Army invaded Archangel in -Northern Russia, and Vladivostok in Eastern Siberia, seizing the -territory of a friendly people and killing its inhabitants without the -declaration of war required by the constitution of the United States. -This invasion was the blackest crime in American public history, and was -denounced by many of our leading thinkers. Also it was denounced by five -obscure Russian Jews, mere children in age, living in the East-side -slums of New York City. Four boys and a girl printed a leaflet, asking -the American people not to kill their Russian compatriots, and they -distributed these leaflets in public—for which crime they were arrested, -taken to prison, and beaten and tortured so severely that one of them -died a few days later. The surviving four were placed on trial, and -after a hideous travesty of justice were given sentences of from fifteen -to twenty years in prison. - -This is known as the “Abrams case,” and it stood as one of our greatest -judicial scandals. Among others who protested was Professor Zechariah -Chafee, Jr., of the Harvard Law School. He published in the “Harvard Law -Review,” April, 1920, an article entitled “A Contemporary State Trial”; -and subsequently he embodied this article as a chapter in his book on -“Freedom of Speech.” Dean Pound of the Harvard Law School, with -Professors Frankfurter, Chafee and Sayre (President Wilson’s -son-in-law), also the librarian of the Law School, signed a petition for -executive clemency in this Abrams case. These actions excited great -indignation among the interlocking directorates, and Mr. Austen G. Fox, -a Harvard graduate and Wall Street lawyer, drew up a protest to the -Harvard board of overseers, which protest was signed by twenty prominent -corporation lawyers, all Harvard men, including Mr. Peter B. Olney, a -prominent Tammany politician; Mr. Beekman Winthrop, ex-governor of Porto -Rico, and Mr. Joseph H. Choate, Jr., recently notorious in connection -with the scandals of the Alien Property Custodian. The overseers -referred the matter to the “Committee to Visit the Law School,” which -consists of fourteen prominent servants of the plutocracy, including a -number of judges. The result was a “conference,” in reality a solemn -trial, which occupied an entire day and evening, May 22, 1921, at the -Harvard Club in Boston. Mr. Fox appeared, with a committee of his -supporters and a mass of documents in the case; also the United States -attorney and his assistant, serving as witnesses. - -President Lowell’s attitude on this occasion is described to me as that -of “a hen protecting her brood against an old Fox.” Professor Chafee -himself tells me that President Lowell stood by him all through the -“conference,” and made Mr. Fox uncomfortable by well-directed inquiries. -Mr. Fox’s principal charge was that Professor Chafee had taken his -quotations of testimony at the Abrams trial from the official record -submitted to the Supreme Court in the defendant’s appeal, instead of -going to the prosecuting attorney and getting the complete stenographic -record. And lo and behold, when Mr. Fox came to confront the fourteen -Harvard judges, it transpired that he himself had committed a similar -blunder, only far worse! He accused the five professors at the Law -School of having made false representations in their petition to -President Wilson; but instead of going to the office of his friend the -government prosecutor, and getting a photographic reproduction of the -petition as signed by the professors, Mr. Fox presented in evidence a -four-page circular, printed by the Abrams defense, containing a -fac-simile of the petition, with the signatures of the five professors; -the statements which Mr. Fox claimed were inaccurate were printed on the -reverse side of this circular. But it was easy for the professors to -show that they had nothing to do with the circular or its statements. -The document had been compiled by the Abrams defense some time after the -professors signed the petition. Mr. Fox, champion of strict legal -accuracy, had based his charge upon a piece of propaganda literature, -for which the professors had been no more responsible than he! - -It is interesting to note how the interlocking newspapers of Boston -handled this incident. It was, as you can understand, a most sensational -piece of news; but it was an “inside” story, a family dispute of the -interlocking directorate. The only newspaper which gave any account of -the indictment of the professors was the Hearst paper, which is to a -certain extent an outlaw institution, and publishes sensational news -concerning the plutocracy, when the interests of Mr. Hearst and his -group are not involved. But no other Boston newspaper published the news -about this trial at the time that it took place; the first account was -in the Boston “Herald,” nearly two months later, after the story was -stale! - -It was an amazing demonstration of the power of the Boston plutocracy; -and it affords us curious evidence of the consequences of news -suppression. I heard about the Chafee trial all the way from California -to Massachusetts, and back again; and every time I heard it, I heard a -different version—and always from some one who knew it positively, on -the very best authority. These guardians of the dignity of Harvard -thought that by keeping the story quiet they were helping the cause of -academic freedom; but what they really did was to set loose a flood of -wild rumors, for the most part discreditable to themselves. Of course, -they may say that they do not care about gossip; but why is it not just -as important to educate people about Harvard, as to educate them about -the ancient Egyptians and Greeks? - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - INTERFERENCE - - -We have seen President Lowell’s behavior when a group of Wall Street -lawyers attempted to dictate to his university. We have next to -investigate his attitude when it is his own intimates and financial -supporters who are being attacked; when it is, not Wall Street, but -State Street, which calls to him for help. Here again our Boston Brahmin -has put himself on record, with exactly the same self-will and -decisiveness—but, unfortunately, on the other side! We were promised -some more evidence on the subject of Harvard in relation to -Lee-Higginson and Edison Electric. Now we are to have it. - -I am indebted for the details of the incident to Mr. Morris Llewellyn -Cooke, an engineer of Philadelphia who was Director of Public Works -under a reform administration. For a series of five years Mr. Cooke had -been a regular lecturer at the Graduate School of Business -Administration of Harvard University. He prepared two lectures on the -public utility problem in American cities, which he gave at a number of -universities, and was invited to give at Harvard. Mr. Cooke took the -precaution to inquire whether he would be free “to discuss conditions -exactly as they exist in the public utility field.” The reply was, in -the magnificent Harvard manner: “I am desirous that your lectures be -both specific and frank. I am anxious for the students to see clearly -the real relation of local public utilities to the municipalities, and -vice versa, and am not considering whether your remarks may hurt any -one’s feelings.” - -Mr. Cooke came and delivered his two lectures, and was announced to give -them again; but four months later came a letter from the dean of the -Graduate School, saying: “Mr. Lowell feels, and I agree with him, that -in view of the use you made of your invitation to come here this last -year, we cannot renew the invitation.” Mr. Cooke then wrote to President -Lowell to find out what was the matter, and was told that he had -violated academic ethics by giving to the press an abstract of his -lectures. In answering President Lowell, Mr. Cooke pointed out that six -weeks prior to giving the lectures he had written on three separate -occasions to the Graduate School, giving notice of his intention to -publish an abstract of his remarks, because officials in other cities -wished the information on public utilities which he had accumulated. -“Trusting that if this is not entirely satisfactory to you, you will so -advise me at your convenience,” etc. The reply from the Business School -had been: “I note that you intend to publish these two lectures later, -which will be perfectly satisfactory to us.” - -President Lowell now condescended to explain to Mr. Cooke wherein he had -offended; he had violated “academic customs ... not in the least -peculiar to Harvard, but true in all universities.” Mr. Cooke thereupon -wrote to universities all over the United States; he obtained statements -from a score or two of university professors, deans and presidents, -showing that not only was there no such custom, but that it was a quite -common custom for lecturers at universities to make abstracts of their -lectures and furnish these to the press. The authorities quoted include -the president of the University of Wisconsin, and a dean who is now -president; Professor Dewey of Columbia, Hoxie of Chicago—and Frankfurter -of President Lowell’s own university! Theodore Roosevelt wrote: - - Until I received your letter, I knew nothing whatever of any rule - prohibiting the remarks of academic lecturers from being published in - the periodical press or in other ways being quoted as material used in - the lecture room. - -If you really want to test the sincerity of President Lowell’s -statement, here is the way to do it: Imagine Theodore Roosevelt, -distinguished Harvard alumnus, coming to his alma mater to deliver a -lecture on “The Duties of the College Man as a Citizen,” and preparing a -summary of his lecture and giving it to the press; and then imagine him -receiving from President Lowell a letter rebuking him for his action, -and informing him that because of it he would not again be invited to -speak at Harvard! - -No, we shall have to examine Mr. Cooke’s lectures, for some other reason -why his career as a Harvard lecturer was so suddenly cut short. Mr. -Cooke has printed the lectures in pamphlet form under the title -“Snapping Cords.” On page 9 I find a statement of the over-valuation of -public utilities in Philadelphia, and note that the Philadelphia -Electric Company has securities to the amount of over fifty million -dollars upon an actual valuation of less than twenty-five million. And -this is an Edison concern, allied with Boston Edison and Lee Higginson! -I turn to page 12, and learn how the National Electric Light -Association, the society of electrical engineers, is being used as a -dummy by the electric light interests. I turn to page 14, and find the -American Electric Railway Association shown up as planning to corrupt -American education, creating a financed Bureau of Public Relations for -the self-stated purpose of “influencing the sources of public education -particularly by (a) lectures on the Chautauqua circuit and (b) formation -of a committee of prominent technical educators to promote the formation -and teaching of correct principles on public service questions in -technical and economic departments at American colleges, through courses -of lectures and otherwise.” - -The tactless Mr. Cooke goes on to examine the activities of “prominent -technical educators” who have lent themselves to this program. Among the -names I find—can such a thing be possible?—George F. Swain, professor of -civil engineering in the Graduate School of Applied Science of Harvard -University! Professor Swain, it appears, has done “valuation work” for -Mr. Morgan’s New Haven Railroad—our interlocking directorate, you -perceive! You may not know what “valuation work” consists of; it is the -job of determining how much money you shall pay for your water, light, -gas and transportation, and needless to say, the utility corporations -want the valuation put as high as possible. Mr. Cooke, since the -incidents here narrated, put through a rate case whereby the -Philadelphia Electric Company collects from the city and the people of -that city one million dollars _less_ per year. So you see just what an -ornery cuss Mr. Cooke is! - -Professor Swain lays out “principles” for the doing of this ticklish -“valuation work.”[C] One of his “principles” is that when anything has -increased in value, the increased valuation shall be allowed the -corporations, but when anything has decreased in value there shall be no -corresponding decrease in the valuation! (We used to play this game when -we were children; we called it “Heads I win and tails you lose.”) -Another of Professor Swain’s “principles” is that when states, counties -or cities have helped to pay the cost of grade crossings, the railroads -shall be credited with the full value of these grade crossings. (We used -to play that game also when we were children; we called it “Findings is -keepings.”) Needless to say, a man who is so clever as to get away with -things like that regards himself as superior to the rest of us, who let -him get away with it. So, as president of the American Society of Civil -Engineers, Professor Swain voices his distrust of democratic ideals, and -informs the engineers that “present-day humanitarianism leads to race -degeneracy.” - ------ - -Footnote C: - - See record of hearing, May 3, 1920, at State House, Trenton, N. J., - before Governor Edwards, on motion of City of Jersey City for removal - of Public Service Commission. - -And then I turn on to page 35 of the pamphlet, and stumble on still more -tactless conduct on the part of this dreadful Mr. Cooke. He tells us -about Dugald C. Jackson, professor of electrical engineering at Harvard -University,[D] who also does this fancy “valuation work.” Says Mr. -Cooke: “Professor Jackson has never really been so much a university -professor as a corporate employe giving courses in universities. While -he probably receives five thousand dollars from his present teaching -post he must receive at least four times this amount from his corporate -clients—charging as he does one hundred dollars a day for his own time -and a percentage on the time of his assistants!” - ------ - -Footnote D: - - Professor Jackson, in qualifying as an expert before the Pennsylvania - Public Service Commission, introduced himself by the single statement - that he was “professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute - of Technology and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and - professor of electrical engineering at Harvard University.” It should - be explained that he held the last two positions only ex-officio, by - virtue of the affiliation of the two institutions which existed for a - few years. - ------ - -Mr. Cooke goes on to show that before taking up teaching, Professor -Jackson was a chief engineer for the Edison General Electric Company. In -1910, while a professor at Harvard, he rendered a report showing that -the Chicago Telephone Company was running behind over eight hundred -thousand dollars per year; but two years later it was proven that the -company could afford a reduction in rates of seven hundred thousand -dollars per year! Again, Professor Jackson rendered a report showing -that the Buffalo General Electric Company had a valuation of $4,966,000; -but the state commission subsequently fixed the valuation at $3,194,000. -He valued three thousand municipal arc lamps at $21.70 each, but the New -York commission showed that the actual cost of these lamps was $13.53. -Says Mr. Cooke: - -“What constitutes being employed by a corporation? Professor Jackson is -to all intents and purposes consulting engineer in chief as to rates and -valuations to the entire electrical industry in the United States. He -has made inventories of the Boston Edison Company and the New York -Edison Company. He is now engaged in doing similar work for the -Philadelphia Electric Company. These three companies have a combined -gross annual income of thirty-five million dollars.” - -Do you see the “nigger in the woodpile” now? If you are a mine guard or -strike-breaking gunman, experienced in shooting up the tent-colonies of -striking miners, the corporations will pay you five dollars a day and -board for your services. If you are a “prominent technical educator,” -with a string of university degrees and titles, who can enable the great -corporations to swindle the public out of tens of millions of dollars -every year, then you can command a salary of a hundred dollars a day, -with a percentage on the time of your assistants. That is what a college -education is for; and if you think that an over-cynical statement, I ask -you to read the whole of this book before you decide! - -And what is a college president for? A college president is paid by the -interlocking directorate to take their “consulting engineers” and -“valuation experts” and cover them with a mantle of respectability, -enabling them to do their dirty work in the name of education and public -service. And if any freak individual comes along, trying to break in and -spoil the game, the function of a college president is to furnish what -the college football player knows as “interference“—tripping the fellow -up, slugging him, maiming him. In football there are strict rules -against fouls; but in this game of plutocratic education “everything -goes.” - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - THE LASKI LAMPOON - - -A more recent test of Harvard University was made by Harold J. Laski, a -brilliant young writer whom President Lowell in an unguarded moment -admitted to teach political science. Laski holds unorthodox ideas -concerning the modern capitalist state; he thinks it may not be the -divinely appointed instrument which it considers itself. Laski raised -this question in his Harvard classes, which caused tremendous excitement -in State Street. The Harvard “drive” for sixteen millions was on, and a -number of people wrote that they would give no money to Harvard while -Laski was on its teaching staff. On the other hand, a Chicago lawyer -wrote that his son had never taken any interest in his studies -previously, but that since he had come under Laski’s influence he had -become a serious student; this lawyer sent fifty thousand dollars to -make up the losses. The controversy got into the Boston newspapers, and -President Lowell stood by Laski; no Harvard professor should be driven -out because of his opinions. “Thank God we are not as Columbia!” - -I asked a Cambridge friend about President Lowell’s heroism, and he took -a cynical view of it. Lowell is the author of a book interpreting the -British constitution, and has a reputation in England based on this -book; he has received an Oxford degree, and hopes some day to be -ambassador. In England people really believe in free speech, and -practice their beliefs; and Laski, it happens, is a Manchester Jew, his -family associated with the present ruling group in England. Also, Laski -himself wields a capable pen, and is not the sort of man one chooses for -an enemy. If Laski were to go home and state that he had been expelled -from President Lowell’s university because of disbelief in the modern -state, what would become of Lowell’s English reputation? Said my friend: -“If Laski had been a German Jew, or a Russian Jew”—and he smiled. - -As to the overseers and their handling of the case, Professor Laski -writes me that they were very nice to him. “I was simply invited to a -dinner at which we exchanged opinions in a friendly fashion. My only -doubt there was a doubt whether the committee realized how very -conservative my opinions really were in this changing social world. Like -most business men, they had little or no knowledge of the results of -modern social science.” - -The climax came with the Boston police strike in the fall of 1919. This -was a very curious illustration of the part which the Harvard plutocracy -plays in the public life of Boston, so pardon me if I tell the story in -some detail. You know how the cost of living doubled all over the -country, while the wages of public servants increased very little. The -policemen of Boston were not able to live on their wages; they begged -for an increase, and the police commissioner promised them the increase -if they would wait until after the war. They waited; and then the police -commissioner tried to keep his promise, and the mayor and the Democratic -administration worked out a settlement. But the Harvard plutocracy, -which runs the government of the state, decided not to permit that -settlement, but to force a strike of the policemen, so that they could -smash the policemen’s union. The late Murray Crane, senator and -millionaire, holder of a Harvard LL. D., planned the job in the Union -Club of Boston, together with Kidder, Peabody & Co., the bankers. -Governor Coolidge, the tool of Crane, upset the arrangements made by the -mayor of Boston, and the mayor was so furious that he “pasted the -governor one in the eye”—the inside reason why Coolidge disappeared so -mysteriously during the strike. But the newspapers of the interlocking -directorate celebrated him as the hero of the affair, and he became -vice-president of the United States on a wave of glory! - -The strike came, and according to the standard American technique of -strike-breaking, hoodlums were turned loose at the right moment, to -throw stones and terrify the public. The whole affair was obviously -stage-managed; nothing was stolen, and no real harm was done. Insiders -assured me that all the time the “riots” were going on, there was a safe -reserve of police locked up in the police-station, waiting in case -things should go too far. The Boston policemen were represented as -traitors to society, and a wave of fury swept the country—including -Harvard, which holds hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Boston -city bonds, also securities of Boston public service corporations. These -properties must be protected; so a “Harvard Emergency Committee” was -formed, headed by the professor who had first reported to the overseers -Professor Laski’s too great zeal in outside activities. Needless to say, -no one complained about the “outside activities” of this anti-strike -professor; on the contrary, President Lowell issued a resounding call to -Harvard men to help smash the policemen’s strike. - -Incidentally, Harvard men smashed Harold J. Laski, who had the temerity -to interject himself into this class war. Laski went to Boston and made -a speech to the strikers’ wives, expressing sympathy with their cause; -whereat all Boston raged. “I would like to ask you something, Mr. -Laski,” said President Lowell, at a dinner party. “Why did you make that -speech?” “Why, Mr. Lowell,” said Laski, smiling, “I made it because -there is a general impression throughout the labor world that Harvard is -a capitalistic institution, and I wanted to show that it is not true.” -Laski was only twenty-six years old at the time, and it took some nerve, -you must admit. How to get this young incendiary out of Harvard was the -next job of the interlocking directorate. - -Meet Mr. James Thomas Williams, Jr., of Boston. Mr. Williams was -graduated from Columbia University in the same year that I quit it; he -then joined the Associated Press, and now serves the interlocking -directorate as editor of the Boston “Evening Transcript,” the paper -which is read by every Tory in New England. You may learn more about -this paper by consulting pages 284, 306, 307 and 379 of “The Brass -Check.” Also, perhaps I should tell you a little incident which happened -after “The Brass Check” came out. Desiring to test the capitalist -newspapers, I made up a dignified advertisement of the book—nothing -abusive or sensational, merely opinions from leading journals of Europe. -I sent this advertisement, with a perfectly good check, to the Boston -“Evening Transcript,” and the check was returned to me, with the -statement that the “Transcript” thought it best not to publish the -advertisement, because of the possibility of being sued for libel. - -I was puzzled at first, wondering what paper might sue the Boston -“Evening Transcript” for publishing an advertisement of “The Brass -Check.” Then I remembered that in the book I had accused a Boston -newspaper of having shared in the slush funds of the New York, New -Haven, and Hartford Railroad; also of having suppressed reports of -Justice Brandeis’ exposures of the Boston Gas Company, at the same time -publishing page advertisements from this gas company; also of having -published advertisements of “Harvard Beer, 1,000 Pure,” at the same time -suppressing news of the fact that the federal government was prosecuting -the manufacturers of Harvard Beer for violation of the pure food laws. -So I understood that the Boston “Evening Transcript” was afraid of being -sued by the Boston “Evening Transcript.” - -Now behold the editor of this fine old Tory newspaper rushing to the -defense of his interlocking directorate. Mr. Laski must be driven from -Harvard, and Mr. Williams knows exactly how to do it. He interviews the -editors of the Harvard “Crimson” and “Advocate;” finally in the editors -of the “Lampoon,” he finds a group who will carry out his ideas. The -result is an issue of that paper, January 16, 1920, known to history as -the “Laski Lampoon.” If ever there was a fouler product of class venom, -it has not yet come under my eye. - -I have never had the pleasure of meeting Harold J. Laski, but I form an -idea of him from a score of pictures in this publication. From a -painting on the cover I gather he is a short, thin, naked young skeleton -with a paunch; he wears large glasses, and has a fringe of whiskers, or -long hair, and a red dawn behind him, serving as a halo. From another -picture, a piece of clay modelling, I am puzzled about the whiskers, or -hairs, because I do not know whether they are little worms or pieces of -spaghetti. From other cartoons I gather that Professor Laski sometimes -wears clothes, and does not wear them entirely in the Harvard manner; -that is, his clothes do not fit him, and his hat has too broad a brim, -and is not worn entirely straight on his head. I gather that he -sometimes smokes cigarettes, a vice entirely unknown in refined -undergraduate circles. - -Also Mr. Laski is described to me in a hundred or so sketches, verses -and witticisms. He is “the great indoor agitator”; he is “a member of -the firm of Lenin, Trotski and Laski.” This evil young man, you must -understand, holds the idea that the people of Russia should be permitted -to work out their own revolution in their own way, and that American -troops should not be sent in to attack them in Archangel and Siberia -without a declaration of war. This makes him a “Bolshevik”; this makes -him “Laski de Lenin,” and “Ivan Itchykoff,” and the author of “The -Constitution of the Russian Itchocracy,” and of the “Autobiographia -Laskivia.” “Love had to go. One love was bad enough, but thirty or forty -were insupportable. I had tried it and I knew.” He is invited to “sing a -song of Bolsheviks,” and he tells us that “Comrade Lenin has a hundred -and forty-eight motor cars, and Comrade Trotsky has fifty-two.” He is -“Cataline,” and again he is “Professor Moses Smartelikoff”—the “Moses” -meaning that he is a Jew, and the rest that he thinks differently from -Harvard. Such thinking must not be allowed to get a start, say our -cautious young undergraduates: - - The moral, oh ye masters, is, without a doubt, - Stop infection early; kick the first one out. - -And here are more verses, addressed to our unpopular professor: - - As you sit there, growing prouder, - With your skillful tongue awag, - As your piping voice grows louder, - Preaching Socialistic gag— - Stop a moment, let us warn you, - Nature’s freak, - That we loathe you and we scorn you, Bolshevik! - -Harold Laski was scheduled to give a lecture at Yale, and when he got -there he found this copy of the “Lampoon” on sale all over town, -together with a reprint of an editorial in the “Transcript” denouncing -him. He was young, and rather sensitive, and naturally it occurred to -him that he was wasting his talents upon Harvard. He would be allowed to -stay there, he told a friend of mine, but he would never be promoted, he -would have no career. On the other hand, the University of London -offered him a full professorship at a higher salary, in a part of the -world where men may think what they please about the capitalist state. -Laski resigned; and so cleverly the job had been managed—he had quit of -his own free will, and the great university could go on boasting that -its professors are not forced out because of their opinions! As a -commentary on this story, I am sure you will be interested in an extract -from a letter from Laski, dated August 16, 1922: - - The results of the American atmosphere are quite clear. - - 1. Many men deliberately adopt reactionary views to secure promotion. - - 2. Many more never express opinions lest the penalty be exacted. - - 3. Those who do are penalized when the chance of promotion comes. - - I am very much impressed by the contrast between the general freedom - of the English academic atmosphere and the illiberalism of America. - Three of my colleagues at the London School of Economics are labor - candidates; business men predominate on the governing body; but - interference is never dreamed of. At Oxford and Cambridge the widest - range of view prevails. But alumni do not protest, and if they do, - they are told to mind their own business. In America, one always feels - hampered by the sense of a control outside; in England you never feel - that it is necessary to watch your tongue. No ox treads upon it. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - RAKING THE DUST-HEAPS - - -We have studied the “Laski Lampoon” to see what we can learn about -Professor Laski. Let us now examine it to see what we can learn about -Harvard. You remember the student who was compelled to button his -collar; so you would expect to find Harvard objecting to a radical -professor who did not wear the right kind of tie, and did not get his -clothes from the right tailor. The “Lampoon” refers again and again to -this, both in verse and drawings; it speaks of Laski’s “creed of -charming untidiness”; and if you want to know about Harvard’s creed of -charming tidiness, turn to the advertising portions of this paper. One -cannot publish an American magazine without advertisements, and the -“Laski Lampoon” is almost up to the standard of the “Saturday Evening -Post”—it has fifteen pages of reading matter and thirty-nine of -advertisements! - -Some of this matter we may assume was contributed as a means of helping -to save our alma mater from Bolshevism; for example, the page of the -Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the page of the United Shoe Machinery -Company, and the quarter-page of the Boston “Evening Transcript,” -telling us: “This paper stands unflinchingly at home and abroad for -‘straight Americanism,’ for the cultivation of ‘an American character,’ -which the First American called ‘the Cement that binds the Union.’“ But -the rest are the advertisements of concerns which expect to sell things; -and as they spend enormous sums in this way, they make it their business -to get the returns, and know how to appeal to each group. So here we -learn what Harvard men like, and why they did not like Professor Laski! -“Follow the Arrow and you follow the style in collars,” we are told, and -on another page: “_Correctness_ dominates the style policies of these -stores.” Here are the usual handsome, haughty young men in “the -Kuppenheimer clothes,” and here is the specially proper “Brogue Boot.” - -Wishing to see just what Harvard men spend their money for, I take the -trouble to classify this advertising. There are seven and one-half pages -devoted to clothing, three and three-fourths devoted to luxurious -hotels, three and one-half devoted to automobiles, and three and -one-half to investments of the interlocking directorate, including an -invitation to gamble in German marks. One and one-half pages are given -to tobacco, one and one-fourth to candy, one and one-fourth to games and -sporting goods, one to jewels, one to movies, three-fourths to music, -one-fourth to the “Transcript,” one-fourth to art, and one-fourth to -books. From the above we may reckon that Harvard students spend thirty -times as much on clothes as they spend on books, and fourteen times as -much on motor cars as on art. Such is the state of “culture” when -teaching is dominated by a vested class, which fears ideas, and forbids -all thinking save what is certified to be harmless. - -It is a truism in the affairs of the mind, that when you bar one truth, -you bar all; and when you refuse to permit students to use their minds, -when you withdraw from them the vital stimulus of intellectual -conflict—then they go off and get drunk. The last “senior picnic” at -Harvard was “a glorified booze party,” so I was told by several who -attended. There was a ball game, and certain prominent residents of the -“Gold Coast” amused themselves by circulating among the crowd, making -filthy remarks to girls. Some of the students became indignant, and -wished to take the matter up, knowing that the remedy for such evils -lies in publicity. But Mr. Frederick J. Allen, secretary to the -Corporation—the same gentleman who made the tactful inquiry about the -Wilfred Humphries lecture—pleaded with them to spare the good name of -the university. So of course there will be another “glorified booze -party” next year; and, needless to say, there will be the useful efforts -to make certain that Harvard men do not think any new or vital thought -about the issues which are shaping the mind of the world. - -Class ignorance, class fear, and class repression are written over the -modern curricula at Harvard, as at all other American universities. It -proclaims that it opens its doors to all classes of the community, and -sets forth statistics to prove that it is not a rich man’s affair; yet -it has among its thirty overseers only three or four educators, not one -woman, not one representative of agriculture, and not one of labor! The -modern revolutionary movement is not explained to the students; and so -they go out, ready to believe the grotesque falsehoods which are served -up to them in the Boston “Evening Transcript” and the Providence -“Journal”; ready to be led into any sort of lynching bee by the hundred -per cent profiteers. - -There was one young graduate of Harvard who managed to chop his way out -of this glacier of cultured prejudice, and went over to Russia and gave -his life for the revolution. His generous spirit will wipe out in -Russian history the infamies committed by American capitalist government -against the workers of Russia. He is in every way as beautiful and -inspiring a figure as Lafayette, and he will live in the imaginations of -the Russian people, precisely as Lafayette lives in ours. A hundred -years from now he will be Harvard’s proudest product; but what has -Harvard snobbery to say about him today? During the endowment drive for -sixteen million dollars, carried on three years ago, Harvard boasted of -its “hundred per cent record” for patriotism—but adding three words, for -which it will blush to the end of history: “EXCEPT JOHN REED.” - -No, the modern revolutionary movement is not interpreted at the -university of Lee-Higginson. What is interpreted? I have a list of some -of the titles of “theses in English,” accepted for the Ph.D. degree by -Harvard University in the last ten years, and representing Harvard’s -view of general culture. Slaves in Boston’s great department store, in -which Harvard University owns twenty-five hundred shares of stock, be -reconciled to your long hours and low wages and sentence to die of -tuberculosis—because upon the wealth which you produce some learned -person has prepared for mankind full data on “The Strong Verb in -Chaucer.” Policemen who have had your strike smashed by Harvard -students, rest content with your starvation wages—because one of these -students has enlightened mankind on “The Syntax of the Infinitive in -Shakespeare.” Girls who work in the textile mills, who walk the streets -of the “she-towns” of New England and part with your virtue for the -price of a sandwich, be rejoiced—because you have made it possible for -humanity to be informed concerning “The Subjunctive in Layamon’s -‘Brut.’” Men who slave twelve hours a day in front of blazing white -furnaces of Bethlehem, Midvale and Illinois Steel, cheer up and take a -fresh grip on your shovels—you are making it possible for mankind to -acquire exact knowledge concerning “The Beginnings of the Epistolary -Novel in the Romance Languages.” Miners, who toil in the bowels of the -earth in hourly danger of maiming and suffocation, be reconciled to the -failure of a great university to install safety devices to protect your -lives—because that money has gone to the collecting and editing of -“Political Ballads Issued During the Administration of Sir Robert -Walpole.” Peons, who quiver under the lash of the masters’ whip beneath -tropic suns in Central America, be docile—because your labors helped to -pay off the bonds of the United Fruit Company, so that a Harvard scholar -might win a teaching position by compiling “Chapters in the History of -Literary Patronage from Chaucer to Caxton.” - - - - - CHAPTER XX - THE UNIVERSITY OF U. G. I. - - -Having visited the city in which they ask you what you are worth, and -the city in which they ask you what you know, we have next to visit the -city in which they ask you who your grandfather was. We shall find that -in these modern days the purpose of the inquiry is to find out if your -grandfather was rich. If your grandfather was poor, it will be necessary -for you to become richer before you get what you want in that city. - -In order to reach Philadelphia from Boston we take the New York, New -Haven & Hartford Railroad, which is a Morgan road with a recent Harvard -overseer for chairman, a Brown trustee for vice-president, a recent Yale -president for director, and a member of the Yale advisory board, a -Washburn College trustee, a Wellesley trustee, a Pratt Institute -trustee, and two Harvard visitors for directors. The second part of our -journey is on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which is a Morgan road and is -interlocked with the Guaranty Trust Company, Massachusetts Tech, Johns -Hopkins, Princeton, Yale, the University of Pittsburgh, the United -States Steel Corporation, Bryn Mawr College, Wilson College, Carnegie -Tech, the Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia and the University of -Pennsylvania. Or, if we prefer, we can take the Baltimore & Ohio -Railroad, which has a Johns Hopkins trustee for president, and another -Johns Hopkins trustee for director, a Pittsburgh trustee, a Princeton -trustee, a Lafayette trustee, a Rutgers trustee, a Teachers’ College and -a Lehigh trustee for directors, also a Morgan partner and a First -National Bank director and two Guaranty Trust Company directors and a -trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. Or we can take the Reading -Railroad, which is Morgan and University of Pennsylvania, University of -Pittsburgh, Swarthmore and Pennsylvania State; or the Philadelphia, -Baltimore and Washington, which is University of Pennsylvania, Equitable -Life, and Johns Hopkins. - -We arrive in Philadelphia, which means the City of Brotherly Love, and -observe in every down-town city block its ideals embodied in especially -large men in blue uniform, riding on especially large horses and -carrying especially large clubs, also revolvers scarcely concealed. -Philadelphia is located in the state of Pennsylvania, which means Penn’s -Woodland, and was named after a radical pacifist. All over these -woodlands now ride the state constabulary, and club the heads of persons -such as William Penn whenever they show themselves in action. - -In the New York branch of our plutocratic empire of education we found -the emperor, and in the Boston branch we found his son; in Philadelphia -we find the eldest of the grand dukes. The office of J. P. Morgan & -Company in that city is known as Drexel & Company, and Philadelphia’s -great university is presided over by Mr. Edward T. Stotesbury, head of -Drexel & Company, and partner in J. P. Morgan & Company of New York. Mr. -Stotesbury is the chief investment banker of that part of the country; -he is president of three railroads and director in about twenty, also in -about twenty coal companies, and as many financial institutions, banks, -trust companies, safe deposit and insurance companies, also the Baldwin -Locomotive Works and the Cambria Steel Company. The laws of the United -States strictly forbid railroads to own coal companies, and vice versa, -but the interlocking directorate has defied this law for a generation, -and Mr. Stotesbury is one of the principal defiers. - -This eldest of the grand dukes is active in their Grand Ducal party, -having taken the job of raising the money to buy the presidency of the -United States in 1904 and 1908. He is also a patron of the graces of -life; he spent fourteen thousand dollars for a trotting horse in a city -in which tens of thousands of little children go to school hungry every -day; he is so little ashamed of this performance that he caused it to be -embodied in his biography in “Who’s Who.” As second grand duke of his -university, Mr. Stotesbury has the son of old “Pete” Widener, -Philadelphia’s traction king; as assistants on the board of this -university he has a partner in his banking firm, and a choice assortment -of plutocrats, totalling as follows: five bankers, three lawyers, two -public utility officials, two corporation officials, three -manufacturers, an insurance and coal mining man, a publisher, an -architect, an engineer, two doctors, two judges, and a senator. It is -difficult to classify these trustees exactly, because the functions of -the various members overlap; most of the bankers are in the coal -business, the lawyers are directors in banks, the architect is an -exbanker, the engineer is director of a power company and a trolley -company, while the publisher is president of a steel company and a -railroad, and director of a national bank. One of the public utility -officials is the brother of Senator Penrose, one of the most -aristocratic political corruptionists America ever had; one of the -lawyers, Wickersham, was Taft’s attorney general; the senator is George -Wharton Pepper, chief lackey to the plutocracy of Pennsylvania. Another -lawyer is general counsel and active vice-president of the United Gas -Improvement Company; two of the bankers are directors in that company. -Another of the bankers is a sugar smuggler, and one of the manufacturers -helped in the effort to buy a presidential nomination for General Wood. - -One could not get a more plutocratic board than this; and the -significant thing about it is that they are nearly all of them active, -hard-fighting plutocrats; no retired bandits fattening on their -accumulated loot, but hard campaigners, living in the saddle, riding day -by day to combat. They are the banking men, the coal men, the gas men, -the railroad men, who are robbing the public and crushing labor hour by -hour, and the control they exercise over their educational system is of -the instant, vigilant, smashing kind which you would expect from -military men on hard service. - -It is a little difficult to find a satisfactory name for a university in -which so many plutocratic interests are so completely represented. I -might call it the University of Morgan-Drexel, or I might call it the -University of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and be entirely just and exact. -After studying its management and history, I realize that its most -active single interest is the United Gas Improvement Company of -Philadelphia, known as U. G. I. You must not think of this as a local -gas company; it is a great chain of corporations, ruling over three -hundred cities and towns, and with a total investment of five hundred -millions of dollars. Of the seven directors of this concern, Mr. -Stotesbury and two others are on the board of the university, and a -fourth left only last year; also an attorney for the U. G. I. is on the -board. Mr. Randall Morgan, vice president of the U. G. I., is chairman -of the finance committee of the university, the all-powerful position. - -Some eighteen years ago Lincoln Steffens described the City of Brotherly -Love in an article entitled “Philadelphia Corrupt and Contented.” He -told how the political ring voted dead dogs and Negro babies at -elections, and how they played poker in hotel rooms for the franchises -and public privileges of the city. Philadelphia was corrupt in those -days, but it was not really contented; for the people had assembled with -ropes in their hands, to mob their city councilmen who were giving away -a franchise to the U. G. I. But since those days the war has come, and -taught our rulers how to handle social discontent. There was a general -strike in the City of Brotherly Love, and it was smashed; the little -Socialist bookstore was raided, the books burned and everybody who sold -them jailed, and now Philadelphia is truly contented, and where the -interlocking directorate used to plunder in tens of millions it now -plunders in hundreds.[E] - -[Footnote E: In April, 1922, all the officers and directors of the -United Gas Improvement Company, and its subsidiaries, were indicted by -the Federal grand jury in New York for criminal activities. This grand -jury took testimony for over four weeks, hearing city officials from all -over the Eastern and Central states. The charges listed in the -indictment were that the U. G. I. “(1) instituted and caused to be -instituted unwarranted, vexatious and tortuous litigation against -competitors for the purpose of injuring and intimidating them and -preventing them from continuing to engage in the industry; (2) -instigating the false arrest of competitors and falsely charged said -competitors with counterfeiting trade-marks; (3) acquired control of -competing companies wherever possible and operated said companies as -ostensible but not real competitors of the United Gas Improvement -Company; (4) secretly and fraudulently acquired stock control of -competing companies and eliminated competition on the part of said -companies; (5) entered or caused to be entered collusive bids for -contracts for furnishing and maintaining incandescent gas street lamps -by two or more companies belonging to the United Gas Improvement -Company, each company falsely representing itself to be independent and -not connected with any other company bidding for the same contract; (6) -concealed and denied ownership of various subsidiary companies, and -operated said companies ostensibly as competitors but in fact as -unlawful instruments in accomplishing the objects of the combination and -monopoly; (7) circulated or caused to be circulated false and misleading -reports concerning competitors for the purpose of preventing -competition; (8) molested, injured, and interfered with competitors for -the purpose of intimidating and discouraging them and preventing them -from continuing as competitors in the industry; (9) entered into -contracts with competitors whereby said competitors agreed to refrain -from competition.” The prosecutions were called off by Attorney-General -Daugherty, the particular government official whom President Harding has -appointed for the protecting of big business criminals in the United -States.] - -From the beginning the U. G. I. has been vigilant in holding down the -professors in its university. As early as 1886 Professor Edmund J. James -prepared a paper in which he showed the excessive cost of gas furnished -by private companies; for this he was severely mishandled. Later on, -when a syndicate was formed to steal the waterworks from the city of -Philadelphia, they offered Professor James twenty thousand dollars to -keep still on the subject of municipal waterworks; and when he declined -this most generous proposition, they let him go to the University of -Chicago. - -Next, in 1898, Professor Leo S. Rowe, now director of the Pan-American -Union, published a paper on Philadelphia’s experiences with its gas -supply. Mr. Clark, one of the vice-presidents of the U. G. I., took -great offense at these statements and made desperate efforts to compel -Mr. Rowe to change them. Professor E. W. Bemis of the University of -Chicago has stated over his own signature as follows: “Failing in this -endeavor, he, Clark, became much excited, and declared to me that if -Professor Rowe did not change or withdraw the account, he would lose all -social and scientific standing in Philadelphia and at the University of -Pennsylvania. Mr. Clark added that he was positive of this, because he -was in close touch with both the city and the university.” Bear in mind, -if you can, the name of this injudicious Professor Bemis, because we -shall hear about him and his adventures at the University of Chicago. - -A friend of mine in Philadelphia, who was in touch with this -controversy, told me the curious experience of a young instructor, who -is now connected with the State Department at Washington. This -instructor dug out information concerning certain defects in the charter -of the U. G. I.; and when the directors of the company learned what he -had got, they treated him to “the finest dinner on earth.” “One thing we -want to suggest that you change,” etc. “Well,” said the young -instructor, “I got this out of an ordinance.” He went to his dean with -the facts, and the dean found he was right and told him to stick by it. -This dean was Lewis, another man who got into trouble in the university, -and had a ten years’ campaign to hold his job, because he persisted in -taking part in the activities of the Progressive party. The young -instructor turned his material over to Professor Rowe, and Rowe made use -of it, and as a result his salary was held down for years; none of his -young instructors could get promoted, and he was handicapped at every -turn. Finally, when he was doing war work for the government, and -Secretary McAdoo asked for further leave of absence, an ugly answer was -returned by the university, and Professor Rowe was forced to withdraw. - -Next came the adventure of Professor Clyde King, who in 1912 made the -discovery that the U. G. I. was robbing the government of the city of -half a million dollars a year, by delivering gas of less than twenty-two -candlepower, the quality specified in its lease. They worked this little -scheme through the chief of the Bureau of Gas, and the exposure made a -terrific scandal in Philadelphia. This chief had ten thousand dollars a -year for his department, and he himself drew fifty-five hundred of this, -and had five assistants, and only one doing any work. Professor King -took records as to the gas tests, and proved that the U. G. I. had -notice in advance, by a secret telephone code, and they pumped in benzol -vapor to improve the quality of the gas.[F] The president of the gas -company, of course, denied that he knew anything about it. The -vice-president and active head of the gas company, a trustee of the -university, made desperate efforts to suppress this scandal, but he -failed; and as a result of the exposure, the chief of the gas bureau was -fired—and three months afterwards was given an honorary degree by -Muhlenberg College, at Allentown, Pa. - ------ - -Footnote F: - - See files of Public Service Commission, City of Philadelphia. - ------ - -You may have been puzzled as you read this book to understand why the -plutocracy should be so anxious to own universities and colleges; but -now you can understand. If you own a university or college, neither you -nor your friends can ever be sent to jail, and no matter what crimes you -may commit, you can always be made respectable again. This was proven in -the case of the gas chief, for shortly afterwards the U. G. I. came back -into control of the city, and the gas chief was reappointed to his -office! It is interesting to note that the grand duke of Muhlenberg -College who arranged this honor for the gas chief is Colonel Trexler, -president of a lumber company, a cement company, a trolley company and a -telephone company, and author of the wittiest remark now current in the -educational world: “I believe that colleges should grow by degrees!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - STEALING A TRUST FUND - - -Before we go on with this story we should make the acquaintance of the -executive head of the University of U. G. I., who bears the title of -provost instead of president. From 1911 to 1921 he was Edgar Smith, a -former professor of chemistry, who had been all his life an active -henchman of the interlocking directorate and its political machine. He -attended the Chicago convention in 1912 as a delegate from Pennsylvania, -and voted for Taft as a candidate. He was intimate with the -contractor-politician who ran the political machine of Philadelphia; he -defended this man in public, and freely defended other political crooks, -while denying his deans and professors the right to take part in -politics in opposition to such crooks. When he took office the trustees -promised they would finance the university, but this promise was not -kept, so he had to go to the politicians every year and spend weeks -begging for a subsidy, and being scolded for the improper activities of -his faculty. - -In his attitude to his trustees this provost was the ideal of -subservience. He publicly declared that he himself had “no policy”; he -placed the responsibility of action on those who asserted the right and -had the power to act—that is to say, the trustees. He referred to them -always as “the administration,” and in all public matters he took to -them an attitude of touching deference. Thus, speaking at a banquet of -the Pennsylvania alumni in New York, he said: “Tonight you will not -expect me to occupy much of your time, for our trustees are your real -guests, and you desire to hear from them.” Needless to say, such a type -of mind is religious, and wedded to all things dull. Provost Smith never -wearied of telling his audiences that he was a believer in “an old -fashioned education”—with “four years each of Latin, Greek and -Mathematics, and from four to three years of English, French and -German.” - -In administering the university, this aged-minded provost made it his -function to carry to the trustees all manner of scandal concerning his -radical professors—such as the fact that one of them was accustomed to -dig in his garden on Sunday! Also he would bring back to the professors -pitiful accounts of the embarrassments to which he was exposed. His -attitude is illustrated by a statement he made to three professors whom -he summoned to his office at the time the U. G. I. was under attack. -“Gentlemen, what business have academic people to be meddling in -political questions? Suppose, for illustration, that I, as a chemist, -should discover that some big slaughtering company was putting formalin -in its sausage; now, surely, that would be none of my business!” - -Said one of the professors: “My answer would be that if I were to find -such a condition, I should have no right to go to sleep until something -was done about it.” - -As a result of this attitude, the dean who had charge of these -professors was allowed no funds at all; he would have to go to the -provost if he wanted to have a cupboard built in some store-room, and -whenever he went, he would find his boss with newspaper clippings on his -desk. “Now, Young, how can we get any results with this kind of thing -going on?” - -It so happened that fate had played upon poor Provost Smith a cruel -prank. Some forty years ago there lived in Philadelphia a truly liberal -capitalist, who in his will left six hundred thousand dollars to found -the Wharton School of Finance at the university. He laid down what the -school was to teach as follows: - - The immorality and practical inexpediency of seeking to acquire wealth - by winning it from another rather than earning it through some sort of - service to one’s fellowmen. - - The deep comfort and healthfulness of pecuniary independence, whether - the scale of affairs be small or great. - - The necessity of rigorously punishing by legal penalties and by social - exclusion those persons who commit frauds, betray trusts or steal - public funds, directly or indirectly. The fatal consequence to a - community of any weak toleration of such offenses must be most - distinctly pointed out and enforced. - -And then the shrewd old rascal, evidently knowing his business -associates thoroughly, added this amazing provision. - - The grantees covenant that these things shall be done, and that the - failure to comply with these stipulations shall be deemed such a - default as to cause reversion in the manner hereinafter provided. - -Now, you understand that the first principle of the interlocking -directorate is never to let go of money on which it gets its hands. It -is accustomed to misappropriating funds, and turning public funds to its -own uses; a little thing like a deed of trust would not stand in its -way. What it failed to realize in the case of this Wharton trust was the -uncomfortable amount of agitation and publicity which would be involved. -If the trustees of the University of U. G. I. had realized what was -coming to them, they would have made up that six hundred thousand -dollars by raising the price of gas in Philadelphia. - -For the effect of the deed of trust was to bring in a number of ardent -young teachers who took seriously the words of the dead founder, and -believed they had rights in the place. They shamelessly attacked the U. -G. I., as I have narrated; they attacked other interests of the -interlocking trustees in the same reckless way. For example, Professor -Thomas Conway proved how the street railways were being plundered and -ruined. He was unanimously recommended by his faculty for promotion, but -this recommendation was held up for three years by the trustees. During -these three years the trustees were engaged in selling a street railway -at an inflated valuation to the New Haven, and were putting through -another “deal” of the same sort in Indiana! - -Or take the case of Dr. Ward W. Pierson, who showed before the public -service commission how the coal companies were charging $1.70 per ton -transportation charges on coal, whereas the actual cost was only 55 -cents; and here was our university, with two-thirds of its trustees -interested in the mining and transporting of coal! Here was a coal -operator about to give a large sum of money to the university, and -withdrawing it! Dr. Pierson also was recommended for promotion, and -waited three years, and meantime the scandal bureau of the interlocking -directorate was put to work on him, and he was charged with a grave -offense. His colleagues investigated the charge, and proved it to be -absolutely without foundation. - -Next came the case of Scott Nearing, who had begun his career as -secretary to the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee. At this time -Pennsylvania had more working children than any other state in the -union. For example, there was Helen Sissack, a girl of twelve working in -a silk mill, walking three miles from her home to start work at six -o’clock at night, finishing work at six in the morning, and walking -three miles back. Nearing became an instructor at the Wharton School, -but went on opposing child labor, and the president of the Pennsylvania -Manufacturers’ Association attacked him, and the dean of the Wharton -School was instructed by the provost of the university to instruct -Nearing to stop his child labor talks. The university was scolded by a -newspaper belonging to Joseph R. Grundy, woolen manufacturer and -political boss, and this sent the provost into another panic. - -After several years of strife, Nearing promised to be “good” for a year, -and he was “good” for two years; that is, he made no outside speeches; -but it didn’t help him, because what he said in his class-rooms was -reported by the students, and reached the ears of the interlocking -trustees. The standard time for promotion in the Wharton School is five -years, but Nearing waited eight years, and along with his promotion he -got a notice from the provost that the period of his appointment was for -one year at a time! Randall Morgan, vice-president of the U. G. I., and -trustee of the University of U. G. I., remarked to a friend of mine: “He -may stay until he’s bald-headed, but he’ll never get promoted.” Another -trustee said to Nearing: “We’ll give you young fellows rope and you’ll -hang yourselves. There’ll be no dismissals.” This was E. B. Morris, -president of the Girard Trust Company, a Morgan concern, with Mr. -Stotesbury, the grand duke, for a director; also chairman of the Cambria -Steel Company, of which Mr. Stotesbury is a director; also director of -the Pennsylvania Steel Company. - -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! - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - PROFESSOR BILLY SUNDAY - - -No study of the University of Pennsylvania would be complete which -failed to mention that it was founded by Benjamin Franklin, and gave an -honorary degree to Thomas Paine. Franklin’s doctrines, political and -religious, could not be taught in any university in America today, while -as for Paine, he could not keep out of jail in any state of the Union. -Theodore Roosevelt described Paine as “a filthy little atheist,” which -makes one think of Agassiz’s student, who defined a lobster as “a red -fish that swims backwards.” There were only three things wrong with the -definition, said Agassiz; a lobster is not red, it is not a fish, and it -does not swim backwards. Thomas Paine was not filthy, he was not little, -and he wrote: “I believe in one God and no more.” Paine first proposed -the Declaration of Independence, he saved the American Revolution by his -eloquence, and he will come into his own when Americans are free men. -Meantime, the great university which honored him would not dare to -mention his name, and his place in the academic sunshine is taken by the -Rev. William A. Sunday, D.D. - -For the benefit of posterity, I explain that Sunday was an incredibly -vulgar and blatant religious revivalist, who abused the labor movement -and extolled the rich, and was used by the interlocking directorate to -keep the eyes of the masses fixed on heaven. They carried him from one -city to another all over the United States, and in Philadelphia they -financed for him a four weeks’ campaign. Sunday had already received the -degree of doctor of divinity from one American college; he was now -welcomed with open arms by the University of Pennsylvania, which had -barred Samuel Gompers from speaking, and more recently has barred James -Maurer, president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor. - -About the reception of the Rev. Billy, you may read in his biography, a -chapter headed “A Wonderful Day in a Great University.” “The greatest -day of his crowded life,” the biographer comments, and quotes a few -samples of the eloquence whereby the great evangelist promoted the cause -of culture and scholarship. “Oh, Jesus, isn’t this a fine bunch?” he -began his closing prayer. “Hot Cakes Off the Griddle” was the title of -his address, and he portrayed the wife of Pilate—“one of those -miserable, pliable, plastic, two-faced, two-by-four, lick-spittle, -toot-my-own-horn sort of women”; and then Pilate himself—“one of those -rathole, pin-headed, pliable, stand-pat, free-lunch, pie-counter -politicians.” Speaking in the largest auditorium of the university, -before the assembled students and instructors, Billy Sunday declared -that “Jesus Christ is either the son of God or the natural offspring of -a Jewish harlot.” - -You will appreciate this even more when you learn that one of the -underground charges laid against Scott Nearing was that he, when asked -privately by a student for his opinion of the Episcopal Academy, had -said that he would rather send a son of his to hell than to the academy. -This shocked a trustee, Mr. Bell, Republican machine politician and -ex-attorney general, who had never heard such language used in political -life. But Mr. Bell did not object to the Rev. Sunday stating that -ex-President Eliot of Harvard University was a man “so low-down he would -need an aeroplane to get into hell.” Poor President Eliot, it should be -explained, is a Unitarian—that is the reason he gets cussed![G] - ------ - -Footnote G: - - Ordinarily a man’s domestic misfortunes are not proper basis for - attack upon his ideas; but when a man sets himself up as a teacher of - the young, when he claims that he has the one true and valid moral - system, and pours out virulent abuse upon all who differ with his - ideas—then it seems reasonable to call attention to the fact that the - son of the evangelist, William A. Sunday, Jr., has been arrested in - the city of Los Angeles twice within the past fortnight. The first - time he was fined two hundred dollars for reckless driving of an - automobile; the second time his home was raided, and he and seven of - his guests were arrested upon complaint of the neighborhood that they - have been conducting drunken debauches for many weeks. - ------ - -Mr. Bell is not the only pious politician on this pious board. Senator -George Wharton Pepper is a devout Episcopalian, leader of the church of -J. P. Morgan and Company in the City of Brotherly Love. Mr. Pepper is so -pious that he does not believe in education, he believes only in -religion. In his book, “A Voice From the Crowd,” he says: “Subtract God -and you get—not secular education, but no education at all.” Again he -says: “The teacher who interprets all of life in terms of brotherhood is -responsible for leading the students to forget God.” So, needless to -say, Mr. Pepper was annoyed when Scott Nearing caused to be published in -the Philadelphia “North American” a letter addressed to Billy Sunday, -advocating the godless idea of brotherhood. Read Nearing’s evil words: - - You have declared your interest in the salvation of Philadelphia. - - Look around you and ask yourself what salvation means here. - - The city is filled with unemployment and poverty; multitudes are - literally starving; thousands of little children toil in the city’s - factories and stores; its workers, a third of a million strong, have - no workmen’s compensation law for their protection. Meanwhile the - railroad interests which control the hard coal fields are reaping - exorbitant profits; the traction company exacts the highest fares paid - by the people of any American city; the manufacturers, intrenched at - Harrisburg, are fighting tooth and claw to prevent the passage of - up-to-date labor laws, and the vested interests are placing property - rights above men’s souls. - - These monstrous offenses against humanity—this defiance of the spirit - of Christ’s gospel—exist today in the city which hears your message. - - And further: the well-fed people, whose ease and luxury are built upon - this poverty, child labor and exploitation, sit in your congregation, - contribute to your campaign funds, entertain you socially, and invite - you to hold prayer meetings in their homes. - - These are they that bind grievous burdens on men’s shoulders, that - make clean the outside of the cup and the platter—the devourers of - widows’ houses, against whom Christ hurled His curses. - - Here is Dives; yonder is Lazarus. And it is Dives who has made your - campaign financially possible. - - Make no mistake! The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees of - Philadelphia will never crucify you while you deal in theological - pleasantries. Has it occurred to you that their kindness is a return - for your services in helping them to divert attention from real, - pressing worldly injustice to heavenly bliss? Turn your oratorical - brilliancy for a moment against low wages, over-work, unemployment, - monopoly and special privilege. - - Before you leave Philadelphia will you speak these truths? - - We pray “Thy Kingdom come on earth.” While men are underpaid, while - women are overworked, while children grow up in squalor, while - exploitation and social injustice remain, the Kingdom of God never can - come on earth and never will. - -It was after the publication of this blasphemy that our interlocking -trustees decided that Scott Nearing must go. They knew that the young -professor’s colleagues were solidly behind him, and they also knew that -there had been no room in Logan Hall big enough to hold the crowds of -students who thronged to his lectures. So they must be cunning, and wait -until both instructors and students had scattered to the country, and -there was no longer a chance of organized action. On June 14 they voted -not to reappoint Nearing, and the provost wrote him a brief note -advising him of this action; at the same time the trustees voted -privately that they would make no statement on the subject—regular -gum-shoe work, such as they were accustomed to use when they put a bill -through their city council, stealing the socks off the feet of William -Penn’s statue! - -But some of the alumni got together and formed a committee, and wrote -letters to all the trustees, and also wrote letters to the press, and -before long the newspaper reporters were dogging the trustees, trying to -“smoke them out.” “Why should we make an explanation of what we choose -to do as trustees?” demanded Mr. J. Levering Jones, trust company and -street railway company and insurance company director and Republican -machine politician. “The University of Pennsylvania is not a public -institution.” And then the reporters got after the pious Senator Pepper, -who also denied that the university was a public institution. The people -of the state were putting up a million dollars a year for it—they are -now putting up a million and a half; but they have no say as to how this -million dollars is spent! The professors of the university were in the -same position as Senator Pepper’s secretary, so this pious man declared; -he had the same right to discharge them, and they had no more right to -demand an explanation. Nor were the trustees obliged to pay attention to -the provisions of the Wharton trust deed—in spite of the indignant -protests of Mr. Morris, one of the trustees of the Wharton estate. - -The agitation continued, and little by little these trustees were smoked -out and forced to reveal themselves. Terrible rumors were spread as to -what Scott Nearing had done. He had questioned a student, the son of a -Philadelphia judge, and not liking the student’s answers, had sneered: -“That is the kind of ignorance you would expect to find in judicial -circles.” The above statement being widely quoted by the trustees, -Nearing’s colleagues produced a signed statement from the student, that -he had never met Professor Nearing or spoken to him; he had sat in -Nearing’s classes, but had never been asked any oral questions by him. - -The real reason behind the whole proceeding was revealed by a legislator -up in Harrisburg, who got drunk at the Majestic Hotel and told how “Joe” -Grundy, woolen manufacturer of Bristol, and president of the State -Manufacturers’ Association, had fixed it up with Senator Buckman, his -political boss, that the university should not get its annual -appropriation until Nearing was fired. So Nearing was fired, and stayed -fired, and that was the end of it. Several of his colleagues quit the -university; the rest of them raised a fund to pay Nearing a year’s -salary, as tribute of their admiration; but they themselves stayed on -and behaved themselves, and there has been no more disturbance at the -Wharton School. The University of Pennsylvania professors no longer go -out and lecture against child labor, they no longer serve on public -commissions—or if they do, their findings are what the interlocking -directorate wishes found. There are no longer graft exposures in -Philadelphia; as one professor remarked to me: “It’s all inside the -heads of people who don’t tell!” And this same professor reported an -exclamation which came from the lips of his dean: “Oh, how I hate -reformers!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH - - -What is the intellectual state of the University of U. G. I. at the -present moment? I questioned four different professors about it—taking -the precaution to meet each one secretly, not letting even the others -know about it. Always I got the same report, frequently backed by the -same anecdotes. Some one had gone to the head of a department in the -Wharton School to say that the “Young Democracy” group of students -wanted to arrange a debate, to have one of their professors answer the -Socialist arguments of Scott Nearing. “I should like to do it,” replied -the department head. “It’s just what I believe in, but I am very busy, -and have plans to have my department expanded; I don’t believe in -pussy-footing, but there’s no use throwing away a chance to get some -good work done.” In other words, this man did not even dare to debate -_against_ Scott Nearing, for fear of offending his trustees! In the -Greek department a young instructor did not dare join the “Young -Democracy” group, though this was an open forum, strictly non-political; -he would give his money, he said, but not his name, it was too -dangerous. “They never interfere with my teaching Greek,” he added. - -Keep hidden, that is the wise policy; keep your head down. Anything you -say may get into the newspapers, and get in wrong. A leader of the -striking longshoremen was arrested and clubbed, and a student tried to -raise bail. “Penn Man Defends Radical,” ran the scare headlines. And -some one told me a mournful story, one that I heard over and over again -in the colleges and universities I visited. You know in country -settlements they have the traditional “village idiot”; likewise in every -college and university they have some unhappy, beaten man, who made a -mistake once in his youth, and has never been able to atone for it. At -the University of U. G. I. there is a young professor, whose students -wished to debate the McNamara case; they asked him for advice on each -side of the debate, and he made suggestions, and tried to explain how -the use of violence would appear to a labor leader. For this he was -hauled up before the trustees and brow-beaten. He has never got beyond -the rank of assistant professor, and is a broken man. He was an active -party Socialist, but now does nothing, and if he writes a letter to a -newspaper on a public question, he dares not sign his own name to it. - -The trustees may not pay much attention to the teaching of Greek, but -they watch the economics and history departments like hawks. A friend of -mine, not a professor, told of taking a motor ride with one of these -trustees, who referred to a Wharton School professor as “that pizen -pup.” - -“What ideas of his do you object to?” asked my friend. - -“Oh, all kinds of ideas; that Ireland should be free, for example. As -near as I can get it, he believes just what my cook believes.” - -Said my friend: “You are mistaken about the man. He’s really a lovable -fellow; if you knew him you would like him. But, naturally, you don’t -meet him. You have an unwritten law—he would have to ask permission of -his dean or of the provost before he met you; otherwise he would commit -an unthinkable offense.” - -“Well,” replied the trustee, “he’s unscientific, and anyhow, he doesn’t -get along with the boys.” - -My friend said: “But that’s because his curriculum was changed so that -he can’t get any boys.” - -“Well, anyhow,” said the trustee, “he’s not the calibre of man we want -for full professor.” - -A woman friend of mine was present at a tea party where the head of a -department in the University of U. G. I. told about a proposed -appointment in the political science department. The man under -discussion was connected with the State Department in Washington. He was -wealthy, said this dean, and had a good social position; his wife’s -mother had especially important social connections. He was right on -Russia, he was right on Japan, he was right on reparations; he had -written the recent note of Secretary Hughes to the Bolshevist delegation -at Genoa, and Hughes had passed this note with only two or three -emendations. Such is the atmosphere in the high-up circles of our -plutocratic education; such are the standards of eminence! I am informed -on the best authority that this sturdy opponent of the Soviet government -in our State Department received three flattering offers from leading -Eastern universities, as soon as it became known that he was the author -of that Hughes note! - -Such is the way the game is played. As one professor remarked to me: -“Knowing the ropes as I do, I could get any sort of promotion, any sort -of honors—and that not by worthy work, not by any true contribution to -science, but simply by knowing the interests, and being unscrupulous -enough. It is a situation which destroys the morals of every man who -knows about it.” And another said: “There is not a man in the Wharton -School today who truly respects himself.” - -Such are the instructors; and the students are what you would expect. -One professor said to me: “Not five per cent of my men are thinking -about public questions. They take what I teach them as cows in the -pasture take rain, something to be endured but not thought about. They -come from high schools where they have heard no discussions of vital -questions. I have talked with thousands of them; ask anybody in the -university and you will get the same answer—their mental life is as dead -as the tomb.” - -Another professor told how one of his colleagues had brought into his -class a former lecturer of the Y. M. C. A. in Siberia, who described to -the students the behavior of Semenoff, the Cossack bandit, one of the -pets of our State Department. The lecturer had traveled in Semenoff’s -train, and had been invited to tea, and Semenoff came in with his tunic -spotted with blood, explaining that he had just dispatched a carload of -prisoners. He had shot them, one by one, with his own revolver, and left -the dead for the American troops to bury. There had been some discussion -of the incident in the class, and not a man there thought there was -anything wrong about it. “They never batted an eye,” said my informant. - -Such are the triumphs of plutocratic education; and lest you doubt this, -I mention that the students proved their convictions by action. They -kidnapped a Russian student, a quiet and unobtrusive fellow, a -Socialist, not a Communist; they carried him in an automobile some -fifteen miles outside the city, beat him until he was helpless, and left -him to get back as best he could. This was punishment for expressing the -opinion that the Russian people should be permitted to work out their -own destiny in their own way. For things such as this the state of -Pennsylvania contributes a subsidy of a million and a half dollars a -year! - -The interlocking trustees are so sure of their power that they ventured -recently to give to all the world a demonstration of it. The old provost -retired, and they cast about for a new one, and offered to the American -academic world the gravest insult it has yet sustained. You might spend -much time searching through the names of prominent people in America, -before you found one less fitted to be head of a great university than -Leonard Wood; a second-rate regimental surgeon at the Presidio in San -Francisco, who had the fortune to become the favorite of Theodore -Roosevelt, and was by him rushed to a high command in the army, against -the unanimous protest of army men. In 1920 he was picked out by a group -of millionaire adventurers as their candidate for president; these men -were shown by the New York “World” to have spent millions to buy him the -nomination. They failed; and perhaps to soothe the general’s wounded -feelings the trustees of U. G. I. selected him for the highest honor in -their gift. Also, Harvard has just made him an overseer—the interlocking -process in a new form! - -At the University of Pennsylvania the General receives twenty-five -thousand dollars per year. He has not yet condescended to honor the -university with his presence, but his duties are performed by an -assistant provost, at six or eight thousand. As faculty men explained to -me, the one thing which makes it possible to tolerate the indignities of -management by business men, is the fact that the president is always a -professional educator, a man who has been one of them and understands -their problems. But here is a man who has never been an educator, and is -not even a graduate of a university; a military autocrat, utterly out of -sympathy with true ideals of education. So the professor is pushed one -step lower in the social scale, his status of inferiority is fixed; and -at the University of U. G. I. everybody sits still and holds his breath, -waiting for the Grand Duke of Drexel-Morgan to die, and leave his -millions to his dead university! - -P. S. As this goes to press, General Wood resigns. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - THE TIGER’S LAIR - - -For four years during my early life as a writer I lived—first in a tent, -then in a little cabin which I built, then in an old farm-house—in the -wooded hills about five miles north of Princeton. I wrote “Manassas” -there, and “The Jungle.” For “Manassas” I used the Princeton library, so -I spent a great deal of time about the place, and got to know it very -well. I dwell on those days, and visions rise of elegant country -gentlemen’s estates, deep shade-trees and smooth cool lawns with -peacocks and lyre-birds strutting about; and the campus, with elegant -young gentlemen lounging, garbed with costly simplicity and elaborately -studied carelessness. I remember the warm perfumed evenings of spring, -with the singing on the steps of “Old North”; the bonfires and parades -and rejoicings over athletic victories; the grave ceremonials of -commencement, and the speeches full of exalted sentiments. I remember a -tall black-coated figure—I never saw it without a shining silk -hat—striding about the grounds, or standing on the steps of “Prexy’s -house,” responding to a serenade, and reminding the students how they -were destined to go out and be leaders in the battle for all things -noble and true and grand. - -Then I would go into the library and work for a couple of hours, and -come out late at night, and see these same young leaders of the future -come staggering out of their clubhouses to vomit in the gutter. The -public was told that drinking was forbidden in these clubs; but I saw -what I saw. I suspected that the tall gentleman in the black coat and -silk hat must also know what was going on, and that therefore he did not -mean his golden words to be taken with entire literalness. If only there -had been some way by which I could have warned the world concerning this -eloquent college president who did not mean his golden words—what a -tragedy to mankind might have been averted! - -I did not meet Woodrow Wilson at Princeton, but I met a good many of his -professors. I called on his professor of literature, Henry Van Dyke, -poet and scholar, a dear amiable gentleman who had about as much idea of -the realities of modern capitalism as had the roses in his garden. I met -some of his students—I took walks over the hills with one who had -literary aspirations, and considered Tennyson’s poems to Queen Victoria -the highest imaginative flight of our age. This earnest young man -discovered that I admired a disreputable English free-lover by the name -of Shelley; and so our acquaintance died. Another time my family was -away, and I lived in town in a student boarding-house; I turn weak even -now when I think of those solemn, pale, black-clad young men from the -theological seminary, eating their thin and watery meals, and living in -a state of mind precisely as if the last hundred and fifty years had -never happened to anybody. - -The manners and traditions of Princeton are English; the architecture, -the ivy, and the elaborate carelessness of the men’s attire. Strolling -about the campus you might be in the midst of one of those interminable -English novels, in which the hero goes first through the public school -and eats at “tuck-shops,” and then meanders up to Cambridge or Oxford, -and gracefully loiters for two hundred pages, punting on the river, -reading a few random books of poetry, and seducing a girl or two. -Princeton is the home of the graces, the most perfect school of snobbery -in America. It is meant for gentlemen’s sons, and no nonsense about it; -no Negroes, few Jews or Catholics if they are known. The society clubs -run, not merely the campus, but the faculty, and the endowment is -presided over by the prettiest bunch of plutocrats yet assembled in our -empire of education. - -The grand duke of Princeton was, until he died last year, Mr. Taylor -Pyne, numbered among a score of the wealthiest men in the wealthiest -country in the world. Mr. Pyne was a director in the National City Bank, -one of the three great institutions of the money trust; he was also a -director of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad, and of the Prudential -Life Insurance Company, one of the great honey-pots of Wall Street. It -was on Mr. Pyne’s cool green lawns that I watched the peacocks and -lyre-birds, in the days when I had come back from the Chicago -stockyards, white and sick with the horror of what I had seen. - -The second grand duke of Princeton is Cyrus H. McCormick, head of the -International Harvester Company, also a director in the National City -Bank. The third grand duke is William Cooper Procter, the Ivory Soap -magnate, who tried to buy the presidency of the United States for -General Wood. Mr. Procter is also a director in the National City -Bank—quite a smell of Standard Oil on the Tiger’s coat, you notice! The -fourth grand duke is Robert Garrett, the biggest banker of Baltimore, -whose brownstone mansion was one of the wonders of my childhood. - -All the above are life-trustees of Princeton; and to assist them they -have two more bankers, and a Philadelphia lawyer who is a director in -the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in the Lehigh Railroad and the Lehigh -Coal Company; a cotton manufacturer who is a member of the Republican -Campaign Committee; a Pittsburgh merchant who is director in a national -bank; the secretary-treasurer of the United Railroads of New Jersey; the -president of the United States Trust Company; a publisher who is a -director of two banks, a lawyer who is director of two insurance -companies, and another who is chairman of a railroad, and another who is -attorney for the Prudential Life. No unsound or subversive ideas need -apply at Princeton! And the just reward of all this respectability was -reaped when H. C. Frick, the steel king, died, and left a great part of -his fortune to the university. - -Woodrow Wilson made a lot of trouble for these super-plutocratic -trustees. He saw that the club system was destroying the intellectual -life of the university, and he tried to break it up and introduce a -system under which the rich students would at least know the names of -the less rich ones. He was bitterly fought at every point by the society -group, led by Andrew West, head of the Latin department, and dean of the -Graduate School, a college politician who is genial to people he can -use, but is a bitter partisan of reaction. This Dean West had a vision -of a hyper-exclusive school for graduate students, an ivory tower of -classical culture, and he got Mr. Procter, who owns a tower of ivory -soap, to offer half a million dollars for this purpose. But Woodrow -Wilson objected to the plan and delayed it, and Mr. Procter became angry -and withdrew his money—which caused a furious hullabaloo among the -Princeton plutocracy, led by Mr. Taylor Pyne, the first grand duke. - -For some time the conflict raged, and it was settled in a peculiar way. -Dean West got somebody to offer three millions for the proposed school; -and that licked Woodrow, and Woodrow bowed his head in submission. It -had been possible to hesitate over half a million, but three -millions—“flesh and blood cooden bear it!” I am quoting from the -delightful scene in Thackeray’s “Yellowplush Papers,” where “Chawls,” -who is in the service of the Honorable Algernon Deuceace, is being -tempted to do some rascality for “his Exlnsy the Right Honorable Earl of -Crabs.” At first he resists the temptation; but then his Exlnsy “lugs -out a crisp, fluttering, snowy HUNDRED-PUN NOTE! ‘You shall have this; -and I will, moreover, take you into my service and give you double your -present wages.’ - -“Flesh and blood cooden bear it. ‘My lord,’ says I, laying my hand upon -my busm, ‘only give me security, and I’m yours forever.’ - -“The old noblemin grin’d, and pattid me on the shoulder. ‘Right, my -lad,’ says he, ‘right—you’re a nice promising youth. Here is the best -security.’ And he pulls out his pocketbook, returns the hundred-pun -bill, and takes out one for fifty. ‘Here is half today; tomorrow you -shall have the remainder.’” And so Dean West became the master of the -Graduate School of Princeton; according to the terms of the gift he and -another man hold the purse-strings. Up with the aristocratic tradition, -and good-bye to elegant and studied carelessness! Everybody in the -Graduate School of Princeton must wear an academic gown for dinner! - -They kicked Woodrow Wilson upstairs, and put in his place a Presbyterian -clergyman by the name of John Grier Hibben, snob to his fingertips, a -timid little man who compensates for his own sheltered life by being in -his imaginings a ferocious militarist, clamoring for all kinds of -slaughter. He is an active director in half a dozen organizations for -the purpose of getting us ready for every war in sight, and only the -other day he was calling at Commencement for us to “bring down our fist -on the council-table of Europe” and to “take Russia by the -throat”—using, by an unfortunate coincidence, the very same words that -we heard a few years ago from Wilhelm Hohenzollern! President Hibben was -educated at the University of Berlin; a curious fact which I note about -one after another of these academic drill-sergeants—Butler of Columbia, -Berlin—Lowell of Harvard, Berlin—Smith of Pennsylvania, Goettingen! -These we have met so far; and next we shall meet Angell of Yale, -Berlin—Wheeler of California, Heidelberg—Wilbur of Stanford, Frankfurt -and Munich—everyone of them learned the Goose-step under the Kaiser! - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - PEACOCKS AND SLUMS - - -Evans Clark, now of the Labor Bureau in New York, was for three years a -“preceptor” at Princeton, and tried to interest the young men in what -was going on in the outside world; among other things he assigned them -Walter Lippmann’s “Preface to Politics” as a book to read. I remember -that I made a diligent “go” at this book, to find out what Lippmann -meant and what he wanted; but I never could, and I doubt if any -Princeton under-graduate could do more. However, Professor William Starr -Myers of the department of history, a popular orator at ladies’ clubs, -thought it was a terrible book, and pleaded with Clark that he was -“taking an unfair advantage of immature minds!” A professor at another -university, who knows Professor Myers well, tells me that “he is, next -to Cal Coolidge and Ole Hanson, the most consummate ass on radicalism in -the country. He is the lion of the afternoon pink teas.” - -As always, where you have smooth cool lawns with peacocks and lyre-birds -on them, you also have vile and filthy slums, in which babies die of -typhoid and dysentery, and little children grow up crooked and poisoned -for life. In this elegant aristocratic university town are some of the -worst slums in the world; the Rev. Edward A. Steiner, author of “The -Trail of the Immigrant,” was brought to Princeton to preach, and he -inspected them, and writes me: “The housing conditions at Princeton were -about as I have found in the most congested district of New York. Under -the shadow of three million dollar dormitories were tenements of the -worst type. They were occupied by colored and white help.”[H] - -There was a young social worker, Nell Vincent by name, who was called to -act as secretary to the charity organization society of the town. Some -common laborers, working on the college buildings, went on strike and -began picketing. It was a spontaneous strike, by Italians and other -foreigners, and Miss Vincent, who knew their wives and children, tried -to organize them, and spoke to them at a meeting, urging them to refrain -from violence and abide by the law. The news of this came to the charity -organization trustees, and there was a terrible fuss; some of the -prominent members of the faculty summoned Miss Vincent to appear before -the board, and challenged her for stirring up trouble in the town. One -charge they brought against her was that she had never been to church; -another was that while living on a “good” street, she had invited the -poor to visit her, and the wives and families of Italian laborers -trailing up to her door had “lowered the social tone of the street.” She -had brought into Princeton a critical sentiment, which was most -distressing to the authorities of a fashionable university. One -professor’s wife reported that the attitude of the Italians had entirely -changed; she no longer had any pleasure in distributing charity to them, -they did not love her any more. President Hibben finally succeeded in -patching up the trouble; but he told Miss Vincent, referring to some of -the university trustees who are members of the charity board, “You have -no idea how I had to argue with them!” In a letter to me Miss Vincent -uses the phrase, “the exquisite lie that is Princeton.” - -In connection with this strike Evans Clark tells an anecdote which -throws a bright light on Princeton education. He was invited by a -student to lunch on Prospect avenue, where all the rich clubs are. The -strikers had quit work on a club building, and were picketing this -building, riding up and down on bicycles. “What are those men doing?” -asked the student, and Clark explained—they were pickets. “What are -pickets?” was the next question. They went inside, continuing their -conversation at the club dining-table; here were a score of college men, -and all asked questions, and hardly one knew what the word “picket” -means, and hardly one knew there was a strike of the laborers working on -Princeton’s exclusive new club! - ------ - -Footnote H: - - “Some Unsolved Social Problems of a University Town,” by Arthur Evans - Wood, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan; - a thesis of the University of Pennsylvania, published by C. W. Graham, - Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1920. This document gives a detailed study of - Princeton slums. On page 32 it appears that the infant mortality rate - of Princeton in 1916 was 150 per thousand, as against 96 per thousand - in New York City. - ------ - -Six or seven years ago we had a chance to make war on Mexico; and the -former president of Princeton took us part way in, while the then -president of Princeton tried furiously to get us all the way in. It -happened that Norman Angell, the English writer and pacifist, was -invited to Princeton to lecture, and made some casual reference to the -militarist propaganda against Mexico—and so got himself into a -bewildering experience. Picture him, a foreigner from a land of -politeness, an invited guest at a university supposed to represent -culture and urbanity; and the president of this university, a clergyman -of Jesus Christ, springs up in the audience and challenges him. “Do you -believe in murder? Do you believe in allowing American citizens to be -murdered in Mexico?” - -The lecturer tries politely to answer, but is not allowed to finish. -“Answer me, yes or no!” cries the president of Princeton. “Do you -believe in murder?” And when the Englishman still fails to answer yes or -no, the shepherd of Jesus shakes his finger at him, trembling with rage -and screaming again and again, “Answer me, yes or no! Do you believe in -murder?” Both Evans Clark and his wife were witnesses of this -extraordinary scene, and described it to me in detail, not resenting my -incredulity, but patiently assuring me that they were not exaggerating, -it happened just so. And a letter from Mr. Angell substantiates it. - -In the year 1916 arrangements had been made to have President David -Starr Jordan of Stanford speak in a hall on the campus; but President -Hibben, a life-long friend of Jordan’s, refused him the use of the -building, and he had to speak in the Presbyterian church. Two or three -students had organized an anti-war society, and they invited Professor -Henry Mussey of Columbia, but could not get either a college hall or a -church of Jesus Christ; they rented an obscure room in the labor -quarters of the town, and here the lecture took place. It had not gone -very far before Frank Jewett Mather, professor of art—sixty years of -age, and old enough to know better, you would think—stuck in his head, -and then slammed the door with a loud noise. Apparently he went off for -reinforcements, for ten minutes later he flung the door open, and -entered with a professor of French and another professor. These three -stamped over the hall, up one aisle and down another, shouting comments -on the lecturer’s remarks, and not stopping at personal insults. In -order to appreciate the scene you would have to know Henry Mussey—so -gentle and charming, rosy-faced, smiling like a cherub just arrived from -heaven. And here was Evans Clark, a young preceptor, presiding, and he -had to get up several times and ask three full professors of his -university to behave themselves like gentlemen! Finally, they marched -out, shouting “Vive la France!” “Was this before we went into the war?” -I asked, and the answer was: “It was after Princeton went into the war, -but before the rest of the United States did.” - -Also Mr. Clark’s wife told me some of her adventures. She is Frieda -Kirchwey, daughter of a former dean of the Columbia University Law -School; she is one of the editors of the “Nation,” and as lovely a -person as you will find. But you know how it is with these proper -society people, their imaginations always run to foulness concerning -people who differ with them; they cannot see how anybody who refuses to -believe in class privilege and wage slavery can lead a decent life. -Before the Clarks had been at Princeton a few months, a head of one of -the departments asked if it was true, as reported, that their marriage -was a trial one! Then, in a railroad train, sitting behind two socially -exclusive professors’ wives, Frieda Kirchwey became acquainted with -Princeton ideas about herself. At this time she had a job in New York -and commuted every day; the trip takes an hour and a half each way, and -you must admit that a woman who stands that all the year round must love -her husband a good deal. But here sat the two ladies, gossiping about -pacifism, and the moral obloquy attendant thereon. “My dear,” said one, -“they say he’s married, but nobody ever sees her; she doesn’t live with -him—except maybe on vacations, of course. Nobody knows where he picked -her up.” - -To balance this, you should have a glimpse of the morals of Princeton’s -chosen ones. Let me remind you that President Hibben is a clergyman, and -that Dean West of the Graduate School, who makes the students wear -academic gowns at dinner, is a clergyman’s son. Now read the following -paragraph from a letter of Miss Vincent: - - You of course are familiar with the time-honored custom of college - commencements, class tents in and around which old grads let loose and - get messed up generally, with booze and women. Well, in Princeton - these tents are set up on vacant lots around in the town, and the - townspeople feel that it is a most degrading influence upon their - children, who hear the ribald songs and see sights that even grown - people stay within doors to avoid if possible, during this grand and - glorious reunion of the sons of Princeton. A protest as to this - condition came up at a civic meeting. A committee of which I was - chairman was appointed to meet Dean McClenahan of Princeton and the - dean of the Graduate School. We met. The genial dean of the Graduate - School after a few innocent questions said, “Why yes, Miss Vincent, - you see we can’t very well have the reunion tents on the campus, - because it would reflect upon the university’s good name, and would - influence parents against it. But we do need to foster the reunions, - because we need the support of the old graduates to keep up the - college spirit.” - -You see, they are not really concerned about morality; like all the rest -of the bourgeois world, they are merely concerned not to be found out; -that, and to protect property. Above all things else, there must be no -taint of social protest at Princeton. I have a rather pathetic letter -from a young man who was a preceptor at Princeton for a year. He admits -that he was dropped from the university because of his “radical point of -view,” but he asks me not to mention his name or to tell his story. He -still holds to his Socialist philosophy, but he believes that his best -work “can be done as a research worker rather than as a propagandist.” -He was only twenty-four at that time, and he was lacking in “tact and -circumspection.” He adds: “Of course I do not think that in justice I -should have been dropped. Robert McElroy of Princeton has been guilty of -more propaganda in recent years than I could put forth in a lifetime. He -stayed because his propaganda was for hundred per cent Americanism.” In -order to make the significance of this clear to you, I mention that -Professor McElroy is head of the Department of History and Politics at -Princeton University, and at the same time was for three years -educational director of the National Security League! - -In the teaching of the social sciences Princeton is a perfect -illustration of intellectual dry rot. One who has been through the mill -tells me that it is “a combination of conventional history—anecdotes and -dynasties—metaphysical economics, legalistic and scholastic political -science, and no sociology worthy of the name.” How much they respect the -facts in history you may judge from a remark made by a Princeton -professor to a friend of mine—that “Charles Beard is no gentleman to -speak of the founders of the Constitution as he does!” Also from the -fact that the professor of economic history is George B. McClellan, -former mayor of New York City. Mr. McClellan bears a name honored in our -history, and he was invited to lend this name to serve as a screen for -the thugs of Tammany Hall while they plundered the people of the -metropolis. He loaned it, and for seven years protected the keepers of -brothels and dives, also the public service corporations which had put -up the campaign funds to elect him; a form of public activity so much -appreciated by Princeton that they gave him an LL.D., and made him a -trustee as well as a professor! - -I talked with the wife of a Princeton instructor, who was performing -some clerical duties for her husband, and thereby had opportunities to -“listen in” on Princeton education. She tells me of juniors and seniors -in the great fashionable university, who would ask naive and childish -questions about things that were going on in the world, revealing -ignorance of which grammar school children would be ashamed. These -elegant young idlers had been to college for three years, some of them -four years, and had not learned to read a newspaper! Yet they were all -eager to go to war, for a cause of which they understood nothing, and of -which their leaders understood no more—as they proved to us before they -got us out of the mess. - -Two years later there came as it were a colossal volcanic eruption, -whereby Princeton culture, Princeton ideals and Princeton pieties were -exploded over the entire globe. At present writing it appears that it -will take mankind a hundred years to recover from the disasters that -resulted. You, plain working men or business men who glance at this -book, and think that college stupidity and corruption does not concern -you, take this one fact and ponder it: millions of German and Austrian -babies are hopelessly deformed by rickets, tens of millions of Russian -peasants have perished of starvation, three hundred billions of human -treasure and thirty million human lives were thrown away to no -purpose—because, forty-five years ago, one student of Princeton College, -Thomas Woodrow Wilson by name, was studying Hebrew, Greek, and imbecile -theology, when he should have been studying economics, geography, and -social engineering! - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - THE BULL-DOG’S DEN - - -A short journey on Mr. Morgan’s Pennsylvania Railroad, with its Johns -Hopkins, Princeton, Yale, Bryn Mawr, Wilson, Lafayette, Rutgers, -Teachers’ College, Lehigh, Pittsburgh, Massachusetts Tech and University -of Pennsylvania directors, and another short journey on Mr. Morgan’s New -Haven Railroad, with its recent Harvard overseer for chairman, a Brown -trustee for vice-president, a recent Yale president for director, and a -member of the Yale advisory board, a Washburn trustee, a Wellesley -trustee, a Pratt Institute trustee and two Harvard visitors for -directors, and we find ourselves at the home of Princeton’s age-long -rival, Old Eli; another carefully guarded fortress of the plutocracy, a -ruling class munition factory, turning out mental bombs and poison gas -for use in the class war. - -There was a time when Yale was called “democratic.” This did not mean, -of course, that the students had any use for the “muckers” of the town -of New Haven, but merely that all the students knew one another; they -were all bound for the top, and all stood together. But the secret -societies came in, and now Yale is just what Princeton is, a place where -the sons of millionaires draw apart and live exclusive lives. These -secret societies run not merely the student life, they run the -institution, through the alumni who belonged to the societies when they -were undergraduates, and are now getting their sons and their friends’ -sons in, and doing everything to hold up the power of “Skull and Bones.” - -For this new imitation piracy the young fellows begin their training -long before they see the college; there are eight or ten fashionable -preparatory schools, which also have their fraternities, so that the -lads are intriguing and wire-pulling and imitating one another’s -imbecilities before they get out of short trousers. It is a rigid caste -system, a set of artificial ideals and standards—clothes, accent, -athletic prestige, money-spending, all the arcana of snobbery. The older -fellows are watching, criticizing, patronizing; you “make” the proper -“frat” at your “prep” school, and then go to the great university, -knowing that you are watched every moment by sharply critical eyes. For -a year or two you bend every thought and effort to being just exactly -what the great social leaders dictate; and then comes the day of -anguish, when the “tapping” is done, and you are swept on to a lifetime -of triumph, or cast down into everlasting humiliation. - -The standards of these fashionable societies permit you to get drunk and -to acquire your due share of venereal disease, but they do not permit -you to wear the wrong color tie, or to use the wrong kind of slang, or -to smoke the wrong tobacco. Needless to say, they permit no smallest -trace of eccentricity in ideas, and here we have a mob sentiment which -supplants all academic discipline. Fifteen or twenty years ago Alexander -Irvine was pastor of a church at New Haven, and thrilled some students -with visions of social reform. Jack London came in 1905, and gave his -famous lecture, “Revolution,” and prominent society students sat up all -night to wrangle with him. But the war has swept all this away, there is -no longer any trace of liberalism at Yale that I could find. Instead, -there is discipline and herd sentiment. “This is the way we do it at -Yale,” and woe to the youngster who tries to do it differently! - -One of its products of which Yale does not boast is Sinclair Lewis. (He -ran away, and came to Helicon Hall to learn about Socialism!) He told me -how the men in his class hated compulsory chapel, and proposed to -organize and protest; they would get up early in the morning and march -through the gateway, and defy the authorities. To a man they “cussed” -the chapel; yet, so completely did the spirit of Yale conquer them, when -they came to be seniors, and had to vote on college customs, they voted -for compulsory chapel! “After all, it’s a good thing, it helps to get -the men together and make college spirit!” - -Yale was founded on “the Bible, rum and niggers”—that is to say, the -slave trade; and it stands today four square on wage slavery. It has an -endowment of thirty-two million dollars; and needless to say, the -interlocking directorate is in full charge. The board includes: the -president of the New York Trust Company, who is a director in a trolley -company, a fire insurance company, and a securities company; the -president of the Merchants’ National Bank of Boston; the president of -the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of New York; the president of the -Westinghouse Company of Pittsburgh; a Chicago dry goods merchant, who is -a director of a great railroad system and a national bank; a silk -manufacturer who is a bank trustee; the publisher of a leading -newspaper, also a director of the Associated Press and two insurance -corporations; another newspaper publisher who is a director in the Erie -Railroad; the chief counsel of the Connecticut Trolley Company; and, to -make the group entirely safe and conservative, four ministers of the -gospel of Jesus Christ. Quite recently I saw a document which was sent -out to the Yale alumni, asking their opinions on a group of candidates -for the new elections; and at the top of the list stood the name of -America’s prize Tory, ex-President and Chief Justice of the Supreme -Court William Howard Taft. - -Taft is a Yale man, and is proud to boast himself a pupil of the late -William Graham Sumner, professor of political economy, and a prime -minister in the empire of plutocratic education. I doubt if there has -ever been a more capitalistic economist than Sumner, a man who took a -ghoulish delight in the glorifying of commercialism. He is the author of -a book “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”; reading this book you -discover that what the rich owe is to enjoy their riches, while what the -poor owe is to keep out of the way. Never that I know of has stark -brutal selfishness been so deified, and covered by the mantle of -science. “Every man and woman in society has one big duty. That is to -take care of his or her own self.” Such was the first commandment -according to Sumner; and the second was like unto it: “Mind your own -business.” - -Of course, to such a man there was no person so irritating as a -“reformer” of any sort, and he never wearied of pouring out ridicule -upon the man who imagined he could do anything to make society better. -“Society does not need any care or supervision,” decreed the all-wise -professor, and that settled it; the hard young Roman rulers thronged to -his classes, and absorbed his gospel of the wolf-pack, and went out with -their minds encased in a triple-plated Harveyized steel armor of -prejudice, ready to commit any crimes that might be necessary to the -preserving of their privileges. Today the pupils of Professor Sumner are -walking upon the faces of labor and stamping out the hopes of mankind in -hundreds of the leading industries of the country, and in the highest -posts of the government, from the United States Supreme Court down. Such -a man is worth many billions of dollars to the plutocrats; they pay him -a few thousand a year, and tickle his vanity with solemnly conferred -degrees and an academic robe to wear, and at the end of his thirty years -of service the editors of the “Yale Review” celebrate him in a series of -articles as “Pioneer—Teacher—Inspirer—Idealist—Man—and Veteran.” - -Professor Sumner’s place is now ably taken by one of his pupils, -Professor Albert G. Keller, author of “Societal Evolution,” which a -well-known American sociologist describes to me as “a lengthy example of -secondary rationalization to prove the immorality of social reform.” In -case you do not understand these scientific technicalities, let me -explain that Professor Keller is employed by the New England plutocracy -to act as intellectual night-watchman for their property; and that -having got his orders what to teach, he then invents an elaborate set of -reasons to convince himself and the world that this is the right thing -to teach, and that in so teaching he is protecting society. - -Meantime, what of the men at Yale who happen to have some vision of -social service and human sympathy? I managed to find one who had been -there, and for a while thought he was going to make a success in the -great university. He invented during the war a device to destroy -submarines, and the United States government took it up. Word came to -the interlocking trustees, and the secretary of the corporation, Mr. -Anson Phelps Stokes, sent for the professor in haste. There was a story -in this—some advertising for Old Eli! Simon Lake, a Yale man, had -invented the submarine, and now another Yale man was to wipe it out! -“For God, for country, and for Yale!” Mr. Stokes with eager fingers -began turning the pages of an encyclopedia, to find out the date of -Simon Lake’s invention, and the date of his sojourn in the university! - -But this bit of favor was quickly lost, when the professor took up the -troubles of his colleagues, who found it impossible to exist upon their -salaries, with the cost of living going up day by day. My friend had -spent ten years preparing himself for university teaching; he had spent -eight years teaching at Clark, at Harvard and at Yale, and now he was -getting fourteen hundred dollars! He insisted that he and his colleagues -should get more; and the secretary was irritated by this agitation. Mr. -Stokes comes from a wealthy family himself, but believes that other -people should wait for their rewards in heaven. He wrote my friend that -college professors should not interfere with matters which are not their -own business; also that he had never advised Yale instructors to get -married! - -What this means is that such universities as Yale, Harvard and Johns -Hopkins rely upon their prestige to get them teachers, paying starvation -wages, and tacitly establishing a celibate order in the service of the -plutocracy. I note in my morning newspaper that Northwestern University, -a great religious institution at Evanston, Ill., has come out into the -open, and has refused to engage married men as professors, explaining -that it cannot afford to pay a salary for two. So you see, we are -literally realizing the sarcastic observation of Professor Spingarn, -that there are three sexes in America—men, women and professors. There -is only one step more to be taken, and I expect some morning to pick up -my paper and read that the president of some great university has -announced that, inasmuch as college professors who cannot afford to -marry sometimes set bad moral examples for the students, it is now -ordained that none but eunuchs need apply for jobs. If this arrangement -has proved useful to the ruling classes of Turkey, and for the choir -boys of the Vatican, why should it not be given a trial in our -plutocratic empire? - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE BLACK HAND - - -We have completed a survey of our five largest Eastern universities, -Columbia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale; we shall now cross -the continent, to the Western domains of our interlocking directorate. -We may begin our journey on the New York Central, which is a -Vanderbilt-Morgan road, and has a Columbia and a Cornell and a Rochester -University trustee for directors, a recent Yale and New York University -trustee for director, a Lake Erie College trustee for vice-president, -and a Cornell trustee for vice-president, also a Guaranty Trust and two -National City Bank directors; and continue it on the Michigan Central -under the same auspices; then on the Illinois Central, which has a -Columbia trustee and an Armour Institute trustee and a recent University -of Chicago trustee, and a Knox and a Rockford College trustee for -directors, and one First National, one Guaranty Trust, and two National -City Bank directors; then on the Missouri Pacific, with a Brown -University and a Vassar College and a Middlebury College trustee for -directors, and a New York University council member for director and a -Massachusetts Tech trustee for vice-president, and one Equitable Trust -and two Guaranty Trust directors; finishing on the Union Pacific, which -has a Columbia trustee for chairman, also a Rutgers College trustee and -two Massachusetts Tech trustees and a Hebrew Tech trustee for directors, -also two Equitable Trust, two Guaranty Trust, and three National City -Bank directors. We may announce our coming by the Western Union, which -has a Columbia trustee for president, and on its directorate two -Columbia trustees, a Princeton trustee, a Massachusetts Tech and Hebrew -Tech trustee, and a recent Harvard overseer. Arriving in San Francisco -we shall be welcomed by the interlocking directorate in charge of -railroads, telegraphs, telephones, electricity, land, water, gas—and -education. - -Across the bay from San Francisco, high up above the city of Berkeley, -stands the University of California, a medieval fortress from which the -intellectual life of the state is dominated; and here also we find one -of the grand dukes of the plutocracy in charge—Mr. William H. Crocker, -whose father looted the Southern Pacific railroads, covering all -California. Mr. Crocker is a “social leader,” and active head of the -Republican political machine, which runs the government and is run by -the finance of the state. We shall feel at home with Mr. Crocker, when -we discover that he is a director of the Equitable Trust Company of New -York, one of the five great banking institutions of the Money Trust, and -that he sits on this board with Mr. Coudert, attorney for the plutocracy -and trustee of Columbia University; also when we learn that he was a -director of the Parkside Land Company, all of whose officers were -indicted in the San Francisco graft scandal. - -Associated with Mr. Crocker in the running of the University of -California is Mortimer Fleishhacker, the biggest banker in San -Francisco, president of the Anglo-California Trust Company, and first -vice-president of the Anglo and London National Bank. I can give you a -glimpse of this gentleman’s activities, for the other day I met a young -newspaper man who had shipped on one of the fishing vessels which -constitute the “hell fleet of the Pacific.” Mr. Fleishhacker is -vice-president of the Union Fish Company, which is paying men $5 a ton -for catching and salting cod, which are sold in San Francisco for $160 a -ton, the incidental costs being practically nothing. Mr. Fleishhacker is -also vice-president of the Alaska Canning Company, whose workers are -hired by a Chinese contractor for $34 a month and board—which consists -of two meals a day of scurvy diet, and only one cup of water a day. In -the canning factories they work from 3 a. m. to 9 p. m., and they sleep -in ramshackle bunkhouses, with no heat, no light and tide water wetting -the floor. Eight of them died of small-pox while my friend was there. - -As aid on his university board Mr. Fleishhacker has his attorney, Mr. -Guy C. Earl, vice-president of two power companies and two electric -companies, and a very crude and subservient newspaper, the Los Angeles -“Express”; also Mr. Dickson, proprietor of this same “Express.” Also we -find the president of San Francisco’s gas company, Mr. Britten, an -active enemy of every public ownership movement; Mr. Moffitt, -vice-president of the First National Bank, an honest believer in -capitalism at its worst, and a furious reactionary; also Mr. Bowles, -president of the First National Bank of Oakland, and director in a -railway, a water company, and a timber company; also Mr. Cochran, -vice-president of the Southern California Edison Company, president of a -life insurance company, a director in Mr. Fleishhacker’s bank, and a -director in half a dozen large financial institutions; also Mr. Foster, -another director in Mr. Fleishhacker’s bank. Mr. Foster lives in Marin -county, just north of the university, and is known as the Duke of Marin; -so you see these medieval titles are not entirely the product of my -muck-raking imagination. - -In addition to these seven, there are two wealthy corporation attorneys, -one of them counsel for the Catholic Church, and for the grafters who -were put on trial in 1910; a Catholic priest who is a close adviser of -the archbishop who runs the San Francisco school system; and the wife of -Sartori, one of the largest bankers in Los Angeles, who, as I happen to -know, helped to finance the concession-hunting expedition of Vanderlip -in Kamtchatka. These are the appointed regents; and in addition there -are some who hold ex-officio—the Governor of the state, the Lieutenant -Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, etc. These do not matter, being -merely machine politicians, selected by Mr. Crocker and Mr. Fleishhacker -and two or three others in private conference, nominated by these -gentlemen’s newspapers, and elected by these gentlemen’s checks. - -Besides the state government and the university, and their own banks and -railroads, Mr. Crocker and Mr. Fleishhacker control for the interlocking -directorate a vast network of gas and electric companies, street -railways, land companies, and power companies. The recent development of -water power has made this the dominant industry of the state, and the -means whereby the other industries are subordinated. Mr. Fleishhacker is -president of the Great Western Power Company, and of the California -Electric Generating Company, and a director in the Northwestern Electric -Company; while his attorney, Mr. Earl, also a trustee of the university, -is vice-president of two of these concerns. Eight other regents are -active directors of such power companies; and we shall see shortly how -they use their university as a propaganda department against power -development by the state. Mr. Foster, the Duke of Marin, is president of -the ferry company, and a director of the United Railroads of San -Francisco, which has been a leading agency in corrupting the city for -the past twenty years. Mr. Crocker is a director in the committee which -is now trying to reorganize these United Railroads, after the looters -have got through with them. We shall see how these gentlemen use their -university as a strike-breaking agency for the benefit of their street -railways, their ferries and their gas and electric companies. - -One might think that the plutocracy of California ought to be content to -leave its educational business in the hands of such a board; -nevertheless, they have felt it necessary to organize an independent -vigilance committee, to supplement Mr. Crocker and Mr. Fleishhacker. The -prime mover in this action was Mr. Harry Haldeman, president of the -Pacific Pipe & Supply Company of Los Angeles, a gentleman whose -qualifications to direct the higher education of California were -acquired while driving a stage. Mr. Haldeman founded what he called the -Commercial Federation of California; later, learning from the war the -advantages of camouflage, he changed the name to the Better America -Federation. He went out among the interlocking directorate and raised -the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, to be expended for the -purpose of keeping California capitalist. The Better America Federation -is a kind of “black hand” society of the rich, a terrorist organization -which does not stop short of crime, as I know from personal experience. -It works in league with several depraved newspapers—the Los Angeles -“Times,” owned by Harry Chandler, speculator in Mexican revolutions, and -co-partner with Mrs. Sartori’s husband in the Vanderlip Kamtchtkan -adventure; the Los Angeles “Express,” with two university regents in -charge; the San Francisco “Chronicle,” owned by Mike de Young, whom -Ambrose Bierce pictured hanging on all the gibbets of the world; the San -Francisco “Bulletin,” whose bottomless venality has been revealed in -Fremont Older’s book. I have told in “The Brass Check,” Chapter LXVI, -the story of how “The Dugout,” a returned soldier’s paper in Los -Angeles, was smashed because its publisher would not have it used as a -strike-breaking agency. The secret service branch of the Better America -Federation committed a dozen separate crimes in the doing of this job, -and much of this was proved at the publisher’s trial. - -The Better America Federation investigates every person who runs for -office in California, and black-lists him unless he is one hundred per -cent capitalist. It browbeats public officials and slanders them in its -newspapers; it causes the raiding of labor offices, and the jailing -without trial of labor organizers; and among its other activities it -runs the educational system of California, including the state -university. The spirit in which it works is revealed in a bill which it -came near to pushing through the last California legislature, providing -for cancelling the license of any school teacher who, discussing the -constitution of the United States with a pupil “shall express to such -pupil any opinion or argument in favor of making any change in any -provision.” - -How this organization puts pressure on university professors is a matter -about which you do not have to take my word; you may have the word of -Mr. Harry Haldeman, president of the Better America Federation. In the -San Francisco “Call” for January 20, 1922, I find an article occupying -the top of seven columns, “Aims of Better America Body Told Business Men -of San Francisco.” This is a report of a luncheon at the St. Francis -Hotel, in which Mr. Haldeman explained his work to the president and -vice-president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and a group of such -leading interlocking directors. Said Mr. Haldeman: “Through the children -of the best business families throughout the land, who are attending -universities, we are having students of radical tendencies watched. We -are receiving reports of what is going on, both as to students and -teachers that uphold radical doctrines and views.” - -So here is the spy system in our universities; college boys and girls -set to tale-bearing on their fellows and on their teachers! On such -ignorant and garbled reports professors in the University of California -are black-listed for promotion; or they are quietly let out without -explanation—or with just a lie or two. When they apply for jobs in other -places, letters are written to keep them from getting those jobs. School -teachers are black-listed over the entire state; students in the -university who graduate with honors are unable to get teaching -positions, because the employment system maintained by the university is -under the control of this kid-gloved Black Hand. - -The active manager of this organization until a few months ago was Mr. -Woodworth Clum, a lawyer, author of a pamphlet, “America Is Calling,” -the substance of which is that America is calling her school children to -mob their fellow students with whose opinions they do not agree. Mr. -Clum was formerly secretary of the Greater Iowa Association, at a salary -of ten thousand dollars a year; also secretary to the Iowa Commission to -the Panama-Pacific Exposition. He left the state after a three years’ -controversy over the fact that this Commission had failed to file a -proper statement of its expenditure of public funds with the state -accountant, twenty thousand dollars being missing; also after a -typewriter belonging to the Commission had been traced to the office of -the Greater Iowa Association; also after Mr. Clum had walked across the -street and brutally struck in the face a Civil War veteran, wearing a -Grand Army button, because this old man was deaf and did not hear a band -playing the Star-Spangled Banner some distance away, and therefore had -failed to remove his hat. - -Now, here is Mr. Clum’s new organization, the kid-gloved Black Hand of -California, working in close alliance with the “open-shoppers” and labor -union smashers of the state, and holding over school teachers and -college professors the lash, not merely of black-list, slander and -starvation, but of sentence to fourteen years in prison. For you must -understand that we have a “criminal syndicalism” law in California, and -this is applied to you, not merely if you belong to a radical labor -union, but if you take any action on behalf of the victims of the Black -Hand. This organization has a private army of sluggers, called the -“citizens’ police,” which maintains a standing offer of fifty dollars -for every arrest of a “radical,” and three hundred dollars for every -conviction. As I write this book, one J. P. McDonald is arrested at Long -Beach, California, for asking signatures to a petition to President -Harding for the release of political prisoners—this petition being one -which was signed by three hundred thousand American citizens and -presented to the President by a delegation of some thirty leaders of -liberal thought. Holding over this workingman’s head the threat of -prosecution for “criminal syndicalism,” the police persuaded him to -plead guilty to vagrancy—though he had money in his pocket and a job. -They promised him he would get thirty days, and the judge gave him six -months, and grinned at him. Such is California, described by Romain -Rolland as “Land of Orange Groves and Jails”; and such is the atmosphere -of espionage and terrorism in which is conducted the University of the -Black Hand. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII - THE FORTRESS OF MEDIEVALISM - - -My first visit to Berkeley was in the winter of 1909-10. I had come to -see a professor—I shall not name him, since he does not welcome -publicity; suffice it to say that he is one of the world’s leading -scientists, and in any country in Europe would be named among a dozen -greatest contributors to advanced knowledge. He was educated in Europe, -and had come to the great California university, thinking he would be -welcomed as at home. Shortly after his arrival came “Charter Day,” and -he was invited to a grand academic banquet, a function which he -described to me with infinite amusement. - -There was a table of honor across the front of the room, raised above -the others, and at this table sat the president of the university, and -on his right hand the grand duke of the interlocking regents, and on his -left hand the second grand duke, and all the robber lords and barons of -the state carefully ranged according to their financial standing, looked -up in the latest Moody’s Manual, or Dun or Bradstreet, or wherever it is -that you find these things. At the other tables, tapering away from the -royal presence, were placed the deans and heads of departments, the -professors, the assistant professors, the instructors, all graded -according to the amount of their salaries, and any slightest variation -in the order of precedence jealously looked out for and resented. My -friend the scientist was put in his pecuniary proper place; the fact -that he was a master mind who would have occupied the seat of honor at -any function of any university faculty in Europe, made no slightest -difference; he was not even asked to meet the interlocking regents, nor -were they aware of his existence. The president met such great ones, and -shook hands with them, for he was a fifteen thousand dollar a year man; -but my scientist friend was only a four or five thousand dollar a year -man, and was expected to stay with his own kind. - -Also, while on this visit to Berkeley, I talked with the wife of a -professor; the ladies, you know, have an especially acute sense for -social matters, and often have a pungent way of expressing what they -feel. This lady had been walking on the beach at Del Monte, the -exclusive resort of the California plutocracy. Perhaps she wasn’t meant -to be there; anyhow, there came strolling toward her the president of -the university, with two or three of the wives of his wealthiest -regents. They were coquettishly and elaborately got up, and he was -indulging in elephantine playfulness, talking to them about “getting -their tootsies wet”—crude efforts of a man of majesty and learning to -descend to social dalliance. He stopped in front of the wife of his -professor and spoke to her, but did not introduce her to the other -ladies, a grave and intentional discourtesy. Instead of that, he looked -at her sternly and said: “I wish you to know that I have no use whatever -for science.” - -This, you must understand, to the wife of a man who was supposed to be -discovering some of nature’s most vital secrets! I asked in bewilderment -just what could have been the motive for such a remark, and the -explanation was that scientists sometimes think themselves of -importance, and it is necessary to academic discipline that they should -be put in their place. This same scientist was instrumental in bringing -to the university half a dozen of the greatest men of Europe as -lecturers—Arrhenius, de Vries, Sir William Ramsay. They were paid -inadequately for their long journey, and my friend suggested that it -might be a good idea to reward them with an honorary degree. Said -President Wheeler, with instant decision: “I give no degrees to -scientists!” “Whom do you give them to?” asked my friend, and the answer -was: “I give them to people of importance—to statesmen, public men, -college presidents.” This was Benjamin Ide Wheeler, ex-professor to the -German Kaiser, and tireless singer of the Kaiser’s praises, holder of a -Heidelberg degree, and of honorary degrees from all the great Eastern -centers of the interlocking directorate, Princeton, Harvard, Brown, -Yale, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth and Columbia. He called himself a -liberal, but never enough to offend Mrs. Hearst, who gave the university -a Greek theater, with her son’s name carved across the front of the -stage. - -While I was in Berkeley there was a scandal at the university, because -of the sudden appointment of a new professor to be dean of the Graduate -School. This was David P. Barrows, now president of the university, and -a person whose career is of interest to us. He is a product of the -University of California, and was finished in Nicholas Murray Butler’s -educational enameling machine. Thence he went to be superintendent of -schools of the city of Manila, and later on director of education for -the Philippine Islands. Having received a thorough training in -imperialism, he came home to proclaim the gospel of the mailed fist in -our empire of raisins and prunes. - -Dean Barrows was a fighting man, and became immediately active in -university politics. You may be startled to hear that anything so -dubious as “politics” exists in a university; but if you believe in -applied imperialism, and start to apply it to those about you, you are -apt to find some of them resisting, and you will have to put them down, -and put up others who are willing to obey you and promote your -interests. So Barrows became a tireless university politician, and he -and his subordinates also became active in the outside politics of their -city and state. As it happens, Berkeley had a large working class -population, and a strong Socialist sentiment, and naturally there is no -higher duty that an imperialist college dean can perform than to crush -Socialism in his home town. - -I have described the university as a medieval fortress on a hill. You -thought, no doubt, I was just slinging language; but consider the -situation. The university has nothing to do with Berkeley, it is not a -part of the city, it pays no taxes, either to city or state; -nevertheless, it lays claim to run the affairs of the city, and does so. -If there are any charters or city contracts to be drawn, the university -professors do it, and they do it in the interests of the university, and -of the university’s interlocking regents. If there is a school -superintendent or a mayor to be selected, the university machine is -ready with a university man. It is the established custom that one -member of the school board of Berkeley shall be a university professor, -and you always find this professor voting on the side of reaction and -special privilege. For example, the law provides that insurance on -school buildings be placed with the companies which make the lowest -bids; the school board wished to violate this law, and a Socialist -member of the school board fought for a whole day to prevent the -violation, and was beaten by the vote of the university professor. When -election time comes round, the university goes into the campaign as one -man to “smash the Socialists.” The university machine circulates -slanders against the Socialist administration, and university students -are registered and voted wholesale for the plutocracy. The university -machine selects the local judges, and the Key Route, a street railroad, -puts up the money to elect them—this money being voted by directors who -are university regents. In one campaign Stitt Wilson, Socialist mayor of -Berkeley, read from the platform the affidavit of a student to the -effect that the president of the student body had stated that he had -received five thousand dollars from the Key Route, to be used on the -campus to beat the Socialist ticket. - -Of course the Key Route expects to be paid back for this, and presents -its bill whenever there is a strike of its workers. It would be too much -to expect that the interlocking directorate should own and run a -university, and then, in an emergency like a strike, should see eight or -ten thousand young men sitting by entirely idle, except for fool -studies. When strikes occur, the interlocking newspapers paint -terrifying pictures of the public emergency, and the interlocking deans -organize the students and give them special credits for the time they -spend as “great American heroes.” In 1913 came a gas and electric -strike, and the president of the gas company, a member of the board of -regents, called on his university for help, and the boys from the -engineering department were given credit for a full semester’s work for -their services as “scabs.” After that, when the Socialists proposed a -measure to have the regents elected by the people, the labor leaders of -California said they weren’t interested; working men didn’t go to -college, so why should they bother about such matters? - -And just as this University of the Black Hand seeks to run the city, so -also it seeks to run the state. Just now there is a bitter struggle -under way, over a bill to enable cities and towns to combine and develop -water power for their own use. The special interests of California are -fighting this measure tooth and nail; and prominent among them are the -ten university regents who are interested in power companies. Do these -gentlemen fail to make use of their university in the struggle? If you -expect such a thing, you do not know our empire of raisins and prunes! - -The farmers of this empire are organized into farm bureaus at state -expense. These bureaus are supposed to be run by the farmers themselves, -but the university appoints “experts,” and the state pays them to act as -advisers and guiding lights to the farm bureaus. During this campaign it -was observed that resolutions against the hydro-electric power bill kept -coming in from the farm bureaus; which seemed unaccountable, because in -the state legislature the farmers’ bloc was unanimous for the bill. The -mystery was traced down, and in every case it was discovered that the -treacherous resolution had come from the “experts”—university men, -appointed by university regents in the interest of their privately owned -power plants! And at the same time in San Francisco, Mr. Crocker, grand -duke of the regents, is starting a campaign to get Rudolph Spreckles, a -liberal capitalist, out of control of the First National Bank, because -Mr. Spreckles has committed the crime of supporting this power bill! - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - THE DEAN OF IMPERIALISM - - -We return to David P. Barrows to follow his career as he rises to the -heights of academic prominence and power. For seven years he stumped the -state of California, proclaiming the destiny of the Stars and Stripes to -float from the North Pole to the South. The world was to be divided up, -it was our business to get our share; we should win because we were -better organized, more efficient; the world would not tolerate small -nations; strong men must rule. And presently came a chance for strong -men to rule in Mexico; but the strong men had at their head a weakling -by the name of Woodrow Wilson, who refused to act. You might think there -would be some impropriety, some violation of military precedence, in a -university dean’s attacking a former university president, who had -become President of the United States; but when Woodrow Wilson took Vera -Cruz, and then refused to take the rest of Mexico, Dean Barrows rushed -to the front, denouncing him before chambers of commerce, and being -reported in the interlocking newspapers. - -We shall note in the course of this book many cases of college -professors forbidden to take part in “outside activities,” and -especially to get themselves into the newspapers. The professor’s place -is the classroom, we are told; and to this there is only one -exception—when the professor is advocating more loot for the exploiters -who pay him his salary. Shortly after this Vera Cruz affair the San -Francisco “Star” published some revelations concerning our imperialist -dean, stating that at the very time he was campaigning for intervention, -he was vice-president of the Vera Cruz Land & Cattle Company. A friend -who knows Dean Barrows well, defended him to me by the statement that -his holdings in this company were not valuable. When I asked how -valuable they might have become if the United States had conquered -Mexico, my friend changed the subject. - -The next part of the world to be divided up was Siberia, and our -imperialist dean was made a colonel, and put in charge of the Army -Intelligence Service. So far as I know, he has not told the full story -of his adventures in Siberia, but we may glean hints in the press of -China and Japan, which charged that Colonel Barrows was an accomplice of -Semenoff, the Cossack bandit, in a plot to separate Mongolia from the -Chinese Empire and place it under the rule of Semenoff and the American -concession-hunters. The situation in Siberia at this time was a -complicated one. Kolchak was the official representative of the allies, -fighting the Bolsheviki with American money and supplies. Semenoff -revolted against Kolchak, and set himself up as an independent bandit, -controlling a part of Mongolia. He was intimate with Colonel Barrows at -this time, and a leading Chinese journalist wrote an article in -“Millard’s Review,” in which he referred to Barrows as “an unscrupulous -and unprincipled American adventurer.” It was rumored at this time, and -has since been thoroughly proven, that Semenoff entered the pay of the -Japanese, and was used by them in their Siberian intrigues; Colonel -Barrows himself admitted this in an interview published in the San -Francisco “Chronicle,” April 15, 1922. - -Semenoff was in America at this time, backed by the Japanese intriguers, -but supposed to represent the anti-Bolshevik cause. Naturally he was -welcomed by his friend, Colonel Barrows, and ardently defended in the -interlocking newspapers. Certain “Bolshevik” agitators pointed out that -Semenoff had fired upon and murdered a number of American soldiers; and -just what does our academic colonel think about the murdering of -American soldiers by a Cossack bandit in Japanese pay? Our colonel -declares that he investigated the matter, and that it was merely owing -to “a misunderstanding”; General Semenoff wanted to move a train across -a sector at Chita, where the Americans refused to let him go, and so he -shot and killed a few American soldiers. That is all! The colonel -describes Semenoff as “a man of iron, both in courage and military -leadership. He was brave.... Semenoff did not thing (evidently a -misprint in the newspaper) of which I disapproved. He accepted the help -of the Japanese ... but even in this he was helpless; when the allies -refused their aid, he was compelled to accept Japanese assistance.... -Whatever he did, it was with the sole aim of beating the Bolsheviki, -whom he hated.” - -This was at the time that Senator Borah was exposing Semenoff’s -infamies. Borah read extracts from a speech by an American Railway -Commission officer, who stated that Semenoff “carried with him on his -so-called ‘summer car’ a harem of thirty of the most beautiful women I -ever saw.” Mr. Borah offered to show a picture of the car, and we wonder -if this was one of the things which Colonel Barrows saw, when he saw -“not thing” of which he disapproved! Colonel Morrow, in command of the -American troops at Chita, stated that Semenoff’s own Cossacks had -estimated that Semenoff had slaughtered one hundred thousand -non-combatants in Siberia. Colonel Morrow testified to “the extreme -cruelty and wholesale murders” of Semenoff; this on April 12, three days -before the Barrows interview. Also General Graves, commander of the -American Siberian expedition, used the phrase “wholesale murderer,” and -described “grim murder trains, which took men out to be shot along the -side track and buried in common graves; American soldiers ruthlessly -murdered; an American lieutenant held virtual prisoner forty hours,” -etc. All this was fully reported in the press, and was in President -Barrows’ newspapers several days before he made his statement that -Semenoff had done “not thing” of which he, Barrows, disapproved. To -quote from the San Francisco “Examiner,” April 13, 1922: - - It is part of the testimony that prisoners captured by Semenoff’s army - in their raids upon villages were taken by trainloads to places which - Colonel Morrow designated as “Semenoff’s slaughter houses” and there - shot down by the wholesale. - -All this Colonel Barrows had every opportunity to see, and in it he saw -“not thing” that he disapproved; so you see that our “dean of political -science” is no fragile mollycoddle, no bespectacled professor living a -closet life, but a real, red-blooded, two-fisted man of action. Coming -back to California, fresh from “Semenoff’s slaughter houses,” Colonel -Barrows proceeded to advocate the setting up similar establishments on -the campus of his university. Speaking before a convention of the State -High School Association, he advocated that the Bolsheviki should be -stood against the wall and shot. “There is only one way to deal with -Bolshevism—fight it. Force is the only way. The time has come to treat -them with militarism; I believe in killing the Bolsheviki.” Then Captain -Schuyler, one of the intelligence officers whom Barrows brought back -with him, spoke his sentiments: “If a man stood before me and declared -himself a Bolshevist, I would shoot him on the spot, like a mad dog.” - -Naturally, that made considerable fuss in Berkeley; for the city had a -Socialist mayor and school board only a couple of years previously, and -the chambers of commerce and the professional patriots were doing their -best to establish the term “Bolsheviki” as including, not merely all -Socialists, but everybody who believed in the initiative and referendum, -or in government ownership of railroads. So the Socialists of Berkeley -challenged Barrows to a debate. He accepted, and the Socialists tried -first to get the university hall, and then the high school auditorium; -but the president of the Berkeley board of education—a dentist, -described to me by another school board member as rarely attending a -session without the smell of liquor on his breath—opposed the use of the -building, and advocated that all Socialists should be “driven into the -bay.” Finally, however, the use of the auditorium was obtained; it would -only seat twelve hundred people, whereas between eight and ten thousand -came. - -This was July 30, 1919, at the time when “Bolsheviki” by thousands were -being clubbed over the heads and thrown into jail all over the United -States. The mayor and the chief of police of Berkeley sat on the -platform, and two auto loads of secret service men attended; an effort -was made to start a riot and raid the Socialists, a scheme which was -averted by the quickness of Mrs. Elvina Beals, who presided at the -meeting. Mrs. Beals was for many years a Socialist member of the school -board, and the people of Berkeley know her. In the course of the debate, -Dean Barrows advocated that the American government should conquer -Siberia and Russia for Kolchak, and he asked whether the Socialists of -Berkeley would support a strike to prevent the shipment of ammunition to -Siberia. They answered with a roar that they would; and so Dean Barrows -retired, and did no more debating with these Berkeley “Bolsheviki.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXX - THE MOB OF LITTLE HATERS - - -President Wheeler having been intimate with the German kaiser, and -ardent in his defense, the interlocking regents wanted somebody else to -attend to their interests in war-time. What more natural than to turn to -their Dean of Imperialism? They made him president, and he put “ginger” -into the system of military training. Twelve thousand students get a -free education, but must pay for it by taking two years of military -training, fifty-five hours a year. A part of this training consists in -learning to plunge a bayonet into an imitation human body, and you must -growl savagely while you do this, and one student found it so realistic -that he fainted and was dismissed from the university. - -Under President Barrows’ administration the best land of the university -has been taken for an artillery field, and Strawberry Canyon, the one -beauty spot available for nature lovers, has been taken for a million -dollar “stadium,” to be used for athletic tourneys. One professor -resigned in protest against this vandalism; but President Barrows -believes ardently in athletics, because it trains those strong young men -who are to carry the flag from the North Pole to the South. He publicly -stated that one advantage of having a big university is that you have -abundant material from which to select athletic teams. In other parts of -the world, when you hear of the “classics,” you think of Homer and -Virgil; but in California the “classics” are the annual -Stanford-California foot-ball game, and the intercollegiate track-meet, -and the Pacific Coast tennis doubles. - -I visited the university this spring, and was invited to a fraternity -house. These well-groomed young gladiators did not know quite how to -talk to a Socialist author, so between courses of the dinner they -relieved their embarrassment by singing, or rather shouting in very loud -tones—and I observed that their songs invariably dealt with fighting -somebody. I asked a student about to graduate what he thought of his -classmates, and his answer was, “They are a mob of little haters. They -hate the Germans, they hate the Russians, they hate the Socialists, they -hate the Japs. They are ready to hate the French or the English any time -they are told to; and always they hate Stanford.” - -Stanford, you understand, is a rival university, and they carry in -triumph a battle-ax which they captured from this enemy many years ago; -their military president and professors encourage this kind of play -ferocity, as training for the setting up of slaughter-houses later on. -These future world conquerors are pleased to portray themselves under -the terrifying symbol of the Golden Bear. Almost every college is some -kind of wild animal, you know; Princeton is a Tiger, and Yale is a -Bull-dog, and they all sing songs about eating somebody up. At Harvard -they tell you that the motto Veritas, means “To hell with Yale,” and at -New Haven they pledge their devotion in a carefully ordered climax, “For -God, for country, and for Yale.” - -Needless to say, the university authorities see to it that no modern -ideas get access to these young barbarians all at play. President -Barrows’ first act as president was to forbid Raymond Robins to speak at -the university; he knew that Robins had been in Russia, and learned some -things which President Barrows also learned, but did not tell. The kind -of speaker Barrows wants for his students he found in General Joffre, -whom he welcomed with open arms, making a grandiloquent speech about “a -soldier president welcoming a soldier hero.” The students thronged to -hear the Marshal, though they could not understand him; and they mobbed -young Herman Meyling for offering Socialist literature for sale. -“Intolerance is a virtue in war-time,” says President Barrows; and, of -course, all time is war-time to an imperialist. - -The keen young commercialists of this school of hate are thoroughly -imbued with the psychology of the dominant classes; even the boys who -come from the working class are on the way to the top, and the quicker -they learn to feel like gentlemen, the better fraternity they will -“make.” “I think organized labor should be killed,” said one -undergraduate to a friend of mine. So they are eager for strike-breaking -expeditions, and their “soldier president” has kept alive this -university tradition. When the electric workers went on strike, the -mayor of Berkeley smashed the strike with university boys. - -And then came the seamen’s strike, which proved a more serious matter; -it is a lark to run a dynamo or a trolley car for a few days, but to -ship on a steamer is something you can’t get out of, and some -unfortunate boys who were trapped by the knavish university machine into -shipping as seamen on the Matson Line and the Dollar Line paid for their -blunder with their lives. Others of them came home thoroughly trained -radicals—having learned more in a few months below deck on a steamship -than they would have learned in a hundred years in the lap of their alma -mater. Some of the steamships broke down at sea, and the capitalist -newspapers were filled with scare stories about sabotage; but of course -the real reason was inexperienced labor. On the steamship Ohio the chief -engineer was a Washington athlete, the second engineer was a Boston -dental student, and the third engineer an undergraduate student of the -University of California! - -All the time, you understand, the secret agents of the Better America -Federation are watching the university. When they find the least trace -of an unorthodox idea they report it, and the unorthodox person if he be -a student, fails to pass his examination, or if he be an instructor he -is let out upon any handy pretext. (All appointments in the university -are for one year only; even the full professors have no tenure!). Take, -for example, the case of three young instructors of English, whose -conscience prompted them to sign a petition to the President for -revision of the sentences of political prisoners. They were summoned -before the acting heads of the university, and implored to withdraw -their signatures. There was a bill before the legislature to increase -the salaries of all professors, and loyalty to their colleagues should -prompt them not to jeopardize this bill! One of them, Witter Bynner, the -poet, asked if he might announce that the deans requested that he place -the interests of the university above the interests of the country. -Later, after Barrows had come in, it was intimated to these evil three -that their contracts with the university would not be renewed. But this, -of course, was not because of their unorthodox ideas; oh, no—they were -not wanted because they had failed to qualify themselves for higher -degrees by doing “research work!” - -Just what is meant by “research work” in the University of California? -It means the digging out of absurd details about far off and long dead -writings, such as “the use of _tu_ and _vous_ in Molière.” This is the -kind of thing you must do if you want to rise to prominence in a -university of the interlocking directorate. With what desperate -seriousness they take such work you may learn from a program submitted -to the department of English by the dean of the summer session. This -program quotes the president of Northwestern University as follows: - - When you consider the value of your personal research, you will - without any doubt regret that you have not paid more attention to this - phase of your activities. You will discover that distinction in a - professor is usually founded on successful research; that men for our - faculty positions are selected largely on the basis of research - ability; that the most essential credential is a research degree; that - promotions within the faculty are based very largely on research - accomplishments; that the only official record made by the university - of the members of this faculty is the record of the publications of - each member of the faculty; that the administration officers scan this - list from year to year to see which men are engaged in production - research; that research is looked upon with favor by every one of your - associates. - -So on through a long chant in praise of research, research, research. -And the dean who quotes this adds: - - All this is absolutely true of the University of California. We may - deplore this emphasis upon research, but it is a fact, a fact which - must be reckoned with in our plans for ourselves, for one another, and - for the department. - -What the poor dean means when he says “it is a fact,” is simply that it -is the administration policy, and no one has the courage to oppose it. -The authorities of the university know no vital thing for scholars to -do, and are in terror of all genuine activities of the spirit; therefore -they sentence men to spend their lives rooting in the garbage heaps of -man’s past history, while their students go to hell with canned jazz and -boot-leg whiskey and “petting parties.” Apparently some of the faculty -are likewise not puritanical, for an undergraduate publication, “The -Laughing Horse,” remarked last spring that “the professors of Latin and -Greek would much rather see a leg-show than the ‘Medea’ of Euripides.” - -There was one instructor at the university who made a real and -successful effort to lift the thoughts of students above “leg-shows.” -That was Witter Bynner, one of our distinguished poets, and incidentally -a most lovable and delightful human being. He was invited to the -university as a special lecturer on poetry, and made an extraordinary -success. But, alas, he was one of the men who signed the petition for -the political prisoners; also he wrote twelve lines of rather stunning -poetry, which you may find as a frontispiece to the volume, “Debs and -the Poets.” As Bynner says: “Certain eminent citizens demanded my -dismissal and brought upon me attacks of every imaginable kind, -personal, social and professional.” Bynner’s year at the university -expired; and the authorities did not ask him to stay on. The students -organized a class of their own, and begged him to meet them, outside the -campus; also they issued a volume of verse in his honor. Come back to -the University of California a hundred years from now and you will find -that Witter Bynner has become an object of “research!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI - THE DRILL SERGEANT ON THE CAMPUS - - -These great military universities come to be run more and more on the -lines of an army; everything rigid, precise and formal, all emergencies -provided for, all policies fixed. The passion of the military mind for -uniformity and regimentation is comically exhibited in an article -published by President Barrows in the University of California -“Chronicle,” April, 1922, entitled “What Are the Prospects of the -University Professor?” It was read before the Board of Alumni Visitors, -who must have been edified, to note how completely the professor’s life -had been laid out for him by his thoughtful superiors. Colonel Barrows -has a vision of the American college professor, taking in this country -the place of the ruling classes of Britain, who govern “by reason of -rank, breeding and traditional influence.” With the idea of attracting -that kind of man, President Barrows submits a schedule of his life, -showing how much he will receive every year, when he will marry and have -a family, when he will travel, what degrees he will get. The president -does not specify what he is to eat, but he will assuredly not eat much, -with a wife and “one or more children” on a salary starting at a hundred -and fifty dollars a month. - -One detail in this article intrigued me, so I wrote President Barrows a -letter, as follows: - - You state the salary of the young instructor, and say: “It has - permitted him to marry and to provide for the birth of one or more - children.” The question which this suggests to me, and which you do - not answer, is how many more children? Manifestly, the salary - suggested would not make possible the raising of more than two, or - three at the outside; but the young professor is 29 or 30 years of - age, and he might have eight or ten children. What I should like to - know is, what would happen to him if he did so? It is a fact that most - of your professors don’t, and there seems to be in your article the - implicit understanding that they mustn’t; so I am forced to assume - that you favor what is known as Birth Control, and tacitly recommend - it. I am one of those who believe that the methods of Birth Control - ought to be made known, not merely to the cultured classes, but to the - working classes, and I should like to know the stand of the president - of the University of California on this subject. Will you answer for - publication these two specific questions: First, do you recognize that - your article implies the prevention of conception by the married - instructors of your university? Second, would you advocate legislation - to permit working class families to obtain a knowledge of these same - methods? - -President Barrows is usually rather free about taking up controversies, -but on this occasion he for some reason thought it best to lie low![I] - ------ - -Footnote I: - - When this chapter was published serially, President Barrows was - interviewed by a reporter for the San Francisco “Daily News.” He said: - “As for Upton Sinclair, I received a lengthy letter from him not long - ago asking me to debate on some very stupid subjects. As there seemed - to be no sense in the letter, I paid no attention to him.” The reader - will be able to judge for himself whether there was any sense in my - letter; also of the likelihood that President Barrows really thought - there was no sense in it. For my part, I think the above statement - puts President Barrows in the classification of those college - presidents who do not always tell the truth. - ------ - -Being devoted to the training of young aristocrats, this school of -imperialism has no great fondness for the vulgar modern activities known -as “extension work.” “University extension,” be it explained, consists -in traveling about, giving education to tiresome common people, who had -no leisure to get it when they were young, and so lack those British -qualifications of “rank, breeding and traditional influence.” At the -University of California was a “regular” professor by the name of Ira -Howerth, who was engaged in extension work, and took this work with -plebeian seriousness; all over the state women’s clubs and labor unions -clamored for his lectures, and his efforts to comply with their demands -led to endless conflict with the university authorities. The “consulting -committee” did everything to handicap him; he was forbidden to address -clubs in the city of Berkeley, and was refused the use of university -rooms, and of the library. He could get no appropriations; and when -finally the pressure of the people forced the legislature to grant -funds, the authorities resented this, and blamed Howerth as the cause of -money being “forced upon them.” - -In the year 1917, during the Charter Day exercises, Professor Howerth -asked that some part of the time be given to the extension work. They -gave him Friday night, the end of the week’s activities, and on that -night they arranged a big banquet in San Francisco, expecting to take -all the people away. But Howerth invited President Van Hise of Wisconsin -and Oswald Garrison Villard, and had the biggest meeting of the week. Of -course, the university authorities were furious. - -I can testify to Professor Howerth’s competence as a teacher, for I had -the pleasure of attending some of his lectures in Pasadena. They were -given in the Board of Trade rooms, where to a large audience of mature -men and women the professor gave intelligent explanations of the -sociology of Lester Ward. Here we were on the home ground of the Black -Hand, and it seemed to me inconceivable that the regents would permit -this kind of thing to go on; and they did not. - -In bringing an end to it, they chose the most insulting and humiliating -method possible. Professor Howerth had his Sabbatical year, and while he -was in Paris, eleven days before the end of his leave of absence, he -received a letter from the president of the university, telling him that -he was “fired.” He made so bold as to return, and discovered that a -report which he had prepared before leaving, describing the development -of the extension work, had been taken over by another professor, and -signed by that professor’s name, and issued by the university, with no -credit given to Professor Howerth. He made every effort to find out what -were the charges against him, but could not get one word. He appeared -before the finance committee of the regents—five of our interlocking -directors, with Mr. Earl, attorney to Banker Fleishhacker, as chairman. -Professor Howerth stated his case, asking what wrong he had done. Said -Chairman Earl: “Has anybody anything to say on that?” No one had -anything to say, and the committee went on with the order of business, -leaving Professor Howerth standing there like a whipped school boy. - -Such is the dignity of the teaching profession in the University of the -Black Hand. And what is the standing of scholarship? On that point hear -the weird experience of Professor Kiang, an eminent Chinese scholar, -formerly of the University of Pekin, who was invited to teach his native -language and literature to Californians for the munificent salary of -eighty dollars a month. Professor Kiang presented to the university an -extremely valuable library of Chinese books, which collection the -university casually accepted. It happened that Witter Bynner was once -asked by President Wheeler and Colonel Barrows whom he had found the -most interesting man in the place. “Undoubtedly Kiang,” responded -Bynner; and the two gentlemen looked disconcerted. “Kiang?” exclaimed -Wheeler, “Why he only gets eighty dollars a month!” Within a few days -the Oriental professor’s salary was raised to a hundred dollars a month! - -Returning to China on a visit, Professor Kiang had an uncomfortable -experience. On the steamer an American borrowed a hundred dollars from -him, promising to return it at the journey’s end. Later, in China, when -Professor Kiang needed his money, the man turned on him with angry -threats, saying that he was known to be living with a woman not his -wife, and that the man would report him to the university and cause him -to lose his job. - -Now, the situation regarding Professor Kiang’s wife was that for eight -years his first wife had been hopelessly insane. In many parts of -America you can divorce a wife who is insane, but in China you do not do -this, because to divorce a woman is to inflict both upon her and her -relatives a most dreadful disgrace. Insanity not being the woman’s -fault, nor the fault of her relatives, it is unthinkable in China to -seek a divorce for such a reason. What you do is to avail yourself of -the privilege of having a second wife. As a rule the Westernized Chinese -have but one wife, but in a case such as this they would have two, and -the second wife would be treated with especial consideration because of -the particular circumstances. When Professor Kiang married again, the -relatives of his first wife attended the ceremony, and this same -attitude to the matter was manifested by everyone. Witter Bynner went to -China with Kiang, to collaborate with him in translating Chinese poetry -into English, and Bynner writes: - - I can testify that the second wife has been signally honored; she was - the first woman, for instance, to address a body similar to our - chambers of commerce in the capital of Kiang’s native province, and - she broke another precedent by addressing, together with her husband, - the officers of Wu Pei-fu’s army. Wu Pei-fu is now, as you know, the - Dictator of Pekin and more or less of China. It will interest you to - know that he and his leading generals, being Christians, were - concerned to know whether there might be any conflict between - Socialism and Christianity, and found them upon investigation to be - expressions of the same thing. If there were any objections to Kiang’s - second wife, Wu Pei-fu, as a Christian, might have been expected to - feel it. Perhaps his being a Socialist, however, incapacitates him for - true morality! - -It had been understood that Professor Kiang was to return to the -University of California; but now the Black Hand got busy. Not merely -was there a flaw in Kiang’s marriage certificate; also, he was a leading -Chinese Socialist, one of the founders of that movement in his own -country. So he received from President Barrows a cruel and insolent -letter, informing him that he was not to return. It was practically the -same thing as the Gorki story, and both Gorki and Kiang were enemies of -the interlocking directorate. But Semenoff was their friend, so you do -not find Colonel Barrows, in espousing his Cossack hero, mentioning the -fact that Semenoff was traveling in America with a lady not his wife; -still less do you find him mentioning those thirty most beautiful women -in Semenoff’s “summer car!” - -Becoming aware of the Black Hand and its power in the institution, -independent-minded men seek other occupations; the sycophants and the -sluggards remain, and as a result, the quality of the teaching goes -down. Every year the boys and girls pour in from the cities and ranches -of California, and they are commanded to study dull subjects under dull -instructors, and they prefer football and flirtation. In Berkeley there -are twelve thousand, and in the Southern branch in Los Angeles four or -five thousand more. Immorality is more common than scholarship; the -conditions have become a scandal throughout the state, and our -imperialist president finds himself with a peck of trouble on his hands, -a board of quarreling regents who cannot agree what is to be done. There -is a flaw, apparently, in Colonel Barrows’ doctrine of the strong man; -the strong man does not always rule—especially when he is a stupid man! -So our “soldier president” has just asked to be excused from his job, -and allowed to become once more a humble Professor of Political -Ignorance. - -P. S.—After this book has been put into type an interesting development -occurs at Berkeley. The editors of an independent student publication, -the “Laughing Horse,” asked my permission to quote extracts from these -chapters, and they printed six or eight pages in their issue of -November, 1922. The publication created great excitement at the -university, and a senior student by the name of Butler went to a -magistrate and swore out a warrant for the arrest of Roy Chanslor, the -“Laughing Horse” editor, upon the charge of publishing obscene matter. -The pretext was another article in the magazine, a letter from D. H. -Lawrence, the English novelist, reviewing and strongly condemning as -immoral a novel by Ben Hecht. But the real reason was obviously the -passages from “The Goose-step.” The “Daily Californian,” the student -paper, gave the thing away, denouncing “the printing of disgusting -articles by Upton Sinclair and other perverted ‘knockers.’ To jolt the -university they hurled and blatted the most unprecedented compilations -of lies that has (sic) yet found expression in these parts. At first the -students rose in righteous wrath to ‘tar and feather’ the perpetrators -of such foul, insane blusterings.” - -I am informed that the action against Chanslor was instigated by a high -official of the university. The student, Butler, is a son of the -president of the California State Bar Association; on the eve of the -trial his father came to Berkeley and declared with indignation that his -son was being made a tool of, and worse, was being made a fool of. The -magistrate threw out the complaint, as it failed to contain the -necessary legal technicalities. Chanslor was summoned before the -Undergraduate Student Affairs Committee; he stood upon his rights, and a -day or two later was summoned before President Barrows and expelled from -the university. I quote an account of the matter, sent to me by one of -the editors of the “Laughing Horse”: - - Barrows said he was doing so by a recommendation from the Student - Affairs Committee, and gave as his reason not only the D. H. Lawrence - letter but the poem by Witter Bynner, “Little Fly.” He did not mention - the excerpts from “The Goose-step.” How Barrows can have the face to - expel any student from the university for obscenity is quite beyond - me! I, myself, saw Barrows sit through a “Smoker Rally” (the men’s - rally before the Big Game with Stanford), at which the football - coaches and prominent alumni told the most vulgar and filthy stories - that anyone ever heard. The speaker of the evening, an alumnus from - Pasadena, told one story that I remember that one would hear only in - the coarsest society. Moreover, the campus comic monthly, “The - Pelican,” prints thinly disguised obscenities of all sorts that is - countenanced without a murmur. Yet Barrows solemnly upbraided Chanslor - for printing this frank, straightforward and really highly moral - letter. Apparently everyone has been cautioned not to let any - indignation over your exposé creep into the case again. - -I also quote one paragraph from a letter addressed to President Barrows, -written by Roy Chanslor after his expulsion. I think it says about all -there is to say on the subject: - - You have apparently confused the sincere and fine and beautiful - expression of a great artist and a brilliant and original thinker with - the crude vulgarities and obvious obscenities regularly on tap at - smoker rallies, and with the corrupt literature which I have heard is - sold to those who desire it by bell-boys and train-boys. At the smoker - rally held late in November, the night before the annual - California-Stanford football game, it did not strike my attention that - you did anything to stop the bawdy stories and the frankly vulgar - exhibition of dancing which a student in black-face gave with a dummy - stuffed to represent a woman, but it did strike my attention that you - sat through the spectacle in a seat in the front row, tacitly, by your - silence, countenancing the whole affair. This spectacle, which was - frankly vulgar and obscene, apparently did not arouse in you any of - the moral indignation which the letter of Mr. Lawrence did, a letter - which I repeat is not obscene or corrupt or degenerate, but fine and - sincere and beautiful. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXII - THE STORY OF STANFORD - - -Thirty miles south of San Francisco, sheltered behind the coast range of -mountains, lies the great institution with whose students the “Golden -Bear” does its fighting. Stanford University was founded by one of the -“Big Four” railroad kings, who for forty years or more plundered the -people of California. Like other railroad kings, Leland Stanford amused -himself by purchasing racehorses and state legislators, but he differed -from the rest in that he had a respect for knowledge. He wanted to be a -trustee of the University of California, and when he failed, he decided -to start a rival institution. When his only son died in early youth, the -heart-broken old man chose this means of perpetuating the boy’s name, -and he pledged to Leland Stanford, Jr., University his land, his -racehorses, and a part of his railroad stock; also a valuable asset in -the form of David Starr Jordan, a scientist and teacher with some real -interest in democracy. - -Senator Stanford died in the midst of the panic of 1893, and his -university was in a predicament; there was no money on hand, and it was -impossible to sell any land, and parasites and blackmailers gathered in -a swarm—relatives and friends, legislators whom the senator had kept on -his payroll, newspaper editors and publishers he had used. The editor of -one San Jose newspaper sent in a bill for twenty-five hundred dollars -advertising—he had printed news about the opening of the university! -Senator Stanford left a hundred thousand dollars to every relative he -could find, hoping thereby to buy them off; but within twenty-four hours -of his death one of his relatives in New York forged his name to a check -for a hundred thousand dollars; another relative, a woman, was shot by -her husband, a gambler, because she did not get her money quickly -enough! - -The only way to keep the university safe was to make it Mrs. Stanford’s -personal property; all the professors were listed as her private -servants—a device which some other presidents of universities might be -interested to make note of! For years the institution was supported from -Mrs. Stanford’s income, eked out by the occasional selling of a -racehorse. The job of running a university and a racing stable in -combination offered a diversified task for the widow of a railroad king -and a specialist in ichthyology. The senator had been offered a hundred -and fifty thousand dollars for “Palo Alto,” a prize stallion; the offer -was refused—and next year the stallion died! - -The university owned a fourth interest in the Central Pacific Railroad, -now a portion of the Southern Pacific; the other fourths were owned by -the Crocker estate, the Hopkins estate, and Collis P. Huntington, the -prize grabber of them all, who resented the university as an insult to -his lack of culture. He would “stop that circus some day,” he used to -say; describing it as “putting a two thousand dollar education into a -two hundred dollar boy.” Some years previously he had proposed that in -order to determine the value of the Central Pacific stock, each of the -four holders should put some of it on the market; this was done, and -Huntington secretly bought it all, and then turned Stanford out and had -himself made president of the road. Dr. Jordan described Huntington’s -motto as: “Anything is mine that is not nailed down, and nothing is -nailed that I can pry loose.” After Stanford’s death he tried to buy the -university holdings in the railroad for three million dollars; but the -university held on—and had better luck than Johns Hopkins University, -which was left a big block of Baltimore and Ohio stock by its founder, -and was frozen out by the big fellows, and did not get a dollar. -Ultimately the Stanford stock was sold to James Speyer for sixteen -millions. - -Many and curious were the efforts made to get Mrs. Stanford’s money away -from her university. A preacher came and delivered a sermon about her -dead boy, in which he compared him to the youthful Jesus Christ—but he -did not get her millions for Methodism! The Catholics came, and they -deeply impressed the old lady’s failing mind with their bells and -incense and colored lights—but they did not persuade her to move the -Stanford girl-students to their school at Menlo Park! Bearing in mind -these tragedies averted, we may forgive our ichthyological diplomat for -some of the minor atrocities which he was unable to avert: for example, -the great bronze statue of Senator Stanford, with his wife and son -kneeling dutifully at his feet. This group is known to the irreverent -students as the “Holy Trinity,” and it used to stand in the middle of -the campus; but the elements were also irreverent, and so it has been -moved indoors, and fills the rotunda of the museum. - -I do not know where in the world you can find a more curious and -pathetic monument to human vanity than the family rooms of this Stanford -museum; rooms full of great glass cases, filled with the domestic -implements and the clothes, the toys and the trophies of the tribe of -Stanford. Case No. One: The senator’s uniform, his military vest, -gloves, sword and pistols, which he never had occasion to use except on -parade. Case No. Two: the crockery and lamps used by the Stanford family -at all stages of its career. Case No. Three: the skirts and other -wearing apparel of Mrs. Stanford’s sisters—all these objects patiently -classified and labeled in the old lady’s handwriting. Case No. Four: the -photographs of the senator’s racehorses, the cups they won, and the -hoofs and ears of many of them. Case No. Five: sixty-two photographs of -the Stanford family—this not counting the photographs in other cases. -Case No. Six: the baby paintings, the chess set, and eight of the canes -of the only begotten son. Case No. Seven: his baby shoes, toilet set, -pens and cups. Case No. Eight: his boxing gloves, fishing lines, rifles, -magic lanterns. Case No. Nine: his wood carvings and other apparatus. -Case No. Ten: his toy boats and trains. Case No. Eleven: his soldiers, -cannon, drum. Poor, feeble lad, spoon-fed and coddled, he beat his -little drum, but the drum-sticks fell from his nerveless fingers. If he -had grown up he would have wasted the Stanford fortune, as the Pullman -boys, and the Goulds, and the Thaws, and the Crokers, and the Whitneys, -and the MCCormicks, and so many others. Instead, he died, and the world -has a university! - -We continue our walk about the room. Case No. Twelve: the fans which -Mrs. Stanford wielded in a lifetime of fascination. Case No. Thirteen: -her souvenir spoons and necklaces. Case No. Fourteen: the senator’s -chair, and the canes which he carried, all carefully labeled as to where -he purchased them and carried them. A plain and humble author, I have -been able to go through life so far without ever owning a cane; but it -appears that a senator and railroad king must have twenty-four elaborate -and expensive ones; and posterity must have a fireproof building in -which to preserve them, and great steel doors, such as you find in the -vaults of a bank, to keep them safe from thieves. If you have not seen -enough, come downstairs, and inspect more of Leland’s toys, including -his old-fashioned bicycle. The students declare that somewhere in this -museum is hidden a model of Leland’s last breakfast of fried ham and -eggs; but this, of course, may be just youthful waggery.[J] - ------ - -Footnote J: - - A woman friend who has lived for sixteen years in Palo Alto swears to - me that she has been shown, in the secret rooms of the museum, a - porcelain plate containing a porcelain bologna sausage and a porcelain - fried egg! - ------ - -We are told not to look a gift-horse in the mouth, and the saying should -perhaps apply to a university. We can hardly expect that a vain old -lady, put in charge of an institution of learning for ten or fifteen -years, would not busy herself to see that evil ideas were kept out of -it. In the Bryan campaign of 1896, there rose up in the university a big -bold fellow by the name of Ross, who actively favored Free Silver—which -meant the cutting in half of the wealth of all the interlocking -directors, except those who owned silver mines. Subsequently this bold -bad man made speeches opposing oriental immigration, whereas he knew -that Senator Stanford had been an ardent advocate of cheap Chinese -labor. Also he said to some of his students in the university that “a -railroad deal is a railroad steal!” So Mrs. Stanford served notice on -her president that Professor Ross must go; and this at the perilous time -when the Catholic cohorts were gathering, with their bells and incense -and colored lights and other magic spells! I could appreciate that -President Jordan was speaking from the depths of his heart when he said -to me: “The best thing that the founder of a university can do is to die -and let others run it!” - -The radical professor was let out, and there was a terrific uproar, and -several others resigned. The controversy lasted all through the academic -year. Professor G. E. Howard, head of the department of history, -ventured to make a sarcastic reference to the incident in a lecture to a -class, and some weeks later received a letter from the president, asking -for his resignation; this was followed by a number of other -resignations, chiefly in Professor Howard’s department. This series of -events caused so much injury to Stanford’s reputation that the -authorities made a desperate effort to counteract the effects. The story -of what they did is told me by Professor A. O. Lovejoy, now of the -department of philosophy of Johns Hopkins, and at that time professor of -philosophy at Stanford. I quote from his letter: - - Late in the academic year, near the beginning of which Professor Ross - was dismissed, a statement addressed to the public and designed for - signature by members of the Stanford faculty was drawn—by whom I do - not know—and an attempt was made to secure the signatures of all - members (I believe) above the rank of instructor. Each teacher was - invited to come separately to the office of one of the senior - professors, a close personal friend of President Jordan; was there - shown certain correspondence between Mrs. Stanford and President - Jordan, which had not been made public; and was thereupon invited to - sign the statement—which was to the effect that the signers, having - seen certain unpublished documents, had arrived at the conclusion that - President Jordan was justified in the dismissal of Professor Ross and - that there was no question of academic freedom involved in the case. - It was perfectly well understood by me, and I think by all who were - shown the letters, that we were desired by the university authorities - to sign the “round-robin”; and it was intimated that if any, after - seeing the correspondence, should reach a conclusion contrary to that - in the “round-robin,” they were at least expected to keep silence. - - Because of this last intimation I myself for some time refused to have - the letters shown me; and consented finally to examine them only after - stipulating that I should retain complete freedom to take such action - afterwards as the circumstances might seem to me to require. When I - read the letters they appeared to me to prove precisely the opposite - to the two propositions contained in the statement to the public. They - showed clearly (a) that President Jordan—-who under the existing - constitution of the university was the official responsible in such - matters—had been originally altogether unwilling to dismiss Ross, and - had consented to do so only under pressure from Mrs. Stanford; (b) - that the express grounds of Mrs. Stanford’s objection to Ross were - certain public utterances of his, and that, therefore, the question of - academic freedom was distinctly involved. I drew up a short statement - to this effect, and after the “round-robin” was published, - communicated it to the newspapers, at the same time declining the - reappointment of which I had previously been notified. I was thereupon - directed to discontinue my courses immediately. About the same time - another man—-one of the best scholars and the most effective teachers - in his department—-who had refused to sign, and was known to - disapprove strongly of the administration’s conduct, but who had given - no public expression of his opinion, was notified that he would not be - reappointed; and it was currently reported in the faculty that the - vice-president, then acting president, of the university, Dr. Branner, - had announced a policy of (in his own phrase) “shaking off the loose - plaster.” - -Professor Lovejoy goes on to tell how some years later, when he was -visiting Palo Alto, “one of the signers of the collective statement to -the public told me that he had signed with great reluctance, and with a -sense of humiliation, but, since he had a family of young children, he -had not felt that he could afford to risk the loss of his position. I -cannot, of course, give this man’s name.” Professor Lovejoy calls -attention to the fact that practically all the men who resigned were -either unmarried or were married men without children. It might seem as -if Francis Bacon, a scholar himself, had foreseen the plutocratic empire -of American education when he wrote, three hundred years ago: “He that -hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIII - THE WIND OF FREEDOM - - -The poor old lady died at last, but she did not leave her fortune to be -adminstered by an eminent ichthyologist, badly tainted with democracy -and pacifism. On the contrary, she left it to a board of fifteen -trustees—the usual interlocking directorate. As first grand duke we find -none other than Mr. Timothy Hopkins, son of Senator Stanford’s colleague -in the “Big Four.” Mr. Hopkins is president of a milling company, and -director in a trust company, an ice company, and a telephone and -telegraph company. As second grand duke there is Mr. Frank B. Anderson, -president of the Bank of California, the great Standard Oil institution -of the state. I am told that Mr. Anderson is there to represent the -Morgan interests. He is vice-president of another bank, and director in -three gas and electric companies, and in numerous other great concerns, -including the Spring Valley Water Company, celebrated in the San -Francisco graft prosecutions. - -Mr. Bourn, the president of this company, is also on the board; and Mr. -Grant, described to me by a friend who knows him as “an idle -millionaire, the son of an old money grubber”; but he can’t really be so -idle, being vice-president of a gas company and an oil company, chairman -of a power company, director of the Bank of California, another bank, a -trust company, another power company, a gas and electric company, -another gas company, and a steel company. Also there is Mr. Nickel, “who -married forty million dollars,” and is a director of the Bank of -California, president of an irrigation company, a live stock company, -and of the greatest land company in California; also Mr. Newhall, the -son of an old-time auctioneer, a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary, -vice-president of a great land company. In addition to these, there are -three prominent corporation lawyers, two judges, both very conservative, -a banker, an insurance man, and Mr. Herbert Hoover, than whom the -plutocracy has no more faithful servant in these United States. One of -the corporation lawyers, T. T. C. Gregory, is that Captain Gregory who -was Mr. Hoover’s representative in Hungary, and used his control of the -distribution of the relief funds and supplies furnished by the American -people, for the purpose of breaking the revolution of the workers of -Hungary, and bringing into power the infamous Horthy, who drowned the -hopes of the Hungarian workers in a sea of blood. Few blacker deeds have -been committed by American class-greed; but such is the state of our -public opinion, that Captain Gregory came home and boasted of it in a -series of articles in “World’s Work,” and Mr. Hoover stood back of him, -and the Stanford trustees elected him to their exclusive board, and made -him their secretary! - -Such are the men in charge of the Stanford millions. David Starr Jordan -has retired, and the great university is governed from the cozy -arm-chairs of the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco. As president they -have appointed a physician, Dr. Wilbur, who learned the Goose-step at -two of the Kaiser’s universities. He aspires to be, like Colonel -Barrows, “a man on horseback.” In the days before America entered the -war some of the students of Stanford were taking military training, and -I am informed by one who was present at the graduating ceremonies that -President Wilbur shook hands with all those who were in uniform, and -refused to shake hands with those who were not in uniform. More -recently, at an alumni reunion, he gave a curious proof of the abject -condition of spirit to which the lackeys of the plutocracy have come. He -was describing how he went to the dock in New York to welcome Herbert -Hoover home from abroad; said President Wilbur: “I saw one of America’s -biggest bankers throw his arms around him, and I said to myself: ‘At -last Stanford has arrived’!” The gentleman who tells me of this -incident, a scholar and a scientist, reports: “He said it in sweet -unconsciousness, and at least half a dozen of my friends turned in my -direction and gave me appreciative glances.” - -Stanford was founded for the purpose of giving the young people of -California a free education; that was the basis of its democratic -spirit—but the interlocking trustees have now decided to exclude all -those common people who cannot pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars a -year. So the tone of the place is rapidly altering, and on my recent -visit one member of the senior class remarked to me, “I have seen such a -change in my four years that I’m glad I’m through.” Two years ago a -group of the students wished to start a liberal club for free -discussion. A Chinese student writes me what happened, and I quote from -his letter, leaving his quaint English as it stands, because the fine -spirit of the writer shines through it so very clearly. - - Then we received discouraging advices from outsiders, principally from - faculty members. None was willing to encourage us of such study. - Occasionally individuals received discourtesy from their society, - because of being connected to this movement. For instance, I was - dismissed from a position soon after I was found out that I was “an - ardent student of Socialism.” Another illustration, I was short in - finance once. Went to see the Dean of Man to ask for a loan from the - university. Was at first refused this request because I was reported - to that office being “socialistic in belief.” Shortly after, a great - majority of us left Stanford on account of their graduation, the - movement died down gradually. - -Now it is starting once more. I have a letter from another student, who -is going to try again, in spite of warning from the older students that -it may result in his not getting his diploma. The motto of Stanford used -to be “the wind of freedom blows”; but this sentiment was expressed in -German, and so a few years ago the trustees dropped it. Of course we -know that talk about “freedom” nowadays is German propaganda, or else -Bolshevik. - -In the effort to introduce a little democracy into the faculty, -President Jordan established an Academic Council, which was supposed to -deal with questions suitable to the intelligence of professors. The -educational affairs of the state were in a bad way, and some professors -thought that was a proper subject for their attention. The Progressive -administration of Hiram Johnson had just come into power, and the -academic council adopted a resolution, favoring a commission to -reorganize the educational system of the state. But the interlocking -trustees would not stand for any dealings between their professors and a -state administration which was pledged to put them out of politics. -Grand Duke Timothy Hopkins came hurrying down, and ordered the Academic -Council to withdraw their resolution—which they did. To one of the -professors Mr. Hopkins made the grim statement, “We are coming back;” -meaning thereby that the railroad and other big grafters were going to -take over the government of California again—which they have done. - -In her decree concerning the Stanford trust, Mrs. Stanford laid down the -rule, phrased as a request, that no Stanford professor “shall -electioneer among or seek to dominate other professors or the students -for the success of any political party or candidate in any political -contest.” This rule, like all other such rules, is interpreted to mean -that Stanford professors renounce their rights as citizens—when they do -not happen to agree with the politics of the plutocratic trustees. Thus -I note that no one makes any objection when President Wilbur joins with -President Barrows of California in issuing a manifesto to the people of -the state, opposing some of the constitutional amendments now being -submitted to the ballot. Neither do the Stanford authorities object that -Professor “Jimmie” Hyde spends two months campaigning with Mr. Moore, -candidate of the power interests and other reactionary business groups -for the Republican nomination for senator. - -I have shown you the University of California regents dominating -politics and finance through the great companies which turn water power -into electricity and distribute it over the state. I have shown you the -University of California helping these power companies to defeat the -bill for the public development and operation of hydro-electric power. -And now we come to Stanford and we find one trustee heavily interested -in power companies, and several others in electric companies, and others -acting as bankers, lawyers and judges for such companies. And what does -Stanford have to say officially on the campaign for this hydro-electric -power bill? - -There is in California a “League of Municipalities,” an official -organization of the communities of the state. They hold a convention -once a year; the officials of cities and towns attend as delegates, -and deal with all matters concerning the welfare of their -communities—sanitation, health, paving, taxes, public utilities, etc. -This summer Stanford University extended the hospitality of its -buildings for the sessions of the convention, and of its dormitories -as lodgings for the delegates; but the faculty of the University and -the citizens of Palo Alto learned to their surprise that one of the -sessions of the convention was to be held at the Community House in -the town of Palo Alto, instead of being held in the university hall. I -have a letter from a gentleman who was present as an official guest at -this session, and he explains the mysterious change of location. - - At its opening the President, Mayor Louis Bartlett, of Berkeley, said - that the delegates should be informed why this particular session was - being held in a different place from the others, and then proceeded to - read a letter from President Newhall of the Board of Trustees, asking - them to omit the Water and Power Act from their program in the - University buildings, as the university did not wish to be understood - as taking sides, and any action they might take might be interpreted, - incorrectly, as being the action of the university. There appeared to - be no objection to the danger of the university’s being similarly - misunderstood in regard to half a dozen other proposed constitutional - amendments! The stupid officers of the League didn’t take the hint, as - gentlemen should, and drop the offending subject from the program - entirely. They merely called the session meeting in the Community - House in Palo Alto (which has nobly served as an open forum upon other - critical occasions) and there we listened to a vigorous debate all - afternoon, led by Rudolph Spreckels and Francis J. Heney on the one - side and Allison Ware and Eustace Cullinan on the other, at the close - of which a vote was taken which was unanimous for the Water and Power - Act, with the exception of the vote of San Francisco, the most - prominent figure in whose delegation was Supervisor (ex-Mayor) Eugene - Schmitz—with some public corporation corruption record! - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIV - THE STANFORD SKELETON - - -I have referred to the dissatisfaction of Grand Duke Timothy Hopkins at -the coming into power of a progressive government in California. This -event was especially embarrassing to the Stanford trustees, because of a -family skeleton which for many years they had been hiding in their -academic closet. You understand that these high-up masters of finance -have an elaborate system for plundering the railroads and public utility -companies which they control. They have holding companies and investment -companies and subsidiary concerns of various sorts, whereby they skim -off the cream of the profits, without interference by public -commissions. Nobody but a few insiders today can form any idea where the -profits of an American railroad or public utility corporation are going, -or what should be the income from any particular investment. And now, -here are these same smooth gentlemen administering the investments of a -university; what more natural than that it should occur to them to -handle these funds in the same manner? - -Apparently old Senator Stanford foresaw this, for his trust deed -provided that the Governor of the state should receive a complete report -each year upon the financial affairs of the trust. But the Governor of -the state never received that complete report. For many years the -faculty of Stanford, who were living on short rations, could get no -statement whatever; the trustees allowed the university the lump sum of -eight hundred thousand dollars a year, and no explanations. Finally, -about 1908, after some years of agitation, a statement was prepared and -circulated at a board meeting. It was the first financial statement -which President Jordan had ever seen, and he badly wanted a copy of it, -so he “swiped” it—at least so he told a member of the faculty, who told -me. He called a meeting of the full professors, to whom he gave certain -figures purporting to be the income of the university trust as -communicated to him, but one of the professors who had made a detailed -study of the court schedule of Mrs. Stanford’s estate pointed out that -the interest on the bonds there scheduled amounted to more than the -purported total submitted by President Jordan—this not counting other -sources of income. And Trustee Crothers, in a letter to me, admits that -during the period he held the Pacific Improvement stock in trust the -income from this one item amounted to two million dollars in thirty-one -months, which is just about eight hundred thousand dollars a year! After -that nothing more appears to have been heard or seen of this financial -statement. - -These facts are known to many who are interested in the university; they -were known to Thorstein Veblen, who was a professor in Stanford for -three years. In 1918 Veblen published a book entitled, “The Higher -Learning in America,” in which he referred briefly to this scandal. But -his sense of politeness toward the university caused him to withhold its -name—which got him into trouble with Professor Brander Matthews. If I -tell you this story, it will lead us off the trail of Stanford for a -page or two; but it will teach us about the prestige of universities and -how it is maintained, and we shall thus be better able to understand the -Stanford skeleton, and how it has been kept hidden all these years. - -I am told by a person high up in Columbia University that it was -Nicholas Murray Butler, sitting in his high watch-tower and keeping -guard over his empire of education, who first saw this dangerous book of -Veblen’s, and turned it over to his henchman, Brander Matthews, to be -“slated.” Matthews wrote what was supposed to be a book review, but was -really an assassination, and the New York “Times,” which exists to -perform these little services for the plutocracy, gave it prominence. -Matthews found one trivial grammatical error in Veblen’s book, and -another printer’s error which could be laid to Veblen; on this basis he -accused of illiteracy the most brilliant economic satirist in the world! -Because of Veblen’s politeness in failing to name Stanford, Brander -Matthews described him as “a creature who creeps up stealthily with a -stiletto to deal a stab in the back.” Says Matthews: “On page 67 and on -page 70 Mr. Veblen seems to suggest that there are boards of trustees -whose members make a personal profit out of the funds entrusted to them; -the insinuation is hedged about with weazel words—i. e., ‘instances of -the kind are not wholly unknown, though _presumably_ (!) exceptional.’” - -To appreciate this extreme piety of Professor Brander Matthews, you -would have to see him, as I have, dangling a cigarette from his lower -lip as he lectures to his students, and causing these prematurely wise -young men to chuckle at his worldly wit. For Brander is a club man and -cynic, one of the very shrewdest, and he knows what butters parsnips. If -in the bosom of the Century Club he and his friend, Nicholas Miraculous, -were to hear a story about a member of a school board getting advance -information and buying up real estate, or about a college trustee -handling the investment of trust funds in such a way as to make “honest -graft” out of it, the two of them would tip each other a wink. But when -they are talking for publication—when they set out to assassinate a -dangerous radical—the two cronies take on an air of innocent -trustfulness which has not been met with in the world since Moses -Primrose came home from the fair with his gross of green spectacles with -silver rims and shagreen cases! - -For my part I don’t want to take any chance of being called “a creature -who creeps up stealthily with a stiletto to deal a stab in the back!” -Whatever my old friend Professor Matthews may say about me when he comes -to assassinate this book in the New York “Times,” let him at least put -me under his other classification—that more respectable person “who -comes straight at us with a bowie knife in his hand.” Before I finish -this volume I shall give Professor Matthews several cases of university -and college trustees misusing funds; in a succeeding volume, I shall -show him school board members getting commissions from book companies, -and buying up land to sell to the public for school sites. If Professor -Matthews will obtain a copy of a printed report made in 1908 to Mayor -Taylor of San Francisco by a graft investigating committee, he will find -it proven that one of the regents of the University of California -invested university funds in a “French Restaurant” building on the -corner of Geary and Mason streets, constructed by him with a view to its -use as a house of assignation. And if that seems too far off for -Professor Matthews, let him investigate the properties in New York City -on which his own university holds its mortgages, and he will find that -one of them at least was being used as a disorderly house last spring! -Or let him run up to Rochester, where the university is moving out to a -magnificent new site, furnished by Mr. Eastman, the kodak king, and all -around that site he will find that members of the board of trustees and -their relatives and friends have been making money buying up real estate -on advance information. Or let him visit the Connecticut College for -Women, at New London, and hear the story of Frederick Sykes, the recent -president, who discovered that the trustees were stealing the funds of -the college, even to the coal, and tried to interfere with them and was -fired from his job! One of the trustees was a high school principal, and -the board furnished him an automobile to go out and collect funds. He -never got any funds, but continued to use the car, and when the scandal -was exposed, it was explained that he had arranged to have the price of -the car returned to the college in his will. The grand duke who ran this -board of trustees was a multi-millionaire, who had set them a bad -example by living a dissolute life. He wanted an inn-keeper’s wife, and -paid the inn-keeper forty thousand dollars to get a divorce from her; -then the grand duke married the lady, and got an honorary degree from -his college! - -With this much of preliminary, we return to Stanford, to see just what -this super-plutocratic board of trustees has done. To begin with, let me -explain that the holding concern devised by the “Big Four” plunderers of -the Central-Southern Pacific, for the purpose of skimming off the cream -of the profits, was known as the Pacific Improvement Company. The -affairs of this concern have been kept a dark secret; the holdings of -Stanford in Pacific Improvement stock were not made over to the Stanford -trust by Mrs. Stanford, but were placed in the hands of Judge Crothers, -a trustee, and by him turned over to the Stanford trust after Mrs. -Stanford died. In the last annual report of the treasurer of the -university, I find the value of this holding listed at one hundred -dollars for twenty-five hundred shares, with “dividends from earnings” -for the year of $2,482.44, and “liquidation dividends” of two hundred -and seventy-five thousand dollars. That is a pretty good earning -capacity for a hundred dollars’ worth of stock, you must admit! You see -how the big insiders operate—no one knows what this stock is really -worth. In his letter to me Trustee Crothers admits that “there were a -number of reasons why Mrs. Stanford did not wish the whole world, nor -even all of the trustees of the university to know the terms ... of the -Pacific Improvement trust.” No probate courts, or inheritance tax -appraisers, or other unfriendly investigators were ever to have a chance -to stick their noses into Pacific Improvement! - -Next, these super-plutocratic trustees turned over to Stanford -University the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars a year, without -explanation, and this sum of money was deposited in the Union Trust -Company of San Francisco without interest. Let Professor Brander -Matthews inquire around among his banker friends in New York, and find -out how much they would be willing to pay him in the way of interest on -a deposit account, amounting at its maximum to eight hundred thousand -dollars a year! I am informed that when Mr. Anderson came into the -board, representing the Morgan interests in the Standard Oil Bank of -California, he pointed out that that arrangement was not a profitable -one for the university. Also, I am told by a Stanford professor, in -whose rigid integrity I have many reasons for trusting, that he once -heard one of these trustees state angrily that the board had that -afternoon made a loan of five hundred thousand dollars to one of their -own members, at a ridiculously low rate of interest on the real estate -security offered. Afterwards the trustee who had borrowed this money got -into trouble, and no one knows how much money the university lost. In -the last president’s report I find a “capital decrease” recorded of -$17,320 on Sacramento Northern Railway bonds. I also find an item, -“Stock not recorded on books, when acquired in 1919 at Northern Electric -Company reorganization.” This is only one sample—nobody knows how many -other items are “not recorded on books!” - -There are other matters of record which can be verified by anyone. These -trustees are the high-up members of the California plutocracy, the -shrewdest business men the state possesses; they work diligently for -their own financial interests, and have vastly increased their personal -fortunes during the last thirty years. But what have they done for -Stanford? They have made failures of the most important business -transactions they have managed for the university. The president of the -board of trustees is one of the richest ranchers in California, and -there are on the board officials and directors of several of the state’s -colossal land companies; how comes it that men like Mr. Newhall and Mr. -Nickel have never been able to tell Stanford how to make a success of -its big ranches? The Palo Alto, Vina and Gridley ranches all failed, and -the last two were finally sold at sacrifice prices. There were something -like a hundred thousand acres, sold for about four million dollars, -which is forty dollars an acre. The Gridley ranch was sold at a price so -low that every piece of it was almost immediately saleable at an advance -about forty per cent, without further subdivision; a great part of this -land is now being held for two hundred and seventy-five dollars an acre. - -And these same first-class business men have carried on elaborate -building programs at the peak of high prices; they have leased a -wonderful building site for a long term of years, with the privilege of -buying at any time during the life of the lease, at a price set at the -beginning of the lease! They have killed Stanford as a democratic -institution, and brought it close to the rocks of bankruptcy, by -starting a medical school in San Francisco, against the judgment of the -best experts, and allowing the expenses of that school to swallow up the -funds of Stanford. That they had doubt as to the success of the medical -school was shown by their resolution in 1908, to the effect that this -school should never be allowed to take more than twenty-five thousand -dollars a year out of Stanford’s funds. But in the last president’s -report I find the medical school with a minus balance of a hundred and -nineteen thousand dollars—and this does not include the expenses of the -instruction at Palo Alto, comprising the first four or five years of the -course. For instance, the biological group alone shows a deficit of a -hundred and thirty thousand dollars! - -So much for the handling of the Stanford trust. If I had a life-time in -which to study universities, I should like to see what care has been -taken with the funds of the University of the United Gas Improvement -Company of Philadelphia, and with those of the University of the Steel -Trust, at Pittsburgh, and with those of the University of Heaven, at -Syracuse, and with those of the Mining-Camp University at Denver. I -should like to settle down in New York and make a thorough financial -study of the University of the House of Morgan, and tell Professor Moses -Primrose the names of all those trustees and professors who got advance -news of the moving of the university to Morningside Heights; I should -like to raise a fund and have a search made of the title records, and -give him a list of the various lots and parcels of land which now belong -to Barnard College, and figure up the total of the fortunes cleared by -the insiders who purchased the old insane asylum which stood on that -site! But maybe Professor Moses Primrose would call that “honest graft!” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXV - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE LUMBER TRUST - - -We take the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was plundered by the -founder of Stanford, aided by the father of a Stanford trustee and the -father of a California trustee, and which now has a Rutgers College -trustee, an Equitable Trust, a Guaranty Trust, and a National City Bank -director. We travel north for a day and a little more, and find -ourselves in a country ruled with iron hand by three great lumber -companies, and the interlocking banks which finance them. The -headquarters of this oligarchy of the Northwest are at Portland and -Seattle, and we begin with the former city. You expect, perhaps, to find -a lumber country crude and wild; but you will find in Portland an old -city with a long-established aristocracy, as much concerned with its -ancestors as Philadelphia. - -Fifteen years ago there was a strong movement for social justice in -Oregon, led by reformers who fondly imagined that if you gave the people -the powers of direct legislation they would have the intelligence to -protect their own interests. We see now that the hope was delusive; the -people have not the intelligence to help themselves, and the -interlocking directorate is vigorously occupied to see that they do not -get this intelligence. To this end they utilize two institutions, Reed -College in Portland, which is privately endowed, and the University of -Oregon, located in the neighboring town of Eugene. As we have seen with -Eastern universities, it makes no particle of difference whether an -institution is directly owned and controlled by the plutocracy, or -indirectly controlled through the plutocracy’s political machine. - -The grand duke who attends to the education of Oregon is Mr. A. L. -Mills, president of the First National Bank of Portland, and vice -president of a trust company and an insurance company which handle the -finances of the state. Mr. Mills is an active and efficient ruler; as -his right-hand man he maintains a political boss, Gus Moser, and through -him he beat the teachers’ tenure law in Oregon, denouncing it as a move -to establish a “teachers’ soviet.” He called in the Black Hand from -California to his aid, and the pamphlets of Mr. Clum were distributed in -Oregon, and a law was put through the legislature to compel teachers to -take an oath of loyalty to the constitution, the flag, and the state. -There is as yet no law requiring any oath of loyalty to truth, to -freedom, and to justice. - -In Reed College was a president, Foster, who had progressive ideas. He -hired a liberal young professor who had just been fired from the -University of Washington, Joseph K. Hart, now one of the editors of “The -Survey”; and for three years the interlocking trustees fought to get rid -of Professor Hart, and of Foster, who stood by Hart. Under such -circumstances the regular procedure is to starve out the college; but -they could not very well do it in this case, because they owned all the -real estate surrounding the college, and the college was the main source -of the real estate’s value. Nevertheless, the editor of the Portland -“Oregonian,” the old Tory newspaper which manages the thinking of the -people of Oregon, laid down the law that Reed College should get no -publicity so long as Hart and Foster stayed. - -The interlocking trustee who runs Reed College is Mr. James B. Kerr, who -studied law in the office of an ancient reactionary, Senator Spooner, -and is general counsel for Mr. Morgan’s Northern Pacific Railroad -Company. Mr. Kerr evolved from his legal mind a scheme to have a larger -board of regents, taking in the former trustees, and making them a -minority; so President Foster retired, and Professor Hart, who was away -doing war work, was authorized to stay away![K] A professor of history -from the University of Washington was asked to become the new president, -and when he was installed, Mr. Mills, in his role as general overseer of -education, attended the ceremonies and made the principal address, in -which he laid down the law to the new incumbent: “The business men of -Oregon wish the youth of the state to become this and not that, we wish -them to be ‘shaped’ in this way and not that way.” Educators who were -present described to me the insolence, not merely of the grand duke’s -words, but of his manner. The board of regents of Reed College now -consists of Mr. Kerr; Mr. Ladd, chairman of the Ladd and Tilton Bank; an -elderly department store proprietor; a reactionary judge; and a retired -clergyman. - ------ - -Footnote K: - - One professor vigorously denies that this was the purpose of the - enlarging of the board; but no one can deny that this was the effect. - When I submit this comment to this gentleman, he tells me that it is - “misleading.” At the same time he gives me an opportunity to test his - accuracy. He says: “It is my recollection that Mr. Hart was not - encouraged by the council to expect the increased salary, which he - demanded as a condition of his return.” I submitted this proposition - to Professor Hart, who replied: - - “I hope Professor X’s memory is usually more reliable than this. No - question of salary was involved. Frankly, I do not _know_ what was - involved. I was on leave of absence, in the East. My leave of absence - covered the academic year 1919-20. Toward the middle of the year, - finding that I was anxious to remain in the East another year, I asked - the college authorities for an extension of my leave for another year. - You can see that that request involved no financial obligation on the - part of the college, as I was on leave without pay and merely asked - for a continuance of that status for another year. That was the whole - question. Moreover, the college authorities were never courteous - enough to tell me what had happened in the case. However, a friend in - the faculty who knew of the discussions wrote me that the council felt - that in view of the general situation it was best for me not to come - back to the college, and that therefore extending my leave would be an - empty form. Those are the facts.” - ------ - -Next for the state university. Here we have to deal with a “war case.” I -do not plan to make use of “war cases” as such, for I realize that -intolerance in war time becomes what Barrows of California said it ought -to be—a virtue. The only war cases to which I shall refer are those in -which the war was a pretext, and the real motive was to get rid of an -enemy of the plutocracy. My investigations indicate that this kind of -war case constitutes one hundred per cent of the total. There may have -been some professors in American universities and colleges who -sympathized with the German Kaiser and desired to see him win; all I can -say is that I have not come upon such a case. - -At the University of Oregon was Mr. Allen Eaton, one of the most -public-spirited young teachers it has been my fortune to hear about. -There was an epidemic of typhoid in the town of Eugene, and eighty of -the students were ill, and more than two hundred of the -townspeople—twenty-two of them died within a fortnight. Mr. Eaton -ascertained from the physicians of the town that the city water was -contaminated, and so he published an article advising everyone to boil -the water before drinking it. The water supply was controlled by a -private water company, in which the banks were interested, also -prominent members of the Eugene Commercial Club. Mr. Eaton’s banker and -others of these citizens undertook to “persuade” him to keep quiet about -the epidemic; “so much talk is giving the town a black eye.” They made -threats which forced the young professor either to “knuckle down” or to -fight in the open. He chose the latter course, and he forced municipal -ownership of the waterworks; a modern filtration system was installed, -and in ten years there has not been a single case of typhoid traceable -to the city water. We shall find in the course of this book many boards -of trustees laying down the law that university professors are not -allowed to take part in politics, but I think you must admit that in -this case it might fairly be claimed that Mr. Eaton was forced into -politics to protect his own self-respect. - -He was six times elected to the Oregon state legislature, his chief -local opponent being a hard-boiled politician in the hire of the -Southern Pacific Railroad. Eaton made in the legislature an immaculate -record; he exposed and abolished a wasteful type of road which the -contractors were building in the state; he planned the Oregon building -at the San Francisco Exposition, the most beautiful building on the -grounds; he labored to introduce art into county fairs—and if you know -what an American county fair is you can understand what a job the young -instructor had! All this time his pay stayed low and promotion was -lacking; nevertheless, he gave lectures for the people at the university -and all over the state, and taught them what true art means—the people’s -own creation of beauty in their daily lives. - -People who have lived all their lives in Oregon assure me that there has -never been a man, either in the university or in the state legislature, -who has done as much for education as Allen Eaton did. He undertook a -campaign to increase the appropriation for the university; the governor -of the state opposed him—this gentleman, being wealthy, sent his -children to a fashionable university in the East. Eaton put through a -bill to raise the appropriation from $47,500 to $125,000, and when the -governor vetoed the proposition, he directed a state-wide referendum -campaign and carried the measure. He worked equally hard for the public -schools; but at the same time he committed the crime of forcing the -taxation of water-power sites, and advocating the direct election of -United States senators. Still worse, he committed the crime of carrying -to the Supreme Court of the state a case which kept the Southern Pacific -Railroad from stealing sixty-six million dollars worth of timber-lands -from the people of Oregon. Mr. Eaton is not a lawyer, but he got lawyers -to help him, and he won the case; so the special interests of Oregon -were out to “get” him at any price. - -When the war came it happened that Allen Eaton was in Chicago, and he -attended the convention of the People’s Council. He took no part in the -affair, not being himself a pacifist; but he wrote an honest account of -the proceedings for the Portland “Journal,” and so the large scale -grafters got their chance. The Commercial Club of Eugene adopted a set -of resolutions, bringing seven separate charges of disloyalty; the -Spanish War Veterans endorsed the charges, and the regents of the -university were summoned in solemn conclave, and Mr. Eaton appeared for -trial, with the Portland Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Club of -Eugene as the prosecutors. Every one of the charges was disproven in -every detail. The president of the university stood by Mr. Eaton, and -the faculty of the university adopted a resolution in his support. The -regents themselves admitted his innocence, for they stated that they -“did not intend to accuse him of intending disloyalty to his -government.” Nevertheless, they accepted his resignation, giving him -less than ten days’ notice in which to shape his life plans—the Chamber -of Commerce was in that much of a hurry! - -Mr. Eaton ran for the legislature again, and among the super-patriots -who set out to compass his defeat was a leading banker, who shortly -afterwards was arrested for setting fire to a building in which he had -stored a quantity of potatoes, held as an unsuccessful war-speculation; -also a hundred percent sheriff, whose boast was that he had broken up a -public meeting in defense of Mr. Eaton. At the very time he did this he -had in his pockets forty-five hundred dollars which he had stolen from -the county; a little later this was discovered and he was forced to -leave overnight! - -It might be worth while to mention that at the very time that Allen -Eaton was fired from the University of Oregon, Professor Foerster of the -University of Munich, an ardent pacifist, was denouncing the German -government and being widely quoted by the allies; he was ostracized by -the entire faculty of his university—nevertheless, the Kaiser’s -government let him continue to teach, because in Germany they really -understand what academic freedom is, and stand by the principle. In all -Great Britain there was only one case during the war of interference -with academic freedom, and that was the case of Bertrand Russell, who -was prosecuted and sent to prison for his pacifist activities. But in -America, which understands no kind of freedom except the freedom of mobs -to suppress anybody they do not like, I know of just two great -universities in which some man or group of men were not hounded from -their positions, for pointing out this or that unwelcome truth to the -public. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVI - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CHIMES - - -We move a couple of hundred miles farther north to Seattle. It may be -difficult to believe that there was ever a time when students in an -American university took an active interest in the people’s rights, and -declined to receive favors from wholesale corrupters of public life; but -such was actually the case ten years ago, at the height of the -Progressive movement in the state of Washington. - -The grand duke who ran the higher education of that state was Colonel -Blethen, publisher of the Seattle “Times,” an exceptional old scoundrel -who had manipulated street railways in Minnesota, and then brought his -fortune to Seattle and bought a newspaper, which he used for the rawest -kind of blackmailing, by a “strong arm” advertising department. Colonel -Blethen had been made a member of the board of regents of the -university; and in the effort to rehabilitate himself and his family -name, he spent twelve thousand dollars for a set of chimes, which he -presented to the university with the stipulation that they were to be -known by his name. - -The students of the university did not feel grateful; fifty-one of them -composed and signed a letter of protest which was inserted in the -student daily, and put on the presses, when the printer “tipped off” -Colonel Blethen’s university president, and the presses were stopped. -The students took the letter to the city and there printed it and -distributed it. The editor of the college paper refused to publish again -until he could publish the letter. When ordered by the authorities to -issue the paper, he did so with a blank space where the letter had been! - -Colonel Blethen’s president was a gentleman named Kane—bear his name in -mind, if you can, as we shall have some adventures with him at the -University of North Dakota. President Kane accepted the chimes, and a -solemn ceremony of dedication was performed—with the students -distributing handbills of protest on the outskirts of the crowd! If you -consider the coincidence of Times, chimes and crimes, you will -understand that the young men were literally driven to writing verses. -The ones they made strike me as exceptionally good, so I quote two -stanzas. - - ALL IS WELL - - Recommended to friends of the University of Washington as a suitable - Dedication Ode for the Blethen Chimes: - - Clang the Chimes—clang the Chimes, - Help to glorify The Times; - And the fame to which it’s heir - —All the sins that “dailies” dare— - Swell aloud from college walls; - Peal through all the college halls. - Slander’s pence and scandal’s dimes - Here transform to silver chimes - That shall tell, as they swell, - All is well; all—is—well.... - - Champion of the den and sty! - Daily forty-page-long-lie! - Yet, despite its thousand crimes, - Praise The Times; clang its Chimes. - Let them charm the ear of Youth; - Let them swell its jeers at Truth - And in Truth’s own court proclaim - Gold is power; brass is fame; - Watch The Times go on and sell - All the news that’s fit—(for h—). - All is well; All—is—well. - -The protest had been orderly and dignified—the only violence being -committed by one of the regents, who had dragged a student about, trying -to tear his papers away from him and denouncing him for what he was -doing. The student body was thoroughly roused, and more than seven -hundred signed a letter endorsing the protest. Blethen had come on to -the campus to make a speech, and the students had heckled him and as one -of them told me “had him on the run.” The university authorities now -barred all save invited speakers, and the president ordained that the -teaching of progressive ideas at the university must cease, and there -was to be no student criticism of president or regents, or their acts. -The whole controversy was reviewed by the regents, who endorsed what the -president had done. - -We have spoken of Professor Hart, and how he was dropped from Reed. At -this time Hart was at the University of Washington, and an incident will -illustrate the feeling of all parties. Hart sat at luncheon in the -Faculty Club, when President Kane entered and told of the action of the -regents. Said Hart, “They think they can get away with it?” To which the -president answered: “Aren’t they the authorities?” Said Hart: “Do you -realize that there are a thousand students in this university who have -votes, and may hold the balance of power at the next election?” - -Evidently the regents thought the same thing; it was the year of the -Roosevelt revolt, and the Progressives were certain of carrying the -state. A few days before the election, the Seattle “Post-Intelligencer,” -owned by the transportation lines and the Seattle National Bank, dug up -a story to the effect that the Progressive candidate had divorced his -wife. They mailed out ten thousand post cards to the women of the state: -“Do you want a divorced man for governor?” As a result, the Democrats -carried the election by eight hundred votes. They threw out two regents -who had supported the students, and later on, as a result of the -controversy, the governor turned out the entire board and put in four -standpat business men, with a Catholic M. D. at the head. This gentleman -made a desperate effort to have a Catholic chosen as president of the -university, but finally compromised upon a High Church Episcopalian of -Catholic extraction, a product of Nicholas Murray Butler’s finishing -machine. - -Professor Hart was at this time one of the most popular members of the -faculty with the students, a lecturer widely known throughout the state; -he was now told that his inability to get along with his colleagues in -his department was a reason for his dismissal. They gave him a year’s -leave of absence, though he did not want it; then they set out to find a -substitute, and he applied for the job of substitute! Finally, they let -out all three professors in the department, including Hart; a little -later they took back one of them, the dean! A great many people thought -this was a trick, and Hart’s students protested bitterly, but in vain. -They paid Hart an unusual tribute of appreciation, organizing a -publishing company to finance his book on social service. - -Old Colonel Blethen of the “Times” is dead, and the University of the -Chimes now has as its first grand duke a gentleman who is president of a -bank, a commercial company, an investment company, an irrigating -company, and a mortgage and a loan company; he is assisted by a -politician and lobbyist, chairman of the appropriations committee of the -state legislature. In twenty-five years, I am informed, there has never -been a farmer or a labor representative on the board! The university -remains a place of low standards, no academic achievements, and -perpetual cheap advertising by the administration. Three different men -have written me to tell how they have been strangled—but always warning -me not to use their names—not even to tell the details of their -experiences! One writes about another professor, not in any sense a -radical, but who tells the truth about public questions, and as a result -has been an object of attack for twenty-five years: - - Most of the time it has been under cover and has consisted in efforts - to bring pressure to bear on the president and board of regents. But a - number of times it has come out into the open. A governor some years - ago in his inaugural address announced his determination to bring - about the removal of Professor ——, and a few times an effort has been - made in the legislature to make elimination of his department a - condition of legislative support for the university. But while a good - deal of publicity was given to these more spectacular assaults on - academic freedom, they had little effect except perhaps to strengthen - the administrative conviction that such departments were a good deal - of a nuisance. Far more effective are the ever active forces which are - working silently without any publicity upon those in control—president - and regents. Nor does the failure to exercise power to remove indicate - necessarily lack of real influence. There are many ways of - disciplining an obstreperous faculty member without actual removal. A - president in his control of salaries, distribution of library and - other departmental funds may withhold from an offending faculty member - opportunities accorded to those who have not incurred his displeasure. - In the course of my experience as a faculty member I have seen a good - deal of the sinister side of university control. - -And peace reigns in the country of the Lumber Trust. Last year the big -lumber companies cut wages, and on an investment of three millions they -paid dividends of seven millions. At Port Angeles they are bringing in -ship-loads of Japanese labor, in defiance of the law. The lumber-jacks -and the blanket-stiffs work in hourly peril of life and limb; they sleep -in filthy bunks and eat rotten food, and if they attempt to organize and -better their conditions, their organizations are destroyed and their -meeting halls sacked by mobs of business men. If they appeal to the -public authorities they are laughed at; if they appeal to the public -their voices are unheard; if they exercise the elemental right of -self-defense, as they did at Centralia, they are shot, or beaten to -death, or castrated with pocket knives and hanged, or tried before a mob -jury and sentenced to ten or twenty years in jail. These things are -done, not as acts of primitive barbarism, but as a business system; they -are planned by the interlocking directorate, sitting in padded -arm-chairs around tables in directors’ rooms; they are carried out by -efficient executives telephoning from mahogany desks. Such is the rule -of the Lumber Trust; and at the University of the Lumber Trust the -professors know all about it; they go to their classes and teach what -their masters tell them to teach, and on behalf of justice and humanity -they utter not one single peep. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVII - THE UNIVERSITIES OF THE ANACONDA - - -We take the Northern Pacific Railroad, which has Mr. Morgan himself for -a director, also two Morgan partners, one of them a recent Harvard -overseer and a Massachusetts Tech trustee, and the other a Harvard -overseer and Smith College trustee; also an Amherst trustee, a Hampton -trustee, a Union Theological Seminary director, a Cornell trustee, and -three First National Bank directors. We travel East until we come to the -mining country; first, Montana, which has been swallowed whole by an -enormous corporation, appropriately called the Anaconda. The people of -this state maintain a university, scattered in four widely separated -places, in order to please various real estate interests. - -The State Board of Education, which runs matters for the Anaconda, -contains the following appointed members: the personal attorney of -Senator Clark, sometimes called the richest man in the world, and -certainly the worst corruptionist who ever broke into the United States -Senate; another attorney for big business, a hard fighting reactionary, -who “grilled” a professor of the university law school for the crime of -not giving his son high marks; another corporation lawyer, and a fourth -lawyer who is a mild progressive; two merchants of the aggressive -Chamber of Commerce type; one rich and conservative farmer; and one very -subservient school principal. - -The chancellor of the university up to last year was Edward C. Elliott, -and he had to handle not merely this board, but the politicians of the -Anaconda who run the state legislature; he had to go to them every year -to beg for appropriations, and he had the bright thought that he would -try to have an annual tax provided for higher education in the state. He -suggested to Louis Levine, his professor of economics, to make a study -of the whole tax problem in Montana. Professor Levine set to -work—beginning with the subject of mining companies and their -contributions, or lack of contributions, to the state taxes! In the -course of the year 1918 occurred a state tax conference, and Professor -Levine addressed it, and was furiously attacked by a representative of -the Anaconda Copper Company, which had packed the conference with its -lawyers and lobbyists. - -Toward the end of the year Professor Levine completed his report on mine -taxation, in which he proved that the great corporations paid only a -small percentage of the taxes they owed the state. He submitted this -report to the chancellor, who read it and had a desperate case of “cold -feet.” His contract was about to come up for renewal, and he decided -that he had better shift the responsibility to the State Board of -Education, which governs the university. Professor Levine agreed to -this, but on the stipulation that if the board declined to publish the -document, he should be free to publish it himself. He took the position -that if he submitted to pressure in this issue, he would lose the moral -right to lecture to classes of young people. - -Now began a bitter struggle behind the scenes, with the governor of the -state and a senator-henchman of the Anaconda striving frantically to -keep the report from appearing. Finally the poor chancellor wrote to -Levine, forbidding him to publish the report; Levine answered that there -had been a definite understanding, made in the presence of President -Sisson of Montana State University, that Levine was to be free to -publish the report if he so desired. Accordingly he published it,[L] and -the chancellor, in a rage, immediately “fired” him. - ------ - -Footnote L: - - Taxation of Mines in Montana: B. W. Huebsch, New York. The book won - the commendation of Professor Seligman of Columbia, America’s leading - conservative authority on taxation. - ------ - -This was about as clear a case of the violation of academic freedom as -had ever occurred in America. The matter created a great scandal, and -this scandal caused pain to the faculty of the university. A committee -of professors took the matter up, and reported, somewhat plaintively: - -“It must have been foreseen that the enforcement of this order would -lead to all of the undesirable publicity which has attended this whole -affair, and which has brought down upon the University of Montana the -condemnation of some of the most widely read newspapers and periodicals -of the country, and which has made the university stand in the minds of -people throughout the United States as a horrible example of -narrow-mindedness, bigotry and intolerance.... Not only have the members -of the faculty of the State University been made to feel that they have -lost all independence of thought and action, which are (sic) absolutely -essential to the maintenance of a university’s morale, but the day is -far distant when the University of Montana will be able to attract to -its faculties broad-minded and eminent scholars of independence and -initiative.” - -Also the American Association of University Professors took up the -matter and sent out a representative to mediate. The State Board of -Education could not face the public clamor; doubtless, also, they -reasoned that the report was out, and their mining companies had -sustained all the harm possible. They tactfully voted that both sides -were right; the chancellor had acted properly in firing Professor -Levine, but Levine should now be reinstated, and paid for the time he -had been fired! The state legislature appointed a committee to -investigate the university, and especially the teaching of “Socialism” -in its economics department. This committee met privately in the empty -bar-room of Helena’s biggest hotel, and learned from Professor Levine -that co-operative marketing by farmers is not the entire program of the -Third International. After giving this information, Professor Levine -resigned. - -In the University of Montana law school was a young professor by the -name of Arthur Fisher, son of the ex-Secretary of the Interior. He was a -splendid teacher, popular with the students and with the faculty; but he -associated himself with the Farmer-Labor movement, an effort of the -people of the Northwestern states to take the control of their affairs -away from the corporations. A former president of the university, who -had been kicked out by the Anaconda, had started a liberal newspaper, -the “New Northwest,” and Professor Fisher became interested in this and -thereby stirred the fury of the “Missoulian,” a newspaper of the -Anaconda, which discovered that Fisher was a Bolshevist, and that he was -“financing the paper with the street-car graft of his father”—Fisher’s -father being a man who had spent a large part of his life opposing the -street-car graft in Chicago. In the spring of 1921 the “Missoulian” dug -up the fact that Fisher had made a speech in Chicago during the war, -urging that the United States should force the allies to define their -war aims. That, of course, was “pro-German,” and the American -Legion—swallowed by the Anaconda—took up the issue, and demanded -Fisher’s scalp. - -A faculty committee of the university spent a good part of the summer on -this problem, and vindicated the young professor on every point; but the -chancellor—who still had to get his appropriations every year from an -Anaconda legislature—mutilated the report of his faculty committee -before he submitted it to the state board of education; and he and his -board and the attorney general of the state of Anaconda worked out a -most ingenious solution—they gave the radical young professor a -compulsory leave of absence at full pay; they forbid him to teach law at -the university, but they pay him the state’s money while he edits the -“New Northwest!” And the interlocking directorate were so much pleased -with this ingenuity of Chancellor Elliott that they called him to become -president of Purdue University at a higher salary! - -We move down to Moscow, Idaho, where we find another university of the -Copper Trust. Five years ago this university had a president named -Brannon, described to me by a friend as “a liberal conservative, an -educator and a scientist.” The politicians who run the state are the Day -brothers, mining kings; they starved the university, and their henchmen, -who controlled the school funds, refused to pay the university’s bills. -They tried to reduce the president’s salary, though he had a contract; -he resigned, but there was such an uproar in the state that they had to -recede. Senator Day’s whole family, including the ladies, now took up -the intrigue against President Brannon; they caused an investigation of -the bursar, and when the accounts were reported all right, they sent -back their investigators with instructions to find something wrong. A -prominent newspaper publisher served notice that he must have the -university printing or he would make trouble; and it is reported on good -authority that on this occasion President Brannon said a “cuss” word. -Anyhow, he was forced to resign, though no charges had been brought -against him. Dean Ayres, and another dean who had supported him, went at -the same time. We shall meet President Brannon again before long at -Beloit, and it will appear that he has learned his lesson; for this -time, when the interlocking directorate gives him orders, he obeys! - -The educational affairs of Idaho, both school and university, are in the -hands of Dr. E. A. Bryan, chief administrative officer of the State -Board of Education. I have before me a very sumptuous pamphlet, printed -by this board a few months ago at the expense of the people of Idaho. It -contains an address by Dr. Bryan, entitled “The Foes of Democracy,” and -has as a frontispiece the portrait of an exceedingly handsome but -stern-looking hundred per cent American. Dr. Bryan has discovered four -dangerous foes of democracy: first, the “reds”; second, the “radicals”; -third, the “profiteers”; and fourth, the “robber barons.” Just what is -the difference between a “red” and a “radical” I do not know, and Dr. -Bryan does not enable me to find out. Apparently a “radical” is a person -who advises labor unions to use strikes to “injure the public.” It is -manifest that there can be no strike which does not injure the public; -Dr. Bryan is a bit muddled, but it is clear what he means, that as -strikes grow more big, they also grow more inconvenient. I find him -equally muddled on the subject of the “profiteer”; because, while he -tells us not to make “an excess profit,” he does not tell us what “an -excess profit” is, nor how there can be such a thing in a competitive -world. Apparently it is the same thing as in the case of strikes: -profiteering has got too big! But that big strikes might be a -consequence of big profiteering has apparently not penetrated Dr. -Bryan’s handsome head. - -Also I seek in vain to find out the difference between the “profiteers” -and the “robber barons.” All I can gather is that there are bad men in -the world, and they abuse their power. It is Dr. Bryan’s idea that they -will read his pamphlet, and reform, and then all will be well. May I -suggest that he send copies of his pamphlet to the Day brothers, and -also to the Day wives, who run the mining and the education of Idaho? - -The significant thing about the pamphlet, aside from its feebleness of -thought, is the amount of space which it gives to the various kinds of -evil persons. The “reds” get eleven pages, the “radicals” get four and a -half, the “profiteers” get one and a quarter, and the “robber barons” -get two and a half. I took the trouble to figure this out, and it -appears that the head of Idaho’s educational machine considers that -eighty per cent of the perils to present-day American life comes from -the poor, and less than twenty per cent from the rich. So I am not -surprised to receive a letter from a university professor, telling me -that “in Idaho, when a successor to President Lindley of the state -university at Moscow was being sought, the state commissioner of -education, Dr. Bryan, requested a Stanford professor to come and meet -the regents. He did this and was _not_ appointed, because of certain -views in reference to the present economic order. Dr. Bryan told me this -himself.” I suggest that Dr. Bryan should issue a new edition of his -pamphlet, listing a fifth variety of “foes of democracy,” in the shape -of university authorities who train the youth of the country to be -henchmen and lackeys of the profiteers and the robber barons. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVIII - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS - - -We next take the Union Pacific Railroad, with its Columbia trustee for -chairman, and a Rutgers trustee and two Massachusetts Tech trustees and -a Hebrew Tech trustee for directors, two Equitable Trust Company -directors, two Guaranty Trust Company directors, and three National City -Bank directors; and find ourselves in Salt Lake City, in the domain of -another group of mining kings, working in alliance with one of the -weirdest religious organizations that have ever sanctified America, the -Church of the Latter-Day Saints. This is not a book on religion, so we -shall merely say that the Mormons are hard-working people, who have -heaped up enormous treasures, and have turned the control of these -treasures over to the heads of their church. So here is a group of pious -plutocrats, who run the financial, political, religious and educational -life of the State of Utah. - -Also, of course, they run the state university. Mr. Richard Young, the -son of Joseph Young, was until quite recently chairman of the board of -regents of the University of Utah, and also trustee of the Brigham Young -University. He is a prominent stand-pat politician, and made it his -business to see that the professors of his university said nothing -impolite about the Copper Trust, or the Smelter Trust, or the Public -Utility Trust, or the Latter-Day Sanctity Trust. - -Seven years ago his activities culminated in a violent row. Two -professors were fired without warning, and the resentment of the faculty -was so great that sixteen others resigned, and the control of the -university by the church and the corporations received a thorough -ventilation. It appeared that professors had been admonished and -punished for various strange reasons—such as mentioning the important -part played by the English church in English literature; making a -private criticism of a Mormon woman at a social gathering; or making an -impolite remark concerning the cuspidor shown in a painting of Brigham -Young, patriarch of the Mormon religion! - -The two professors who had been fired were accused of criticizing the -university president; also, it was charged that one of them had remarked -in a private conversation: “Isn’t it too bad that we have a man like -Richard Young as chairman of the board of regents.” The witnesses who -told of the criticism of the president of the university were never -called, and the president was never required to name them. The regents, -in an elaborate public statement on the controversy, brushed this demand -aside by saying that whenever there was disagreement between the -president and members of the faculty, they would settle the issue by -deciding, not who was right, nor who told the truth, but who was the -most useful to the university! - -This affair was investigated by a committee of seven professors, -representing the American Association of University Professors, who -issued an eighty-two page report, covering every detail of the -controversy. From this evidence it appears that the charges against the -professors were false; and it appears that the president was to be -numbered among those many university heads who do not always tell the -truth. A student at commencement had delivered an address, advocating “a -public utilities commission, and investigation into the methods of -mining and industrial corporations.” The interlocking directors were -furious over this, and the governor of the state set to work to find out -what professors had approved it. The president of the university denied -that the governor had engaged in any such activities; but the report -produces a mass of evidence, making it perfectly clear that the -president’s statement was untrue. - -Also, it appears that the interlocking regents were not above evasion of -the truth. They denied knowing that the faculty of the university had -adopted a petition for redress of grievances—and this although full -details about the faculty action had been published in the newspapers -nine or ten days before the regents met! By keeping at it, the committee -of professors extracted a few admissions from these saintly plutocrats; -thus, they got Chairman Young to admit over his own signature “that the -president had warned a certain prominent professor that his activity in -behalf of a public utilities bill might injure the university; that he -advised an instructor against participating in a political campaign, and -enjoined a partisan rally on the campus.” - -It must be a difficult matter, running a university in the capital of -the Latter-Day Saints. You have to know that your wealthy regents are -living in polygamous relationships, which differ from those maintained -by wealthy regents in other parts of the country in that they are crimes -under the United States law, but acts of holiness under the church law; -and you have to know in just what ways to know about these semi-secret -families, and in just what ways to be ignorant of them. Outside is all -the world, laughing at you; and naturally you are sensitive to that -laughter, and your professors are still more so. They cannot be entirely -unaware of modern thought; and so you have to summon them to your office -and plead with them, pointing out how certain regents object that they -“have been teaching against the experiences of Joseph Smith.” You have -to get them “to bring into class discussions and explanations of the -term God or deity, if they can conscientiously do so.” You have to -explain to them that unless they “can conscientiously do so,” the -legislature will withhold appropriations, and they will not get their -salaries. - -And then, when the Latter-Day Grafters put pressure upon you, you have -to remove a competent professor from the head of your Department of -English, and put in a bishop of the Mormon church, the distinguished -editor of “The Juvenile Instructor, a monthly magazine devoted to the -interests of the Sunday Schools of the Mormon church”; also author of -“The Restoration of the Gospel, a volume of Mormon apologetics, -consisting chiefly of lessons prepared for the Young Ladies’ Improvement -Association, 1910-1911, with an introduction by Joseph F. Smith, Jr., of -the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, 1912.” And when your professors object to -things like this, your interlocking regents retire you, and put the -brother of the Mormon bishop into your place! - -That is what happened at the University of Utah; Mr. Richard Young, -grand saint of the board of regents, put in as president of his -institution Mr. J. A. Widstoe, M. A., author of “Joseph Smith, the -Scientist,” in which he proves that the Mormon founder anticipated all -modern science—excepting only Darwinism, which is taboo by the Church! -Now Mr. Richard Young has gone to his eternal reward as grand saint, and -his place is taken by Mr. Waldemar Van Cott, attorney for the Rio Grande -Railroad and the Utah Fuel Company, and the most active agent in the -attack on the liberal professors. President Widstoe has been promoted to -“apostle” of the Church, and his place as head of the university has -been taken by Dr. George Thomas, professor of economics. What kind of -economics they now teach at the university is summed up for me by a -lawyer of Salt Lake City, who was formerly on the faculty of the -institution. He says: - -“Let it be noted that the Mormon church is a business institution. It -owns and controls properties, banks, commercial institutions and -industries. It is conservative. It is a foe of all doctrines and plans -that might weaken property rights. Also, let it be noted that the -organization of the Mormon church is perfect and that those who hold -power depend upon the doctrines of the church for their tenure upon -power and influence.” - -And then I take up the catalogue of the university, to see what they are -teaching their three thousand students, and I find that they are -catholic in their tastes. As courses leading to university degrees, they -include commerce and finance, commercial art, business bookkeeping and -stenography, auto mechanics, carpentering and plumbing! Three professors -at the university write me that conditions under the new administration -are greatly improved. One professor asserts that there is now complete -freedom. I trust he will not think me unduly skeptical if I say that I -would attach more weight to his experiences if he were teaching, say -economics, instead of “ancient language and literature.” - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIX - THE MINING CAMP UNIVERSITY - - -We continue our journey on the Union Pacific Railroad, and come to the -metropolis of the Rocky Mountains, a city entirely surrounded by gold -mines, silver mines, coal mines and copper mines, and entirely -controlled by hard-fighting piratical gentlemen who have seized these -hidden treasures. Denver is only a generation removed from the mining -camp stage of civilization, and mining camp manners and morals still -prevail in its financial, political and educational life. In other -portions of the United States you find the great captains of industry -hiring politicians to run the state and city governments for them; but -in Colorado up to quite recently they did their own dirty work—you would -find the grand dukes of the interlocking directorate, Evans of traction, -Doherty of gas and electric, Field of telephones, Cheesman of water, -Guggenheim of copper, themselves the political bosses, hiring their -thugs and repeaters and ballot box stuffers, and paying their own cash -to their newspaper editors, clergymen and college presidents. These -mighty chieftains used to fall out and quarrel and turn their -scandal-bureaus loose on one another, so it was always easy to learn the -insides of Denver finance, politics and education. - -The leading prejudice factory of the State of Colorado has been the -University of Denver, founded by the father of William G. Evans, -traction magnate and Republican boss. Mr. Evans made himself president -of the board of trustees of the university, and selected to run the -institution an extremely venomous and abusive Methodist clergyman by the -name of Buchtel. In running the government of Denver, Mr. Evans worked -in alliance with the gamblers and the keepers of brothels and wine-rooms -for the seducing of young girls; the violations of law became so -flagrant that the political gang operating under Evans found its power -threatened, and cast about for some candidate for governor to take the -curse off them, and selected the Reverend Henry Augustus Buchtel, D.D., -LL.D., chancellor of their university. As the Denver “Post” delicately -phrased it, “They reached up in the House of God and pulled down the -poor old chancellor to cover up the rottenness of their machine.” - -There was a meeting of the chancellor with Mr. Evans and his political -henchmen. One of the purposes of his nomination was that his candidacy -might aid Simon Guggenheim, head of the Smelter Trust, to buy his way -into the United States Senate. The chancellor accepted the nomination, -and invited all present to rise, join hands and sing: “Blest Be the Tie -That Binds.” You may find this anecdote in “The Beast,” by Ben B. -Lindsey, Judge of the Children’s Court of Denver—that is, you may find -it if you can find a copy of the book, which its publishers mysteriously -ceased to push. Says Lindsey: - - The tie that binds the Beast and the Church? Yes, and the Beast and - the College! During the Peabody campaign (according to the “Rocky - Mountain News”) a young student named Reed had been practically driven - from the Denver University because he criticized the corporation - Governor. Later a university professor was sent to Europe to gather - data which was used in the campaign against municipal ownership in - Denver; and the professor was “exposed but not forced into - retirement.” Later still, Buchtel reprimanded a student named Bell for - volunteering as a worker in one of our Juvenile Court campaigns. Mr. - Evans was president of the Board of Trustees of the University, and - the Reverend Henry Augustus Buchtel was his Chancellor. - - The use of Buchtel in the campaign that followed was a huge success. - Everywhere people said to me: “Why, the Chancellor will never stand - for the sale of the senatorship to Guggenheim!” Or the “dear - chancellor” will never permit this or that undesirable thing in - politics. But Buchtel had already admitted to a ministerial friend - that he believed Guggenheim ought to be elected—though he said nothing - of it from the platform, you may be sure. After he was Governor, he - not only endorsed Guggenheim but vigorously defended the Legislature - for electing Guggenheim, honored Evans with a place on the - gubernatorial staff, and gave a public dinner to the corporation heads - who had most profited by the rule of the System in the state. They - reciprocated by sending the Denver University handsome donations; - Evans led with $10,000, and Guggenheim, Hughes and others followed - with fat checks. - - The keeper of a gambling hell, whom I summoned to my court and forced - to make restitution to one of his victims, said to me: “I have some - respect for Mayor Speer. He tells these preachers that he believes in - our policy of open gambling. But I have nothing but contempt for that - old stiff up in the State House who talks about ‘the word of God,’ and - gets his nomination from a boss who protects _us_, and gets elected on - money that _we_ contributed to the organization!” It is one of the - saddest aspects of this use of the Church that The Beast gains - respectability thereby, and the Church contempt.... - - Buchtel was elected. His candidacy proved a successful disguise for - the Guggenheim “deal,” and the “church element” was used as well as - “the dive element.” A corporation legislature was put in power. It - only remained for the corporations to deliver the United States - senatorship to Guggenheim “for value received,” and to betray the - nation as they had betrayed the state. - - Simon Guggenheim had no more claim to represent Colorado in the Senate - at Washington than John D. Rockefeller has—or Baron Rothschild. He was - the head of the Smelter Trust, and he had been financially interested, - of course, in the election of Peabody in 1904, and the defeat of the - eight-hour law and the suppression of the eight-hour strike. These - things entitled him to the gratitude of the corporations only. He was - unknown to the people of Colorado. He had never been heard of by them - except in a newspaper interview. He had not, as far as I know, ever - spoken or written a word publicly on politics. “I don’t know much - about the political game,” he told one of his campaign managers, “but - I have the money. I know _that_ game.” He does. - -That was fifteen years ago, and they did their bribery in the old-style -way. Guggenheim paid the campaign expenses of a majority of the Colorado -legislators. At present the State of Colorado is run by Phipps, the -steel king, and they do not have to buy the legislators, for it is the -people who elect the United States senators, and they have bought up all -the institutions upon which the people depend. They have bought the Y. -M. C. A. and the churches by “donations,” and they have bought the -universities in Colorado by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to -them. Because Lindsey exposed this new style of bribery, the Phipps -machine ordered all of Lindsey’s child welfare bills killed by the state -legislature. - -And of course in their university they watch incessantly to make sure -that no dangerous ideas reach the students. Last summer there was a -meeting of all the clergymen of Denver on the campus of the university -to listen to Dr. Harry Ward, general secretary of the Social Service -Commission of the Federated Council Churches of America. The chancellor -intervened at the last minute and forbade Ward to speak, denouncing him -as “a menace to the present social order.” Instead, he got copies of a -report on the steel strike, which Judge Gary had had prepared by one of -his kept clergymen, as a reply to the attack by the Inter-Church World -Movement. Every member of the graduating class of 1921 received a copy -of this report, being solemnly called in to receive it personally from -the hands of the chancellor. A professor at the university, who had been -scheduled to speak at the church of a Socialist clergyman in Denver, was -called up and warned that if he wished to have a career at the -university he must avoid that kind of thing. Shortly after this a -representative of the Rockefeller education fund was invited to luncheon -at the university, and the chancellor made a public appeal to him for -funds, on the ground of his services in barring Dr. Ward. This was a -trifle too raw, and the chancellor did not get his money! - -The old man has just been retired; but the same gang still rules the -board of trustees, with Evans the infamous as grand duke. As assistant -he has an attorney for the “Big Four” corporations which run the city of -Denver, who spends his spare time leading crusades against the “reds”; -also a prominent banker, a corporation lawyer, a real estate speculator, -a capitalistic preacher, a corporation lawyer from Pueblo, a millionaire -oil man and lawyer, a millionaire miner and banker—and finally, as Grand -Duke junior, “Boss” Evans’ son, John. - - - - - CHAPTER XL - THE COLLEGES OF THE SMELTER TRUST - - -The interlocking directorate of Colorado maintains also a state -university at Boulder, on the Colorado and Southern Railroad; which road -has a trustee of Williams College for president, and a General -Theological Seminary trustee for director. The standards of academic -freedom prevailing at the University of Colorado are very interestingly -revealed in a case which occurred seven years ago. - -During the coal strike of 1914, the operators and their militia set -aside the constitution of the United States in the Southern counties of -the state, and one professor at the law school took a stand against -their action. The operators had burned and suffocated three women and -eleven children at Ludlow, and Professor James W. Brewster accepted the -chairmanship of a public committee to investigate the strike situation. -In peril, not merely of his job, but of his life, he spent several weeks -in the coal fields, questioning witnesses and bringing out evidence. He -was the means of forcing an investigation by Congress, and he appeared -and testified before the Congressional Committee. His subsequent -dismissal from the university was investigated by the American -Association of University Professors, and their report lies before me. I -will state briefly the facts admitted, and the contentions of both -parties to the dispute, and leave it for the reader to form his own -conclusions. - -Professor Brewster was nearly fifty-nine years of age, and the president -of the university claims that on this account his appointment to the -university had been merely temporary, and that this was fully made clear -to Professor Brewster. Professor Brewster denies that he had any such -understanding. It was admitted by both the president and the dean of the -law school that Brewster’s teaching was “entirely satisfactory.” Says -the report: - - The testimony of students in his law classes is that Professor - Brewster in the class room adhered strictly to the subjects he was - teaching and made no allusions whatever to industrial questions. The - courses that he was teaching did not in any way involve the issues - that were then agitating Colorado. Immediately after Professor - Brewster’s testifying in December he was abusively attacked by several - Colorado newspapers in unrestrained language and with the most - unreasonable distortion and exaggeration of the tenor of his - testimony. According to the testimony of President Farrand, E. M. - Ammons, then Governor of Colorado, called up President Farrand by - telephone soon after Mr. Brewster’s appearance before the Commission - in Denver, and urged the immediate dismissal of Professor Brewster - because of his testimony. - -The president of the university asserts that he refused the governor’s -request. That was in December, 1914; in May, 1915, Professor Brewster -was invited to come to Washington, to give his testimony before the -United States Commission on Industrial Relations. Professor Brewster -went to the president of the university, and stated that he had been -able to arrange for a colleague to take his classes for the few days of -his absence. As to what happened next there is a disagreement. Professor -Brewster claims that the president told him that if he went to -Washington his connection with the university must cease at once. The -president, in his statement to the committee of the association, gives -his version of the interview as follows: - - I told him that I regarded the publicity which had attended his former - testimony as detrimental in its effect upon the university. In the - inflamed condition of public sentiment in Colorado at that time it was - exploited in a way which I regarded as unfortunate. His connection - with the university was made prominent in the inaccurate publicity - which resulted and the institution was drawn thereby into a - controversy, and an attitude attributed to the university as an - institution, which I regarded as unwarranted and unfortunate. In - further discussion of this point and in illustrating the prejudice - aroused by the testimony, I cited the feeling expressed by members of - the Legislature and reported to me during the legislative session of - 1915. I used some expression to the effect that his public statements - regarding the industrial situation had been an obstacle in the - university’s effort to obtain additional support from the Legislature. - I did not, as I recall it, lay any stress upon this and mentioned it - incidentally as an illustration and matter of interest at the moment. - I stated that in view of the inaccurate publicity and the involvement - of the university at the time of his previous appearance before the - Federal Commission, I thought it would be desirable, in case he - decided to go to Washington, that a statement should be issued - indicating the temporary nature of his connection with the university - and that that connection would naturally terminate at the end of the - academic year. - -The outcome of the matter was that Professor Brewster decided not to go -to Washington; nevertheless, he was dropped from the University of -Colorado. It is interesting to note that among those who were retained -at the University was Dr. John Chase, who will live in American history -as the man responsible for the Ludlow massacre. He was adjutant-general -of the Colorado militia at the time, and an unscrupulous partisan of the -coal operators. Among the regents at the time was Mr. C. C. Parks, -politician, banker, coal company director, and furious opponent of the -strikers. Among the law faculty who fought Professor Brewster was -Professor A. A. Reed, whose law partner was engaged in prosecuting a -number of the former strikers. Professor Reed, a former bank president, -was at this time an official of a national bank in Denver, and a -director of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Mr. Rockefeller’s concern -which put through the Ludlow massacre. I am interested to note that -another member of the faculty who is not objected to is Professor L. W. -Cole, director of the School of Social Service, who last summer -recommended to the students of his summer school Vice-President -Coolidge’s magazine articles on the “Red menace,” a farrago of -foolishness gathered by the Lusk committee and their secret agents. - -Also we ought to have a glance at Colorado College, located at Colorado -Springs; a co-educational institution started by the Congregational -Church, and now conducted by the interlocking directorate. They had a -first-class business man for president, but there were brought against -him “serious charges of indiscreet and improper conduct toward two women -employed in the college offices.” Now, of course, the business men who -run the government of Colorado, in conjunction with the brothels and -wine-rooms, understand that college presidents have to have their little -pleasures in off hours; but some of the faculty thought that college -presidents ought to have these pleasures somewhere off the campus. They -endeavored privately to force the resignation of the president; whereat -the trustees became furious, and fired a dean who had been active in the -matter. When the students organized and protested, they contemptuously -rejected the students’ demands. - -This matter likewise was investigated by the American Association of -University Professors, and it happened that I studied their report -before I knew anything about the trustees and their financial position. -It was rather funny; I read what the trustees said to the professors, -and how they behaved in the various conferences; I read their letters, -and found myself thinking: this must be a rich man, and so must this; -here must be the grand duke, the fellow who runs the place! Then I -looked them up in “Who’s Who,” and, sure enough, there they were—Mr. -Philip B. Stewart, mining and public utility magnate, an active -Republican politician; and Mr. Irving Howbert, president of a bank, a -gold mining company and a railroad, also an active Republican -politician! - -Would you like to hear one of these grand dukes addressing his college -professors, gathered together to be taught their place? Listen to the -affidavit of Professor George M. Howe: - - The meeting was opened by Mr. P. B. Stewart, chairman of the executive - committee of the Board. Mr. Stewart berated us soundly for what we had - done.... His mains points were that we had been guilty of sending - libelous matter through the mail, for which we might well be sent to - the penitentiary; that we had given the slanderous charges against Dr. - Slocum into the hands of persons who should know nothing of them, - since our letters would come into the hands of private secretaries of - the men to whom they were sent; and that we had made the completion of - the five hundred thousand dollar fund for the College impossible, - since the Trustees, who were large contributors, would now withhold - their subscriptions. His purpose was apparently to make us feel that - our conduct had been thoroughly idiotic and ill-advised in every - respect. - -And then hear the summing up of the American Association of University -Professors: - -“The committee feels constrained to remark, further, that the attitude -of the majority of the members of the Board of Trustees and of the Board -as a body towards the faculty has been characterized by grave -discourtesy, a lack of openness and candor, and an habitual disregard of -the fact that the administrative officers and teaching staff of a -college have large and definite moral responsibilities in relation to -the internal conditions and standards of the institution with which they -are connected.” - -The outcome of the whole matter was that the graduating class of the -college fell off from eighty to twenty-six; but the interlocking -trustees waited. They held the purse-strings, and they knew that the -incident would be forgotten, and the students would come back—which they -did. - -Also the plutocracy of Colorado maintains an institution for training -its engineers and mining experts; this is the Colorado School of Mines, -located at Golden. Here also there was trouble, because on “Senior Day” -some of the students got drunk and beat up a member of the faculty at a -baseball game. Naturally, the president and the faculty resented this, -and they suspended five of the students, and there was a great uproar, -culminating in a student strike. This incident also was investigated by -the Association of University Professors, and I studied the report -before I knew anything about the various trustees. Here again I was able -to pick out the grand duke by his bad manners, and by the way everybody -cringed before him when he came down from Cripple Creek to deal with the -row. He is Mr. A. E. Carlton, president of four banks and of several -mining companies. - -Naturally, so great a man realized the absurdity of suspending the sons -of the plutocracy, merely for the beating up of a college professor! -With the help of Captain Smith, another member of the board, he settled -the strike by reinstating the suspended students and forcing the -resignation of the protesting president. The board put in a former -president of the college, who had been dismissed for cause, but who was -exactly the sort of fellow they wanted, as you can see from the sworn -testimony of seven different professors, to the effect that he had -lowered the teaching standards of the college by insisting again and -again that the sons of the plutocracy should be given passing marks -after they had failed. The committee of university professors states -that “Professor H. B. Patton, for twenty-four years a member of the -faculty, informed the Committee that President Alderson condoned -cheating on the part of a son of an influential Denver citizen.” Says -Professor Albert G. Wolf: “Many students at the school during Alderson’s -administration were allowed to pass, after having failed in their -studies, because they were either athletes or relations of influential -men of Colorado.” Says Professor Stephen Worrell: “President Alderson -arbitrarily raised the grades of some of the men I had either -conditioned or failed.... Subsequent investigation revealed that the men -whose grades had been raised were relatives of prominent politicians in -the State. I found on inquiry that the same thing had happened to other -members of the faculty, but that they had all accepted the situation as -inevitable.” - -This controversy was settled by the dismissal of several of the -protesting professors, and by the appointment of a committee of the -state legislature, which investigated the situation and reported in the -following apposite words: - - In conclusion, your Committee finds that the management and - administration of the School of Mines is efficient, the trustees, - officers, and faculty competent, well qualified, and trustworthy, and - that the institution, members, officers, faculty, and trustees are - entitled to the support, respect, and encouragement of the citizens of - this State, the alumni of the institution, and the general public. - Your Committee is of the opinion that the institution will flourish - and its excellent reputation be maintained if it receives the - encouragement and patronage to which it is so justly entitled. - - - - - CHAPTER XLI - A LAND GRANT COLLEGE - - -We travel Northeast, and leave the mining country. On the lonely plains -of the state of North Dakota we find men toiling for long hours, and -raising a hundred million bushels of wheat every year. They mill very -little wheat, but ship it away to the “twin cities” of Minneapolis and -St. Paul; and then import their own flour: which means that from the -time the wheat leaves his land the farmer is paying tribute to a chain -of exploiters—elevator men, railroads, speculators, millers, and the -bankers who furnish the capital for these operations. The same situation -prevails throughout the prairie states, and so here you have a -well-matured class struggle between the dwellers in the country and the -dwellers in the towns. Ever since the Civil War the farmers have been -struggling to free themselves from the “money devil.” Wave after wave of -revolt has risen, and sunk again, but always the masters of credit have -managed to hold on. They have done this by owning or subsidizing the -newspapers, the agricultural weeklies and the general magazines, and -also by controlling the schools and colleges in which the farmers’ -children are educated. - -Writing in 1916, Gilson Gardner stated that the United States Bureau of -Education had approximately two hundred employes, and out of this number -one hundred and thirty appeared on the official rolls as drawing a -salary of one dollar per year. “The source from which these men are paid -is unknown. It is known in general, however, that some of them get their -salaries from the Rockefeller General Education Board and some from the -Sage Foundation or other endowments of private capital. The reports made -by these employes go out as government experiment publications with the -full prestige of official endorsement upon them.” - -One of the government employes who is not a corporation hireling is -Professor W. J. Spillman, chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, -and editor of a farm paper. Professor Spillman states that a wealthy -friend came to him, with a statement that the Rockefeller General -Education Board was seeking to control the educational institutions of -the country, to see that the men employed in them were “right.” They had -been successful with the smaller institutions, but some of the larger -ones had held out, and Rockefeller was now adding a hundred million -dollars to the foundation, “for the express purpose of forcing his money -into these big institutions. He is looking for a man who can put this -across. I think you are just the man for the place. There is a fat -salary in it for the man who can do the thing,” and so on. Professor -Spillman expressed some doubt of the Rockefellers being able to -accomplish their purpose, and the friend explained that the removal of -the unsatisfactory educators would be brought about as the result of -“local dissatisfaction.” - -You will call this a “cock and bull story”; but just notice—in the years -1915 and 1916 there were nine liberal presidents of Western colleges -turned out of their jobs, and at least twenty professors, mostly of -economics and sociology! Do you really think that the masters of the -Money Trust, having bought up the last newspaper and the last popular -magazine, would overlook your schools and colleges? If so, you are -exactly the kind of foolish person they count upon you to be! - -Most influential among the farmers are the so-called “land grant -colleges,” which, way back in the days of President Lincoln, received -from Congress large grants of government land for their support. Much of -this land was stolen outright by the grafters. I am told that in Maine -large tracts of the most valuable timber land were sold for a mere song, -and without advertisement; exactly the same thing was done in Michigan, -Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon—these land steals form the basis of the -power of those old aristocratic families whom we found running Reed -College and the University of Oregon. From what I know of my United -States, I feel quite sure that an investigation in any state between -Maine and Oregon would reveal the same kind of thing. - -Anyhow, here are these land grant colleges, some of them big and -prosperous, educating the farmers’ boys, and as yet not aspiring to the -snobbery of the big universities. The interlocking directorate wishes to -get hold of these institutions, and to see that dangerous thoughts are -kept out. I purpose to show you what they did in one state; I bespeak -your careful attention, because the story of one is the story of all, -and in reading about North Dakota you will also be reading about Maine, -Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and -Oregon. - -John H. Worst, at that time lieutenant-governor of North Dakota, became -president of the Agricultural College in 1895. It was a small -institution at that time; by seventeen years of hard work he built it up -until he had over twelve hundred students. Also he conducted, in -connection with the college, a government experiment station, in which -he had some devoted scientists. One of these, Professor E. F. Ladd, now -United States Senator put in office by the Non-Partisan League, was a -chemist, who became state pure food commissioner, and carried on a -vigorous campaign against light weights and short measures, and the -adulterating and misbranding of food. He went to the shelves of the -grocery stores, and showed that the stomachs of the people of North -Dakota were made a dumping-ground for timothy seed, gelatine and coal -tar dyes. He exposed the use of dangerous poisons in patent medicines, -and denounced the practice of bleaching flour—nor was he content to -prove these things in his laboratory, he went out and taught the people -of the state, and helped to put through laws against these practices. As -a result, he incurred the mortal enmity of whiskey rectifiers, -baking-powder manufacturers, paint manufacturers, the Beef Trust and the -Milling Trust. I talked with Senator Ladd in Washington in June, 1922, -and he told me that the last libel suit filed against him—for one -hundred thousand dollars—had been dismissed on the fourteenth of the -previous April; prior to that time, for twenty-two years he had never -been free from libel suits and injunctions. At one time there had been -six hanging over his head, and never one had been filed by a citizen of -North Dakota, nor had he ever lost one. - -Next, meet Professor H. C. Bolley, who is my dream of a scientist; a -long, lean, keen old gentleman, a demon for the hunting out of -knowledge, and an untamed champion of the people’s cause. I met him in -Fargo, and asked him if he would tell me his story, and there came a few -more wrinkles on his thin face. “I have been in this for twenty-two -years,” he said, “and maybe it will be my fate to be kicked out for -talking to Upton Sinclair!” Then the old professor thrust out an eager -finger: “This is the question I am asking: Is a college professor a -citizen? Or does he part with his rights, and become some kind of -subject when he takes a college job? I made up my mind that I was going -to stay a citizen, and exercise every one of the rights of a citizen, -including the right to go out and talk to my fellow-citizens, to educate -them, and organize them to protect their rights against all-comers. That -is all there is to my story.” - -Professor Bolley is one of the leading plant pathologists of the United -States; it was he who first discovered the causes of most of the -diseases which plague the farms of North Dakota—of “rust” and “smut” and -“root rots” in wheat and other cereals, of potato “scab” and flax -“wilt”—and he worked out remedies for these troubles, and taught them to -the people. He proved that “flax wilt” is due to “sick” soil—and that -seemed a terrible thing to the land interests and the railroads, who -were making money out of getting new farmers into North Dakota. These -speculators were not interested in having Professor Bolley cure the -“sick” soil; it paid them better if the farmers went into bankruptcy -every few years. The discoveries of Professor Bolley were worth hundreds -of millions to the farmers of the Northwest. He made discoveries about -flaxseed, and the linseed crushers and paint makers tried to buy his -services—they were used to buying professors. Bolley had them put the -money into the institution, with the provision that it was to be -employed for his researches. We shall presently see how his enemies -tried to take it away from him. - -Also, this professor-citizen took up the question of the grading of -wheat, the sorest point with the Northwestern farmers. They are -absolutely at the mercy of the elevator men and the millers, and the -whole thing is one colossal swindle. Professor Bolley knows wheat as -well as any other man in the world, and he showed the tricks to the -farmers. In the first place, the wheat all gets mixed up in the -elevators, and there is no way to tell Smith’s from Jones’s. -Nevertheless, the farce of “grading” goes on, and its effect is to beat -down the price to the farmer. The millers say they must have Number One -Red Spring—but there is not enough of this produced in America to feed -one big city! What determines the mixture is the percentage of protein, -starch, and gluten, and they test the flour as it comes through the -mill, and when this or that ingredient is needed, they let in wheat of a -certain kind, regardless of its “grade.” That which they grade as “D,” -and buy as “feed” wheat, just because it is shrunken, may be the richest -of all in proteins, and be used in their best brands of flour. - -It is a fact that a great part of the flour is made from “rejected” -wheat; and the sole point of the rejecting is to lower the price. I -asked, “What is the price of rejected wheat?” and the answer was, “It is -a bottomless pit—you can buy it for anything.” They reject wheat if -there is water in it—but they have to put water in it themselves in -order to mill it! They reject it for smut—but they use it just the same, -because the brush that takes off the bran also takes off the smut! They -even use the mouldy wheat, because they bleach it. Many times Professor -Bolley found them rejecting wheat for smut, and he would go to that -neighborhood and learn there was little or no smut to be found there, -and the elevator men made no effort to keep the wheat with smut separate -from the rest. The elevator and grading workers would tell him that they -had received word—there was too much wheat on the market, and they were -to buy only “rejected” wheat—as an act of charity to those poor farmers -who had got smut into their wheat; but the effect of this action was to -force more farmers into ruin. - -Professor Bolley was invited to accompany fifty scientists, including -some from Europe, to inspect the flour mills in the “Twin Cities.” Here -came the prize “boosters” of the millers, setting forth the wonders of -the place and the extreme precautions they took to use only the very -finest wheat—they were making their best flour. Professor Bolley dipped -his hand into one hopper and then into another, and carried home samples -of this wheat. Fifty per cent of it consisted of amber durum, which they -rejected, seven per cent of another rejected kind, and the balance of a -very inferior grade of winter wheat; no hard spring wheat in the sample! -And yet the millers would invite Professor Bolley to the Chamber of -Commerce, to tell them how they could teach the farmers to raise better -wheat! Professor Bolley went to Russia and spent a year collecting hardy -wheats; the Siberian wheat which he brought home thrived, but the -millers said it was worthless—and they bought it cheap. Then the farmers -stopped growing it; whereupon the millers suddenly decided that this -Siberian wheat was good; the climate had changed it, they said! - -Meantime, Professor Ladd had set up a model bakery and a flour mill at -the experiment station, and on the basis of his demonstrations, -President Worst was showing the farmers of North Dakota how they could -save the sum of fifty-five million dollars a year, by setting up -elevators and mills, and exporting flour instead of wheat. In this -demonstration lay the beginnings of the Nonpartisan League movement, and -the masters of the Money Trust perceived that they must crush these -rebel educators. How they tried to do it is the story we have next to -hear. - - - - - CHAPTER XLII - AN AGRICULTURAL MELODRAMA - - -In January, 1911, there was held in the Twin Cities a gathering of the -interlocking directorate, called by A. R. Rogers, lumber magnate, Howe, -the elevator man, and a group of the big bankers; afterwards they got in -the late “Jesse James” Hill, the railroad king of the Northwest. These -gentlemen worked out a scheme, and wrote their checks for five thousand -each. One of them threw in a remark: “It would be worth twenty-five -thousand a year of any man’s money to get Bolley out of the state, or to -keep his damned mouth shut.” - -They were going to “educate” the farmers of North Dakota, and they -called their movement the “Hundred Dollar An Acre Club,” subsequently -changing it to the “Better Farming Association.” They appointed an -executive committee consisting of Rogers, the lumberman, Howe, the -elevator man, one farmer, and eighteen North Dakota bankers, with the -president of the First National Bank of Fargo at their head! These -bankers were borrowing money in Wall Street at six per cent and lending -it to the farmers of their state at ten per cent, which represented a -profit of twelve million dollars a year to them. - -As manager of their program of “education” they selected one Thomas -Cooper, at a larger salary than any “educator” in North Dakota had ever -been paid before. Forty-five thousand dollars a year was pledged, and -Mr. Cooper set to work to “educate” the farmers as to the wickedness of -Ladd, Bolley, and others. After three years the balance-sheet of the -organization showed liabilities of forty thousand dollars, and assets of -one brilliant idea. The bankers of the organization went to that other -group of bankers who comprised the trustees of the North Dakota -Agricultural College, and proposed that the college should take over Mr. -Cooper and his salary and his deficit, and should give him entire -control of the experiment station and extension division, and joint -authority over the instruction division, with eighteen North Dakota -bankers as an advisory board! This little job was put through in 1913, -and the exact facts were hidden from the people of North Dakota, and two -years later the Nonpartisan League newspapers had to steal the documents -in the case in order to make them known! - -Now behold Mr. Cooper and his eighteen bankers in control of a state -experiment station! The first thing they do is to lock Professor Bolley -out of his laboratories, and the poor janitor is somewhat bewildered, -not knowing whom to let in! They even take away from his department the -research money which he had got from the linseed crushers! They forbid -Ladd and Bolley to go to the state capital while the state legislature -is in session. They issue a written order forbidding them to publish -press bulletins or newspaper articles until these have received the O. -K. of Mr. Cooper; and when Professor Bolley submits bulletins they chop -them to pieces and publish them in such garbled form that they make -nonsense. For four years they publish nothing at all of Bolley’s work. - -The brunt of the struggle fell on President Worst, not because he had -done anything himself, but because he stood by his professors. In the -fall of 1914 Worst was in Washington, attending a convention of the -agricultural colleges, and the board passed a secret resolution -promoting him to be president-emeritus—an honorary degree hitherto -unknown in North Dakota agricultural culture. They had conceived the -clever idea of putting Ladd in his place, because this would pacify the -people, and they believed that Ladd would prove a poor executive, and -would be unable to hold on. They came to Ladd and begged him to accept, -and assured him that Worst had consented—which was not true. - -When the governor of the state learned what they had done, he fell into -a panic, and ordered them to rescind the action, and for a year -thereafter they backed and filled and argued, trying to persuade Worst -to resign and Ladd to take his place. In the following year Governor -Hanna, himself a prominent banker and director in many corporations, -appointed a new board of regents, with a banker as president, and -another banker and his lawyer making the majority. To this new board -President Worst protested against the disorganization in the -institution, and proposed some division of authority. The interlocking -newspapers lied about what he had said, and the board again got up the -nerve to kick him upstairs. The students met, and in mass conventions -denounced and protested, and the board spent three days badgering them -trying to find out who had written an editorial of protest. - -Finally, Worst went out and Ladd came in—on condition that he was to -have complete authority, and that Professor Bolley was to remain. -Senator Ladd tells me that as soon as he had been elected, and in the -very room where these conditions had been agreed to, one member of the -board asked him to get rid of Bolley, and called him a “damned fool” -when he refused. After that there was never a single meeting of the -board that they did not pick a row with him over this issue. Soon they -began asking him to resign; at first they asked him to write his -resignation, and later they wrote it for him—all they asked him to do -was to sign it! - -Also there were filed some forty odd charges of unprofessional conduct -against Professor Bolley, whom they had now discovered to be “crazy.” -They gave this “crazy” man a busy time for several years. Two members of -the board came to Fargo, to demand that Bolley should be fired; then an -investigating committee of the faculty was appointed, which completely -exonerated him. But the board insisted that this was a partisan -committee; they appointed a committee of their own members, and this -committee called on the chairman of the faculty committee, and abused -him for not making a proper investigation; then they went to Bolley, and -took up one question after another, and Bolley refuted each. After three -hours one member of the board said: “Well, I think it’s time to quit.” -The second said: “If you are satisfied, I am.” The board received this -report of complete exoneration from its committee, and decided they -would have to discontinue the procedure—but they refused to exonerate -Bolley! The controversy was carried to the national government, and the -Department of Agriculture appointed a committee, which also -investigated, and could find nothing wrong with the “crazy” professor. - -This whole story of Bolley makes you think of the melodramas we used to -see on the Bowery, where the heroine is tied to a railroad track, or -tied on a log which is going into a saw-mill, and the rescuers come -galloping up on horseback at the instant when the villain seems -triumphant. In the fall of 1916 the Non-partisan League swept the State -of North Dakota, and on January 1, 1917, Lynn Frasier came galloping -into the governorship of North Dakota, and the farmers of the state got -the results of Professor Bolley’s experiments once more. Thunders of -applause from the gallery! - - - - - CHAPTER XLIII - THE UNIVERSITY OF WHEAT - - -The state of North Dakota is small in population, likewise in its -influence in the academic world; but its story is important, because its -people have blazed a path upon which the rest of us are destined to -travel for the next decade. What has happened in North Dakota education -will happen in hundreds of our institutions, and therefore it is -desirable that academic liberals should know the story. - -The University of North Dakota is located at Grand Forks. The president -from 1909 to 1913 was Frank L. McVey, who was chairman of a tax -commission in Minnesota, and got in the way of “Jesse James” Hill, and -was shunted off to North Dakota to get rid of him. That he was not a -dangerous radical may be judged from the fact that in 1912 he objected -to three of his professors taking part in the Progressive movement. In -1914 Professor Lewinsohn of the law school resigned his position with a -dignified statement, and the president replied by a letter, in which he -set up the contention that college professors are in the same position -as judges. - -The grand duke of the board of regents at this time was Judge N. C. -Young, railroad attorney. Needless to say, Judge Young did not refrain -from politics; on the contrary, he ran the Republican machine of the -state—and incidentally never hesitated to denounce the liberals at his -university. Judge Young’s assistant was Mr. Tracy Bangs, aggressive -attorney for the Northern States Power Company and the Northwestern Bell -Telephone Company. Mr. Bangs defended in a murder case the son of a rich -farmer, and got his client off on a plea of “self-defense,” despite the -fact that the victim, a farm-hand, had been shot in the back. Thereupon, -several hundred of Mr. Bangs’ fellow citizens, including many university -professors, signed a petition to the grand jury, charging him with -jury-bribing and demanding his indictment. One professor, A. J. Ladd, -asked him to resign from the board of trustees while he was under this -indictment. Mr. Bangs did not resign, but he bided his time, and as I -write he is seeing to it that Professor A. J. Ladd is separated from the -university! - -In 1915, when the Non-partisan League was started, the university -“opposed it by nature”—so a former professor phrased it to me. One man, -Professor Gillette, consented to speak at the first meeting of the -league, and his life has been one long struggle with the reactionaries -ever since. In 1917 President McVey resigned, and the board hastened to -nominate his successor, before the Non-partisans got in and appointed -Frederick C. Howe! They selected President Kane of the University of -Washington—upon the reputation which he had made for himself by -forgiving the crimes and accepting the chimes of the Seattle “Times.” - -A professor at North Dakota, who got to know President Kane very well, -describes him to me in these words: “He has less sense of honor than any -man I ever knew.” It was not long before he had proved his incapacity in -North Dakota, and there was a storm of protest concerning him; by way of -defending himself he set up the claim that the opposition was due to his -refusal to appoint nominees of the Non-partisan League to posts as -teachers. The statement was absurd on the face of it, because all -nominations were made by the heads of departments; but it served to -bring the support of the reactionaries. I am told on good authority that -President Kane made a deal with the I. V. A.—“Independent Voters’ -Association,” camouflage for big business—that he was to be retained and -allowed to “swing the axe,” in return for his using the university -influence against the Non-partisan League. - -The president had an organization all ready-made, in the fraternities -and sororities; and in 1920, when the faculty petitioned for his -removal, he and his reactionaries went to these groups for support. They -incited a student rebellion—and I find this especially significant, in -view of the insistence of all interlocking trustees and newspapers upon -academic order and authority. What could be more shocking to a believer -in propriety than for college students to organize and try to force the -hands of their superiors? But of course that does not apply in a case -where the sons of bankers and railroad attorneys and public utility -magnates are endeavoring to cripple a political movement of “rubes” and -“hicks” and “hayseeds.” - -The active agent in this student rebellion was the wife of an employe of -the Grand Forks “Herald,” whose owner, Mr. Jerry Bacon, represents the -Twin City milling and railroad interests in North Dakota. Mr. Bacon had -fought the movement for faculty control, calling it “sovietism in the -university.” I am told by one of his friends that in this matter of the -student uprising he went up to Minneapolis and got his orders from Louis -Hill, son and heir of “Jesse James.” Whether he got the money from Mr. -Hill I do not know, but I do know that the presses of his newspaper -printed cards, supposed to be voicing the students of the university, -urging the student-body to refuse to attend classes of those professors -who demanded the president’s resignation. A student strike to keep -President Kane in office! It must have been much pleasanter for him than -that other strike, back in Washington, when the students made rhymes -denouncing the crimes and rejecting the chimes of the Seattle “Times”! - -Last year, when the “I. V. A.” came into power, the new Governor Nestos -came to the university to deliver the Founders’ Day address, and -revealed the new scheme of his crowd—to “get” the liberal professors on -the issue of religion. In the North Dakota legislature a representative -of the “I. V. A.” had proclaimed the terrible tidings that the state -library was circulating “The Profits of Religion.” He described the -pages referring to the Catholic political machine as “so sacrilegious, -so terrible, that I would not read it in this house or any other place.” -According to the Bismarck “Tribune,” he “called the attention of every -minister in North Dakota to this book”—apparently overlooking the -inconsistency of asking the ministers to read the book, and at the same -time forbidding the state library to furnish it to them! - -Now came Governor Nestos, accusing the professors of “undermining the -faith of the students”; and President Kane wrote letters to three of the -liberals, O. G. Libby, A. J. Ladd, and Dean Willis of the Law -School—several pages of virulent abuse, culminating in the announcement -of their dismissal. Under the constitution, this matter should have been -taken up by the dean, and the professors had the right of appeal to the -university council. This council appointed a committee, consisting -exclusively of Kane supporters; nevertheless, after hearing the -evidence, this committee unanimously exonerated the professors, and the -board of administration did the same. The board tried to settle the -matter by requesting both Kane and the professors to resign, but the -railroad attorneys who are now running the university will not permit -that. The struggle is still on, and the outcome uncertain as I write. -One man who has got away tells me how it feels to teach under the -control of big business in North Dakota: - -“It means the surrender, not merely of your mind, but of your character; -a man who stands it for two or three years becomes wholly unfit to -influence the young. It has been less than a year since I left, yet I -have had letters from probably twelve men at the university, asking me -to help them to get positions elsewhere!” - -Finally, in justice to the liberal professors, I think I should state -that no person now at the university has furnished me any information -about it. Several were asked to do so, and declined. - - - - - CHAPTER XLIV - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ORE TRUST - - -Let us continue East on the Northern Pacific Railroad, which has Mr. -Morgan and two of his partners for directors, a recent Harvard overseer -and Massachusetts Tech trustee for chairman, a Harvard overseer and -Smith College trustee, a Cornell trustee, an Amherst trustee, a Hampton -trustee and a Union Theological Seminary trustee for directors, also -three First National Bank directors; and we come to the “Twin Cities,” -from which the Northwestern grain country is run. Here we are in one of -the strongholds of the Steel Trust, also of the Lumber Trust and the -grain speculators. Minnesota contains a great part of the iron ore of -the United States, and the Steel Trust owns it all, and in alliance with -the millers and the lumbermen, it runs the government of the state, and -of course the state university. The university had a most wonderful -endowment of government land, covered with the finest white and Norway -pine. The Lumber Trust wanted this timber, and they got practically all -of it. Likewise the Steel Trust wanted the ore that was under the land, -and they got it; and sometimes it happened that the officials who sold -this land at bargain prices were also trustees of the university. - -For a generation the grand duke who ran the University of Minnesota was -John S. Pillsbury, co-author with his two brothers of a famous work -entitled “Pillsbury’s Best,” widely known all over the United States. I -had better abandon this feeble jest and be explicit, stating that -Governor Pillsbury belonged to a family of flour manufacturers, the -founders of the Milling Trust. Governor Pillsbury himself went in more -especially for lumber; he got fraudulent possession of more public lands -than any other person in the state, and gave some of the profits to the -university, and so is called the “father of the university.” Now he is -dead, and the grand duke of his institution is his son-in-law, Fred B. -Snyder, president of a mining company and director of the biggest bank -and trust company in Minneapolis. As his right-hand man he has Pierce -Butler, railroad attorney, a hard-fisted and aggressive agent of the -plutocracy, counsel for the Great Northern Railroad. As his assistants -he has the vice-president of a national bank in Duluth, who is director -of another national bank and a large owner of land and mines; the -biggest dry-goods wholesaler in Minneapolis, director in the city -traction lines; a water-power financier; the wife and daughter-in-law of -two mining and lumber magnates; a physician, son-in-law of “Jesse James” -Hill, the railroad king; and another very wealthy physician, on whose -yacht on the Mississippi River the regents sometimes hold their -meetings. - -I remember Lincoln Steffens, telling twenty years ago of the Shame of -the Cities, describing how the politicians in Pittsburgh would travel to -Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities, to find out the -latest wrinkles in graft, with a view to applying them at home. It -occurs to me that the interlocking regents of Minnesota must have sent a -commission to study methods at the University of Pennsylvania; for when -I asked Minnesota professors to tell me what happened to them, I heard -the same story that I had heard in the Wharton School of Finance, told -in the very same phrases. - -If you displease your superiors of the Milling Trust, you may get no -changes in your courses, but may have to teach large classes of -freshmen, over and over again the same weary routine, until your heart -breaks. You ask for more advanced classes, and you do not get them; you -do not get promotions or increases in salary, and when you inquire the -reason, your superiors are politely vague. If you still do not take the -hint and abandon your independent manners and beliefs, the head of your -department sends for you and tells you that he is very sorry, but there -are a lot of cranks running the state just now. “Here I have a letter -from the dean, who has it from the president, who has it from a regent.” -If your superior happens to like you, he offers you one more opportunity -to recant, or he offers “to land you at Wisconsin”; he will give you “a -bully recommendation,” it will be “a fine opportunity for you.” If, on -the other hand, he does not happen to like you, then you pick up your -evening paper, and read a scare headline on the front page, to the -effect that you have been dismissed from the university for conduct -unbecoming the academic profession. - -There were some students who thought it would be interesting to have an -“open discussion club.” They were handicapped by many regulations; and, -quite casually, the dean of student affairs would stroll in on their -meetings, to keep watch over them. One of the students went to a member -of the faculty, and asked him if he would come and explain to the -students the doctrines of Karl Marx; the professor smiled, and answered -that he wanted to stay at the university. I am happy to be able to say -that the students were not so timid as the professor, and they now meet -quite openly, calling themselves the “Seekers.” - -They have had several grave mishaps at this University of the Ore Trust. -First, a man came and registered in the classes, and was discovered to -be a Communist! The man had been brought to the United States when he -was three years old, and so he was an alien, and was slated for -deportation. But the government was in an embarrassing position; the man -did not know what country to claim, and the government couldn’t find -out, and didn’t know where to send him! Needless to say, however, the -university got rid of him in a hurry. - -They had for three years a Harvard Ph.D., educated in England; after the -fashion of Englishmen, he was a member of the Fabian Society, and -thought he had a perfect right to his political views, just the same as -if he had been at Oxford. He began working for the Committee of -Forty-eight, making speeches at other places, and so he got into the -newspapers. The head of his department sent for him: “We have to keep -out of the newspapers; look at me, I have been here twelve years, and I -have never got into them!” But this instructor would not change his evil -practices, so he too had to be got rid of. - -Meet Professor John Henry Gray, one of the most distinguished economists -in the United States. Professor Gray was for fifteen years at -Northwestern University, and for fifteen at the University of Minnesota. -He is not a Socialist, but an extremely mild liberal, a quiet man and a -patient worker, who gets the facts on his subject and sets them forth -regardless of consequences. He has been selected to represent the United -States government on many economic commissions abroad—at the -International Cooperative Congress at Manchester, 1902; at the -International Congress on Insurance for Laboring Men, at Düsseldorf, and -the International Congress of Commerce and Industry, at Ostend. He was -appointed on a commission of the National Civic Federation in 1905, to -study municipal ownership abroad; again, in 1911-1914, to investigate -the regulation of public service corporations. He is associate editor of -two economic journals—I might go on to give a long list of his honors -and positions. But Professor Gray had the bad taste to become converted -to the doctrines of municipal ownership, and the still worse taste, -while working for the government in Washington during the war, to -interfere with some of the interlocking directors from his home state, -engaged in their usual practice of robbing the government. So Professor -Gray’s life at the university became a torment. - -They removed him from the leadership of his department, saying that he -had no executive ability and couldn’t keep order. They would move him -from one room to another, and subject him to every humiliation. He was -sixty-three years of age, and would soon be entitled to a pension, so he -held on; but he never got a “raise,” and he was told that he never would -get it, nor would any man he recommended ever get it. They brought in a -subordinate from the census bureau in Washington, and paid this man -$1,500 a year more than Professor Gray was getting. They “reorganized” -his department, deposing him from the headship, and combining it with a -“School of Business,” and so finally succeeded in making him resign. - -Or consider the strange experience of a young instructor of chemistry -named Bernard Dietrichson. He had a dispute with his dean, and two -members of the law faculty were appointed by the regents to make an -inquiry. This committee reported that the department had been seriously -mismanaged by the dean, and that Mr. Dietrichson “had done nothing to -merit discipline or dismissal.” This report was received by a committee -of the regents, with Pierce Butler, chief bully of the board of regents, -in charge. It issued a decision, stating that it had examined the -findings of the investigating committee of lawyers, and that on the -basis of these findings it held that there had been no mismanagement by -the dean, and that Mr. Dietrichson ought to be dismissed! The regents’ -committee then suppressed the text of the findings of the investigating -committee; but unfortunately for Mr. Butler, the document containing the -suppressed facts came into the hands of Dietrichson, and he published -it. Thereupon, the dean of the chemistry department was dismissed, and -the department reorganized—a complete confession that Dietrichson was -right. Nevertheless, he is still out of the university! - -More money is appropriated for the University of the Ore Trust, more -buildings are erected, more students come piling in; but the soul of the -place is poisoned. There is no solidarity in the faculty, there is only -intrigue, jealousy and fear. There is an elaborate system of outside -spying, and no one knows whom to trust. If you go to the faculty club -and listen to the gossip about your associates, and take part in the -petty politics of your department, then you are respectable, and they -let you alone; but if you don’t do these things, then they know you must -be some kind of crank, and it is the business of the spies to find out -what you are doing with your spare time, and whether you have any -dangerous ideas. If you make a public address, there will be volunteer -patriotic organizations taking notes of your remarks, and a copy will be -sent to the president of the university, or perhaps to the grand dukes -of the board. - -Meetings of the board of regents are by law required to be public, but -they get around this by the simple device of having “executive -sessions”—and once in a while a champagne picnic on Dr. Mayo’s private -yacht! A member of the faculty will be hauled up—he has never seen one -of the regents before, and has no idea who has accused him, or what are -the accusations. They do not scruple to ask him the most personal -questions, not merely about his beliefs, but about his private life. Is -it true that he is separated from his wife? Is it true that he took a -young lady to dinner? They will call in his dean and his fellow -professors, and if the charge is a serious one, he is decapitated in -advance. Here sit the angry plutocrats, brutal, full of hate—“I -understand this”—“Is it true that”—and so on. “Did you vote for Debs?” -“Did you belong to the Progressive party?” “Do you believe in God?” -“Have you studied the constitution of the United States?” “Do you -believe in abolishing the capitalistic system?” “What church do you go -to?” - -Sometimes a professor gets “sore,” and tells these mighty ones to go to -hell; after that he can get no job in any American university. I was -told of a leading authority on state government taxation and political -science who is now making washboards. This man was listed as a “war -case;” that is to say, he had served on a charter commission in -Minneapolis, and had put through certain franchise provisions opposed by -the public service companies; so when the war came he was called -unpatriotic. He writes me as follows: - - Usually the intimidation of a professor is so veiled and vague that he - hardly knows what is wrong. A certain significant remark dropped at - the right time, a certain coldness of attitude, failure to be included - in certain social affairs, a certain slowness to get well earned - increases, granted with gusto to others, many other little hints that - his views do not meet with favor in certain quarters will serve to - curb many a man with wife and babies to provide for. For instance, - there were a score or more called before the regents at the time I - was, every one of whom had opposed our entrance into the war and had - not changed views as to the wisdom or justice of our going in, but - they were willing to disavow their attitude, when confronted with - instant dismissal. Some of these men told me they had to lie or starve - their wives and babies, and they took the easier road. - -Another man, a former professor, writes me of the present head of the -university: “He does not hesitate to use the black-list to ruin a man’s -career.” A professor now at the university writes me a long letter, -telling me, among other cases, of a man summoned before the regents and -later commanded to resign, for having stated in a private conversation -to an old acquaintance that “now that the war is over, we ought to set -the political prisoners free”; this man defended himself, and managed to -hold on; but another instructor, an able man, was placed in peril of his -job for having presided at a political meeting in his home ward, in -favor of the labor candidate for mayor. This man was ousted a year -later, under circumstances to be narrated. - -You will wish to know something about the spy-system, maintained by the -“Citizen’s Alliance,” with the cooperation of the trustees; so I submit -a statement from Mr. Fred W. Bentley, who was for three years an -instructor. His statement is dated August 20, 1919, and the essential -parts of it are as follows: - - One day last spring, I do not remember the exact date, I was called to - the ’phone in my office, Room No. 111, Main Engineering Building, by a - stranger who said his name was Miller. He first stated that he had a - private matter to talk about, and asked if it were safe to talk to me - where I was. I informed him that he could talk to me anywhere, that I - had nothing to cover up. - - He then told me that he was interested in a little enterprise and that - some of my friends had recommended me to him as one who might help him - a little financially. He said that he had never had the pleasure of - meeting me but that he knew some of my friends. He asked me if I knew - a man (I don’t remember the name) who ran a saloon on Seventh Street, - but I informed him that I did not. He asked me if I had seen the - publication called “Hunger” and I informed him that I had seen someone - selling it on the street but that I had not read it. - - He said that they were trying to get out another edition and would - have to have some machine (I don’t remember what he called it) and - asked if I would make a contribution toward it. I told him I didn’t - mind giving a dollar or two, and he asked me if I would leave it with - State Secretary Dirba, which I promised to do. - - A few days after that I saw Dirba and asked him if he had been - approached in the matter and he said he had not. I told Dirba that if - anyone did come to him to send the party to me, and thought nothing - further of the matter until one day, sometime later, Dean Allen came - to me in the drafting room and told me that the Board of Regents was - meeting in the president’s office and wanted to see me. I went - immediately with Dean Allen to the meeting of the board, where I was - informed that charges of disloyalty had been preferred against me. - When I inquired what they were I learned that the above ’phone - conversation was the basis for the charges. - - After a few questions relative to the “Hunger” incident, President - Burton and the members of the board proceeded to ask numerous - questions as to my opinions on many topics, social, political and - economic, all of which were none of their business, the more so since - I was teaching Drawing, Descriptive Geometry, and Machine Design, and - was never called upon to address the students on any other subject. - - I cannot, of course, remember all their questions but some of them - were as follows - - Are you a Socialist? Do you belong to the Socialist Party? Have you - attended any of the meetings at Commonwealth Hall? Have you ever - belonged to the I. W. W.? Have you ever attended any of the I. W. W. - meetings? Do you favor Trade Unionism or Industrial Unionism? Are - there many Industrial Unionists in the A. F. of L.? Do you believe in - bringing about the social change you advocate by education or - violence? Do you believe in the confiscation of property? Have you - read the constitution of Soviet Russia? Do you think it right that the - employers of labor in Russia should be denied the right to vote? Are - there many men of the faculty who believe as you do, etc.? - -There is nothing to add to this, except that Mr. Bentley was not -reappointed to the university—and was left to learn this fact by -accident, from a friend! He had worked for three years at a very low -salary, upon the promise that he would soon be made a professor; but now -they dropped him—and so late in the year that he could not apply for a -position elsewhere. - - - - - CHAPTER XLV - THE ACADEMIC WINK - - -They have had a series of presidents at the University of the Ore Trust. -The old president was Northrop, an amiable gentleman, much liked by the -faculty because he did not understand the modern card-filing system. -Then came Vincent, one of the “go-getters.” A professor whom he “got” -writes me: “He apparently felt that he held a mandate to break the -hearts of the men who had served under Northrop.” As a result of faculty -clamor, an “advisory committee” was established, but the method of -appointing this was ingeniously contrived so that Vincent had the power -to keep off any liberals. This committee met in secret, and my -correspondent describes to me its operation: - - A poor devil, Professor A, who had been teaching for a small salary in - hopes of promotion, would receive some fine morning a notice from - headquarters that his contract was terminated at the end of the year. - Professor B would be advised that he had one year more to serve, - during which time he had better be looking for a new place. Professor - C would be notified that his salary would not be increased. Smothered - with rage, disappointment and despair, he would rush to the president - of the university to know in what particular he had erred or sinned. - The president in his unctuous way would inform the professor that he - was sorry for what had been done but could do nothing, because the - matter lay in the hands of the advisory committee, with which he could - not interfere. Our victim would then set out to find the advisory - committee, but as it was made up of nine members and had adjourned, he - could not locate it. He would continue his search, and perchance find - one of the members of the illustrious committee. Upon his making - inquiry as to why and to what purpose he would be assured of the - member’s sympathy, but would be told that there was an understanding - among the members of the advisory committee that nothing should be - said as to what was done in the sessions or how the members voted. The - disappointed pedagogue could get nothing from anybody; there was no - one responsible; he had been sandbagged in a dark alley, but who did - the job he could not learn. - -Vincent was called to become head of the Rockefeller Foundation. Then -came Marion LeRoy Burton, a former clergyman, and president of Smith -College for young ladies, a “booster” from way back, an inspirationalist -of the Chautauqua school; the university gave him a grand reception, -with bands and torches. He said in the hearing of an acquaintance of -mine that he was going to make Minnesota a gentleman’s school of the -Yale type. What actually exists is a great academic department-store. -Sinclair Lewis described it to me—“They sell you two yards of Latin and -half a yard of Greek, and a bored young instructor hands it out over the -counter.” Lewis heard President Burton addressing a meeting of the -plutocracy to raise funds, and telling the touching story of his life—he -was a little boy who carried newspapers on cold mornings, and now he had -fifteen thousand dollars a year, and a big house, and a retiring -pension—a wonderful country is America! - -Another friend of mine heard President Burton make a speech in Denver, -before a gathering of business men called the “Mile High Club.” He said -that at his university the students were allowed to think, but they were -“guided in their thinking”; and the business men got the point and -chuckled. His speech was a series of cheap jokes and hackneyed -utterances, delivered with fervid eloquence. His type of scholarship you -may judge from the titles of some of the books which he has produced: -“The Secret of Achievement”; “The Life Which Is Life Indeed”; “On Being -Divine.” - -Last year President Burton got tired of his regents, and accepted a -higher salary at the University of Michigan, where we shall meet him -again. His place has been taken by one of the university’s own -professors, who was supposed to act as a rubber-stamp to the -interlocking regents, but is now behind the scenes engaged in the usual -struggle with Grand Bully Butler. President Coffman is not even allowed -to make appointments to the university—to say nothing of allowing the -heads of departments to do so. The names are brought up before the board -of regents, and these wary gentlemen go over the man’s list of degrees -and his record, and then Grand Duke Snyder says: “That seems good, but -is he all right generally?” meaning, of course, has he any “dangerous -ideas.” - -In the fall of 1919 the inspirational President Burton delivered some of -those wonderful high-sounding phrases, which are a part of our -university swindle. He said that “integrity” must be the chief -characteristic of university men and women. Whereupon a college paper, -“The Foolscap,” was moved to a little plain speaking. It said: - - Academic freedom, to be sure, exists here at Minnesota as at other - equally “ideal” universities. Our president has publicly announced - that fact. Our faculty and the student body enthusiastically applauded - that announcement. This academic freedom, however, is of so peculiar a - nature that no one member of the faculty is free publicly to discuss - it. The president may speak of it with an engaging boldness; the - students may speak of it (and do) with a fine ironic scorn; but - members of the faculty, those to whom is intrusted our instruction in - “all forms of knowledge,” those even whom we address as “Professor” - and “Dean,” they dare not utter their true opinion concerning it; - their mouths are effectually sealed. This the students know. They have - seen the flush of shame and anger rise to the cheeks of embarrassed - teachers who could reply to audacious undergraduate taunts of - insincerity and dishonesty only with mortified silence. They have - seen, at that moment when vigorous applause gave generous approval to - our president’s insistence on academic freedom, at that very moment - when enthusiasm for truth was at its highest, at that very moment they - saw instructors wink at their colleagues, and deans look meaningly at - some understanding friend. Students, both inside and outside the class - room, are particularly observant of the actions of their instructors. - They know when deans applaud because they have to; when professors say - things they do not mean. They know that even while they listen to talk - of academic freedom they see men annually relieved of their academic - burdens for having dared to utter what they deemed to be the truth. - These students know the colleges from which such instructors were - dismissed. They know the names of these instructors. They know the - cause for which they were dismissed. They know, also, that such is the - state of academic freedom at our university that, even as we go to - press, at least one professor in the academic college—a professor, - too, whose discreet devotion to facts, and whose cautious refusal to - permit the slightest classroom interpretation thereof, make his - potentially excellent subject an inexpressible bore—that at least this - one professor is trembling with fear and anger because of official - intimation that he had entertained opinions for which his institution - did not stand. - -This publication made a tremendous uproar in the university. For, of -course, all university influence depends upon the keeping up of a -pretense of freedom; the public must believe in these mighty captains of -erudition and must not see them wink as they use their high-sounding -words. A faculty committee of five members was appointed to investigate -the statements made. This committee interviewed a great number of -university people, members of the faculty of all ranks, both men and -women, also students and alumni. They submitted a report, of which I -quote parts. You note the carefully guarded phrases: - - A great deal of evidence has been presented to your committee which - indicates the existence in our academic community of a sense of - restraint and repression of a kind and degree distinctly unfavorable - to a sound and intellectual life. This is already indicated by the - vote taken at the meeting of the faculty on February 16. The - investigation of the committee has served to confirm and verify this - impression of a condition that cannot be described as wholesome. Fears - have been disclosed to the committee, which if recounted in detail - might seem to many members of the faculty absurd and unbelievable, and - which perhaps could not be entertained by others, either because of - the possession of greater courage, or of a greater security of tenure, - or because of the fact that their own convictions are in happier - conformity with the ruling opinion. Nevertheless, the undoubted - presence of these fears in the minds of many members of the faculty - constitutes a psychological atmosphere depressing in its influence, - and calculated to have a deleterious effect upon the sincerity and - quality of the teaching done under a sense of it.... - - It has become of late a frequent experience that complaint on the part - of some person or organization outside the university leads to an - investigation, formal or informal, of the views or activities of some - member of the faculty. Commonly, it may be taken for granted that the - activities complained of are wholly within the discretion of a teacher - and the rights of a citizen. The mere knowledge, however, that such - complaints are under investigation, creates a sense of intimidation, - felt most strongly, of course, by the more inexperienced members of - the faculty whose academic tenure is less secure.... - - Much of the fear prevalent on the campus is due to reports of the - manner in which investigations have been conducted by the regents, the - attitude exhibited not always having been sufficiently clear and - consistent to be wholly reassuring. Doubtless such impressions are - sometimes due to mere inadvertencies; but the fact is that a member of - the faculty, when summoned to answer charges preferred, frequently - finds himself unjustifiably on the defensive.... - - Evidence has been brought to the attention of your committee which - plainly indicates the use of espionage by external forces that - continually attempt to exert pressure upon the authorities as to - university teaching and personnel. Your committee is firmly of the - opinion that such pressure is not in the public interest. The invasion - by private detectives of the domain of academic life and thought is - scarcely compatible with the maintenance of a sound and wholesome - intellectual spirit. The methods and point of view of these people may - be illustrated by your committee’s own experience. Early in the course - of this investigation, one of these agents sought and obtained an - interview with a member of your committee, in which he volunteered the - information that the “Foolscap” editorial (which, as it subsequently - developed, he had not even read) was a piece of political propaganda, - that he knew the particular party headquarters whence it came, and - that it was certain he could discover the real author concealed behind - the editorial screen. He offered, accordingly, on the assumption that - your committee was interested, not in the question of fact raised by - the editorial, but rather in the exposure and punishment of a - quasi-criminal conspiracy supposedly involved in its publication, to - worm himself into the confidence of the editor of the “Foolscap” and - to procure for your committee by betrayal of this confidence the name - of the guilty propagandist author. It is deplorable to note the - constantly extending nets of private spy systems in civil life, and it - is to be hoped that the threatened invasion of academic life by this - sinister influence may be prevented. No thoughtful person can fail to - see how blighting would be its influence, when once firmly - established, in the destruction of mutual confidence, and in rendering - impossible that frankness of discussion and opinion without which the - intellectual life is not freely nourished and stimulated. - -There remains only to state what action the faculty took in this matter. -One member of the committee tells me about it: - - They postponed action until such a time as the committee was ready to - report again to a closed faculty meeting giving specific instances of - lack of academic freedom, with names and dates. The committee, having - decided to present three typical cases in detail to the faculty, asked - the president to summon a meeting. He passed the buck to the committee - of the deans known as the senate. The deans thought it inopportune to - call the meeting at that particular time, it being just prior to the - June examinations. Summer vacation ensued. In September, when college - re-opened, one of the five committeemen had gone East for a year as an - exchange professor; another had been retired as a Carnegie pensioner - on account of his age; a third, though still drawing a salary as a - member of the faculty, had received notice of his dismissal; and the - other two saw the futility of trying to bring the matter up again. - -Also I ought to add what action the regents took. They kicked out of the -university the young instructor who had been most active in preparing -the report. He has written me about the circumstances of his dismissal: - - Nothing specific was sent to me. But, by what chain of circumstances - need not be told, I saw with my own eyes a letter from Pierce Butler - addressed to President Burton asking for my decapitation. The neatest - thing you ever saw—not a direct order, and not even a request for my - dismissal, but a carefully worded statement to the effect that it - seemed to him (Butler) regrettable that the name of the university had - been linked up in the press with the name of myself. That was all. But - Burton sent it down the line of officials as a positive decree and my - fate at Minnesota was settled. Usually, as you perhaps are aware, the - thing is done by word of mouth only. Butler, of course, never imagined - that this letter would reach my eyes. - -Mr. Butler remains grand bully of the university; but here also we are -at the “big scene” in the melodrama—the villain has the heroine -helpless, but in the distance we hear the galloping hoofs of the -rescuer’s horses! The farmers of Minnesota with their Non-partisan -League, and the workers of the cities with their unions, have got -together into the Farmer-Labor party, and they have just elected their -own United States senator. Before long they may also elect a governor of -their state, and the University of the Ore Trust may become the -University of the people of Minnesota. - -P.S.—As this book is going to the printer President Harding, wishing to -show the public exactly how contemptuous of public opinion it is -possible for a public official to be, sends in the nomination of Grand -Bully Butler for justice of the United States Supreme Court! - - - - - CHAPTER XLVI - INTRODUCING A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT - - -From the University of Minnesota we take the Chicago and Northwestern -Railroad, which has a Princeton trustee and a recent New York University -and Yale trustee for directors, and two National City Bank directors. -Overnight we come to Madison, Wisconsin, where for the first time we -find an institution of higher education which has partly emerged from -under the shadow of the White Terror. The reason for this is one -man—Senator LaFollette, who for forty years has been fighting the battle -of the people in his state. LaFollette has not always had his way; he -has been in again and out again half a dozen times; but the thought of -him is never out of the minds of the reactionaries, and many things they -have wished to do in their university they have not dared to do. So at -Wisconsin are two professors who are “rank” Socialists, and perhaps a -dozen others more or less on the way to “rankness.” Just now the state -administration is LaFollette’s, but the administration of the university -is reactionary, a relic of the war hysteria. - -The grand duke of the plutocratic element of the board is Mr. A. J. -Horlick, whose contribution to American scholarship is a brand of malted -milk, with a picture of a cow from which the commodity is understood to -be derived. Quite recently the president of the University of Wisconsin -announced that no one would be permitted to address the university who -had not supported the government during the war. Mr. Horlick has proven -his right to be numbered among the hundred percent patriots, the firm of -which he is head having been indicted by the United States government -and fined fifty thousand dollars for the hoarding of flour. (Query: Is -malted milk made out of flour?) - -The most active reactionary upon the board is Mr. Harry J. Butler, a -railroad attorney of Madison; he is ably seconded by Dr. Seaman, a -physician, anti-LaFollette candidate for governor last year; also by a -wholesale grocer, a manufacturer of bathroom fixtures, two other -attorneys, and a manufacturer’s wife. For many years the university had -a liberal president; since his death they have had an elderly zoologist -of reactionary temper, who deftly dodges trouble by “passing the buck” -to his board. The liberals, inside the university and out, are biding -their time; they strengthened their hold on the state at the recent -election, and now hope to get one or two more members of the board, so -that when a new president is chosen he may be of their kind. - -Last winter it was rumored that I was coming East, and the students of -the Social Science Club asked if I would deliver an address at the -university. Before I had time to answer, I learned from newspaper -clippings that the president of the university had announced that I was -not a proper person to be heard by the students, and would not be -granted the use of a hall. I have to spend some time every day declining -invitations to deliver lectures, and the elderly Wisconsin zoologist -might have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had waited before he -spoke. Of course, when he told me I couldn’t come, I felt compelled to -go. - -President Birge had stated in the Madison “Capital-Times” that “Upton -Sinclair’s attack on journalism could only be fairly expounded if a -representative of the Associated Press or other organized journalistic -body were present at the same time to answer.” Apparently it was the -president’s idea that I never talked on any subject but the newspapers, -which of course was underestimating the range of my discontent. However, -I wired the “Capital-Times,” asking them to convey to their president -the information, “I have been trying in every possible way to inveigle -the Associated Press into answering ‘The Brass Check’ in any manner they -might choose. I have publicly challenged them and their leading -representatives a dozen different times. If President Birge will -persuade the Associated Press to send a representative to debate with -me, he will confer upon me the greatest favor I could name.” - -President Birge made no answer to this, and on Friday, April 28th, when -I arrived in Madison, I learned that the students of the Social Science -Club had arranged that the meeting should be held on the following -Monday in the high school auditorium. I thought it would be interesting -to collect a university president for this book, so the first thing I -did was to go and pay a call on Dr. Birge. - -I am told that in his own line he is a distinguished scientist, and his -friends at the university explained that he is accustomed to being -treated with extreme deference. I am sorry to say that I missed this -point. I considered that I had been attacked in the newspapers entirely -without provocation, and I was not willing to be content with polite -evasions. In trying to get at the facts, I felt that I was acting in a -public cause, and I was not thinking about the personality of a -university president, any more than I was thinking about my own. - -He is a rather small man, with small dark eyes, and he sat at his big -desk, watching me uncomfortably. I asked him what reasons he had for -pronouncing the ban upon me, and he could only say it was my reputation. -I asked him where he had got his impression of my reputation, and of -course he had to admit that he had got it from the capitalist -newspapers. I asked if he had read any book of mine, and at first he -said he had not, then he thought he had read “The Jungle,” but had -forgotten it. - -“Oh, no, President Birge,” I answered. “Nobody that has read ‘The -Jungle’ has ever forgotten it.” And I could see that this was not the -answer he had expected. - -I asked him on what he based his impression that I had exaggerated in -“The Brass Check.” He admitted that he had not read the book; whereat I -remarked: “You have spoiled my score!” I explained that I had traveled -from Pasadena to Madison, and stopped at nine cities on the way, and in -each place I had talked to from ten to twenty educators—school teachers -and college professors—and so far every person had read “The Brass -Check.” “I thought I was going to get to New York with a hundred percent -record!” President Birge murmured sympathetically. - -“You will realize,” I added, “that it strikes me as significant that the -one person who thinks the book isn’t true is the person who hasn’t read -it.” - -I went on to tell about the many and various efforts I had made to lure -the Associated Press into the arena. Before publishing the book I had -submitted to Mr. Melville E. Stone, then general manager of the -Associated Press, four questions for him to answer. He had previously -written that he would be glad to answer any questions, but he fell -silent when he read the questions I sent. I had written to Mr. Stone’s -assistant, now general manager, calling his attention to the book, and -asking for an answer on various points. At the annual convention of the -Associated Press, held in New York in April, 1921, after “The Brass -Check” had been out more than a year, it was officially announced in the -“Editor and Publisher,” and also in the New York “Evening Post,” that -the Associated Press had a committee investigating “The Brass Check,” -and was shortly to issue a complete report upon the book. A couple of -months later, when this report failed to appear, I wrote the Associated -Press asking what had become of it, and when they failed to reply, I -published my letter and sent a copy of it to the managing editor of -every Associated Press newspaper in the United States—but without -getting a reply from a single one! - -Only a couple of weeks before I met President Birge, another annual -convention of the Associated Press took place in New York, and I -repeated my challenge to this gathering, and sent a copy to every -managing editor, and also every publisher, of the thirteen hundred -Associated Press newspapers in the United States. No attention was paid -to these communications, and not one single Associated Press newspaper -was willing to demand that the Associated Press should produce the -report on “The Brass Check,” which it had officially announced it was -preparing. - -I showed President Birge also how the students of his own Social Science -Club had tried in vain to get the Associated Press to answer me. Their -first request, that the Associated Press should send a representative to -meet me on a university platform, had met with no reply; a second and -very sharp letter had brought the response that no responsible newspaper -man would be willing to meet me on a platform. Any newspaper man will -realize the absurdity of this statement. The A. P. could find a man in -any city—if they could furnish him with the facts! - -Then I set forth to President Birge my qualifications as an orator in -university halls; as it happened, I came within his specifications, in -that I had supported the government during the war. I came of a long -line of American ancestors; my grandfather and my great-grandfather had -been captains in the United States Navy, and my great-great-grandfather -had commanded the frigate “Constitution.” I had had nine years of -college and university life, and was a married man of good moral -character. Also, I mentioned that it was not my intention to discuss the -newspapers, but to lecture on “The College Student and the Modern -Crisis.” All these facts the elderly zoologist politely received, and -told me that if I would embody them in a letter to him he would oblige -me by a reply not later than noon of the next day. - -I wrote the letter, and received the reply, which was that President -Birge would not change his decision, but that if the board of regents -saw fit to grant my request, they would be at liberty to do so. -Thereupon I gave to the press my letter to President Birge and his -reply, and also an interview in which I stated that the president had -afforded me an exceedingly good example of my thesis “that educational -institutions are controlled by special privilege,” and that I would give -up my intention of lecturing on “The College Student and the Modern -Crisis” in Madison, and instead would discuss the subject of free speech -in universities. The effect of which announcement was that the -superintendent of the high school took fright, and withdrew permission -for me to speak in his auditorium! - - - - - CHAPTER XLVII - INTRODUCING A BOARD OF REGENTS - - -On Tuesday morning the regents of the University of Wisconsin held a -session; and I assumed that, having made the acquaintance of a -university president, you might also be interested in interviewing a -board of regents. I looked up the statutes of the state of Wisconsin, -and ascertained that under the law all meetings of the board are public. -So I went to the administration building at ten o’clock on Tuesday -morning, the hour set for the meeting—and to my great surprise -discovered the ladies and gentlemen of the august board meeting behind -locked doors! - -It appears that whenever they have a ticklish question to discuss, they -evade the law by calling it a meeting of a “committee.” I am in position -to testify that the meeting of the “committee” was a meeting of exactly -the same individuals as later constituted a meeting of the “board”; also -I am in position to testify that they discussed exactly the same -subject, because the anteroom in which I was invited to sit and wait was -so near to the meeting-room, that I could hear the voices when they were -raised, and I knew that they were discussing the subject of my proposed -speech. I handed to the secretary of the board a formal request for a -hearing, and then waited. At a quarter past ten, the secretary of the -board came to the anteroom, which was occupied by myself and half a -dozen newspaper reporters, and requested that we should go downstairs -and wait, as it was not proper for us to be “listening in on the -proceedings of the board.” Naturally I was not gratified by this remark, -as I had been sitting quietly in the chair which had been indicated to -me as the proper chair for me to occupy, and I had not been told that it -was my duty to stuff cotton into my ears. - -However, I went downstairs, and waited another half hour, and then I -wrote another note, stating briefly that I protested against the board -settling a question in secret meeting, when the law required that their -proceedings should be public. After that I waited another hour, and then -the secretary informed me that the meeting of the board of regents was -now about to begin, and that the “public” was welcome to enter. I -entered the room where the ladies and gentlemen of the board had been -violating the law of their state for an hour and three-quarters, and I -was informed that the board would be pleased to give me ten minutes in -which to present my case. - -I have made it my practice to use most careful courtesy in dealing with -my enemies, so as to put them in the wrong. I dutifully rehearsed to the -regents my qualifications as a university orator, after which the board -proceeded to question me, the two active questioners being Mr. Butler, -the railroad attorney, and Dr. Seaman, the reactionary candidate for -governor. The latter wanted to know if I had been correctly quoted in -the newspaper interview, in which I had charged that President Birge -“had been influenced by money” in his decision against me. - -Pardon me if I go into details on this point. We have seen several -university professors being cross-questioned by boards of regents, and -it will be worth while for us to have exact knowledge of how these -inquisitions are conducted. You would have thought that Dr. Seaman, -being a man prominent in public life, would have taken the trouble to -provide himself with a copy of the interview about which he intended to -cross-question me; but he had not done so, and I, as it happens, do not -go about with copies of my newspaper interviews in my pocket. I was -embarrassed by Dr. Seaman’s question, and could only explain that I had -no recollection of having made any such statement about President Birge, -and that certainly I could have no such idea about him. Newspaper -reports were frequently inaccurate. What I had intended to say and -should have said was that in his decision concerning me President Birge -had “acted in the interest of special privilege.” Later, when I went out -from the board, and got a copy of the interview, I discovered that this -is exactly what I was reported to have said, and that Dr. Seaman had -been misquoting me in a public session of the board, with half a dozen -newspaper reporters diligently taking notes! - -President Birge arose and asked on what ground I could have made such a -statement about him. My answer was that he had shown his attitude of -sympathy with special privilege by many things he had said in our long -interview; also he had shown a very strong prejudice against the enemies -of special privilege. - -“How, for example?” he asked. - -I answered: “If I were a person disposed to take personal offense, I -would have considered myself outraged by the remark you made to me, that -without having read any of my books you had come to the conclusion that -I was a person ‘accustomed to pep up and exaggerate his statements in -order to create a sensation and to increase the sale of his books.’” (I -loathe the expression “pep up,” and beg the reader to understand that I -am quoting a university president.) - -At this President Birge became much excited, saying that this had been a -confidential conversation; he had given me his personal opinion of my -reputation at my request, and I now proceeded to tell it in the presence -of newspaper reporters—and he was a man old enough to be my father! - -I answered that I did not see that age had anything to do with the -matter, nor could I understand how our interview could be regarded as -“confidential”; I had come to him, a public official, acting in a public -matter. There could have been nothing “personal” between us, for I did -not know President Birge, I had never even heard his name until I read -his interview in a Madison newspaper, stating that I was an unfit person -to address the university students. - -Said President Birge: “I did not say you were unfit.” - -Said I: “I don’t know what your word was, but your action was certainly -to that effect.” - -Then Attorney Butler spoke up, and wanted to know if I had threatened -that if I were not permitted the use of a university building I would -attack President Birge and the university in some other hall. To this I -said that my action followed automatically from the situation. I had -come to Madison for the purpose of delivering to the students an address -entitled: “The College Student and the Modern Crisis.” If the university -would permit me to deliver this address, I should deliver it. If they -wouldn’t permit me to deliver this address, I should naturally have to -discuss the question of why they took such action. Mr. Butler’s answer -was that nobody should come to the university, with his consent, and try -to bulldoze the board of regents by any kind of threat. - -The board offered me an additional five minutes, if I wished it, but I -answered that the greatest virtue in an orator was to know when he had -said his say. I thanked them and retired; and that afternoon they held -another session, and Mr. Butler and Dr. Seaman, ably seconded by the -bathtub manufacturer and the wholesale grocer, voted that I should be -refused the use of the gymnasium. The seven other members of the board -voted that President Birge should be requested to grant me the use of -the gymnasium. President Birge himself did not vote, and I am sorry to -state that the malted milk regent was absent and did not get recorded. -Needless to say, all this publicity—it filled many columns of Madison’s -two newspapers for five days—resulted in the gymnasium’s being packed on -Wednesday evening. Some two thousand students heard my scheduled -address, and asked me questions for an hour afterwards, and the walls of -the building did not collapse, nor have any of the students since thrown -any bombs. - -Next afternoon I met the champion tennis team of the university, and -played each of its members in turn, and beat them in straight sets; and -I am told that the student body regarded this as a far more sensational -incident than my Socialist speech. An elderly professor came up to me on -the campus next day—I had never seen him before, and don’t know his -name; but he assured me, with deep conviction, that I had made a grave -blunder—I should have played the tennis matches first, and made the -speech second, and no building on the campus would have been big enough -to hold the crowd! - - - - - CHAPTER XLVIII - THE PRICE OF LIBERTY - - -The University of Wisconsin has the reputation of being the most liberal -institution of higher education in the United States, and on the whole I -think the reputation is deserved. I have shown what a struggle it took -to introduce one little impulse of new thinking into the place; and you -must realize that every mite of freedom has been won by the same -struggle, and the maintaining of it depends upon somebody’s willingness -to be disagreeable. I talked with one professor, who is known throughout -the United States as a writer and lecturer, not a Socialist, but a -tireless advocate of social justice. This man has won, and he holds -grimly the right to have his own say and his own way. He assigns to his -graduate students “The Brass Check” as required reading, and as their -thesis they make a study of some capitalist newspaper in its handling of -half a dozen crucial public issues, such as the steel strike and Mexican -intervention. - -The rub comes when the professor goes outside and lectures to city clubs -and chambers of commerce, and gets into the newspapers in favor of the -recognition of Soviet Russia. Then all the reactionaries in the state -clamor for his scalp. He said to me: “They say a fox learns to enjoy -being chased, and in the same way I have had to learn to enjoy -outmatching my enemies. I feel that I am being stalked by a band of -thugs; I have to set out deliberately and consciously to build up my -prestige throughout the state, to keep myself in the public mind, so -that my enemies won’t dare go beyond abusing me. Manifestly, that means -that academic freedom is only for the man who has a tough skin and can -be happy in a fight. The young man, also the weak man, is helpless; if -he tries to tell the truth about anything, he’ll have to go out and -write life insurance for a living.” - -Such is the judgment, after nearly two decades’ experience, of one of -America’s freest college professors, in America’s freest university. -That many men should fail in such a test is inevitable. There is another -professor in the university, an elderly man, who began his career as a -Socialist of the academic type; he is the author of standard books on -Socialism, and all through the years when he made his reputation he -recognized the unearned increment of land as a grave form of social -injustice. He has now changed his views, and has become the tamest of -conservatives, a pitiable figure. It happened recently that a friend of -mine was in his office, and discovered an economic basis for this -transformation. Some one wanted to buy some lots from the old professor; -and the price was two thousand dollars each, he said. He listened to -some protest of the would-be purchaser; then he said: “I know; the price -was eighteen hundred a couple of weeks ago, but it has now gone up.” - -He hung up the receiver, and blandly explained to my friend that he was -the fortunate possessor of a tongue of land between two lakes which -blocked the development of the city of Madison, and real estate values -were increasing there very rapidly! To a student of my acquaintance this -old gentleman recently made the statement that “one who talks about -unearned increment shows by that very act that he has not brains enough -to be a graduate student.” It is interesting to note that when the -President of the United States was appointing a commission to settle an -important public question, it was this man he selected to represent the -economists of the United States. - -They had their war hysteria in Wisconsin, as everywhere. Senator -LaFollette made a speech in which he said we had “a grievance” against -the German Government, and the Associated Press took out the word “a” -and substituted the word “no”—such a little lie, but it caused the whole -country to shriek for LaFollette’s blood. A petition for his expulsion -from the senate was circulated among the university faculty—the same -thing the German reactionaries did with their university professors at -the outbreak of the war. It is not recorded how many professors in -Germany refused to sign; but there were six courageous men at Wisconsin. -One of these was Professor Kahlenberg, whose father refused military -service in Germany. Professor Kahlenberg lost the leadership of the -chemistry department, and most of his worthwhile courses, and has not -yet regained them. - -Also, there was George F. Comings, a lecturer in the Extension -Department, who after the war advocated an amnesty resolution at a -meeting of the American Association of Equity, a farmers’ organization. -The resolution was laid on the table; letters of protest were written to -the board of regents, and the lecturer was summoned to appear before the -regents to submit to a rebuke. He refused to appear, and was dismissed, -and became candidate for lieutenant-governor of the LaFollette party, -receiving the largest majority of any candidate on the ticket. When Kate -Richards O’Hare was refused permission to speak in a university hall, -Lieutenant-Governor Comings introduced her, and defended her from -organized rowdies, at a meeting in the assembly chamber of the state -capitol. He presided at a dinner of the Federated Press, at which I -spoke in Madison, and presented a resolution in favor of free speech. It -is interesting to note that while he was in the university his most -ardent opponent was a very wealthy dean, who is interested in several -banks and a power company, and sells stock to the other professors. - -Some thirty years ago, during a controversy over academic freedom, the -board of regents of Wisconsin adopted a resolution, as follows: -“Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we -believe that the great State University of Wisconsin should ever -encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which -alone the truth can be found.” A tablet containing this statement was -presented by the class of 1910, but it was hidden in the cellar, covered -with dust for many years, because the regents refused to allow it to be -placed upon the building. It is now in place on Bascom Hall; and during -the controversy over my address, the regents reaffirmed this motto as -the policy of the board. But they refused to permit a committee of -students and the faculty to determine what speakers should be heard. It -appears that their understanding of freedom is the ancient one of -freedom for those who rule. - -I have referred to the fate of the weaker and the younger members of the -faculty. Let me tell you one story; I do it with much hesitation, -because the man who told it to me begged me not to repeat it, and I can -only do so by taking care to give no hint of his identity. Suffice it to -say that he is a young instructor, a self-made and self-taught man, who -has worked his way up from bitter poverty in the face of severe physical -handicaps. Life has meant continual suffering to him, but he is one of -those natures which manage to use their trials as a means of -self-discipline. He is one of the gentlest and sweetest natures it has -ever been my fortune to meet. I wish he were a bold man and a fighter, -but it happens to be the essence of his nature to shrink from strife and -notoriety. - -I introduce to you another gentleman, who loves attention, and does not -hesitate to thrust himself forward—the Honorable David Jayne Hill, -ex-president of Rochester University and ex-ambassador to Germany; a -public personage of wealth and reactionary views, who founded an -organization, the National Association for Constitutional Government, -for the purpose of distributing his convictions to the people of the -United States. The National Association for Constitutional Government, -with David Jayne Hill as president, mailed out to all educators in the -United States a pamphlet by David Jayne Hill, setting forth the -importance of preserving those features in the constitution of the -United States which enable the rich to become richer and compel the poor -to become poorer. Along with the pamphlet went a personal letter, -inviting the recipient to express his opinion of the views set forth in -the pamphlet, and stating, among other things, that the pamphlet was not -circulated for propaganda purposes, but purely to ascertain the views of -others upon the question. - -The young instructor received a copy of this letter; his opinion was -asked for, and he gave it; he said that he thought the views expressed -in the pamphlet were wrong, and he added: “When you state that you are -not circulating it for propaganda purposes, I must say plainly that I -think you are lying.” - -Let me point out that the young instructor did not rush to the -newspapers with this opinion; he wrote it in a private letter, at -request. He was specifically invited to say frankly what he thought, and -he said frankly what he thought, to the organization which asked his -opinion and no one else. - -But, of course, he had insulted one of the great moguls of the -plutocracy; he had committed lese majesté in its grossest form. It is -easy to imagine what happened; the huffy mogul sent the letter to some -mogul regent, or perhaps to a mogul administrator, and before many days -the young instructor was summoned to appear before his mogul dean. Maybe -you imagine that the dean pointed out in a friendly way that the -youngster had been injudicious in using a short and ugly word, and ought -to use longer words while he was connected with a state university. If -that is what you imagine, you know very little about universities. - -What actually happened was something I had to drag from the young man by -half an hour of tactful questioning. It was evident that the experience -had been a cruel one; he did not want to think about it, he could not -speak about it without his hands trembling, and his voice also. He had -been stormed at and denounced, he had been told that he was a fool and a -puppy, and that he should there and then take his pen in hand and write -an abject apology to the great mogul he had so insulted. And here was a -young man trying to exist upon the pitiful salary of a university -instructor, and with a young wife expecting a baby. He demanded -twenty-four hours to think it over, and he went away and wrestled it out -with himself. He wrote the letter, and since that time has retired into -his own shell; he never thinks about public questions, he writes no -letters to anyone, he hardly even reads a newspaper, but lives and -labors in a little specialty, where he hopes to make some contribution -to human knowledge. Meantime, the dean who did this thing is one of the -most prominent and powerful persons in the university, in charge of the -moral destinies of several thousand future citizens of the state of -Wisconsin. And that is what “academic freedom” means in America’s freest -university! - - - - - CHAPTER XLIX - THE PEOPLE AND THEIR UNIVERSITY - - -I do not want anyone who reads this book to get the idea that I am so -naive as to imagine that there is no enemy of freedom of teaching save -economic privilege. I know there are others, and all I am doing is -tackle the biggest one first. If I work for the control of universities -by organized farmers and labor unions, it is not because I am unaware -that these groups have their interests and prejudices, but merely -because I believe that these groups can learn to understand true freedom -and justice, whereas I know that a plutocratic class has never been able -to learn anything at any time in human history. - -In the University of Wisconsin it is interestingly shown that as soon as -you break down the rule of special privilege, you find yourself -confronted by various kinds of mass prejudice and group interest. The -people of the state consider that they own a university, and they expect -this university to do their way. The question arises—who shall set the -standards, the voters, or the faculty, who think they know more? The -Wisconsin farmer drives up to Madison in his automobile, and demands an -interview with a dean, saying: “Here I am supporting this university by -my taxes, and here you’ve gone and flunked my son!” The farmers’ -organizations keep jealous watch over the percentage of “flunkings,” and -if it is too high, they say the university is being made into a place of -academic snobbery. And maybe they are right—it is not so easy to say! - -A former state superintendent of education in Wisconsin told me a funny -story. It was proposed to have the normal schools teach engineering, but -President Van Hise of the university said this was impossible; the -university alone could teach engineering, it had mysteriously and -mystically efficient methods of doing so. The superintendent met an -instructor who had recently been taken on in this school, and thinking -he would like to know about these special methods, he asked: “How did -they tell you to teach engineering?” - -“They didn’t tell me anything,” said the instructor. - -“You mean they gave you no special instructions about how you were to -teach?” - -“Nothing at all,” said the other; then he thought—“Oh, yes, to be sure, -they told me to flunk one-third of the students and send them to the -Agricultural School!” - -Also there are the religious organizations, clamoring for their share of -power. There is the so-called “Fundamentalist” movement in the Baptist -church, an organization which combines theological with economic -obscurantism, and wages vigorous war against the teaching of modern -ideas. Professor Otto is giving a course on “Man and Nature,” an -elementary survey of evolution, the most popular course in the -university. The Baptists denounce him as an atheist, and all the -religious organizations have got together to demand that the university -shall drop this course. The place is surrounded by a veritable -fortification of religious establishments, all carrying on instruction -of their own, and all trying to break into the state institution. There -is the Wesleyan Foundation, which hires “student pastors,” and is giving -courses off the campus, and wants these courses to count as university -credits. They have succeeded in arranging this at the University of -Illinois; why not at Wisconsin? There are the Catholics, with a million -dollar endowment, a chapel and dormitories, also clamoring for their -share of university power and prestige. There is a Lutheran building, an -Episcopal chapter-house, and so on. These religious movements are now -opened with an official university convocation, and they are pushing, -pushing all the time, trying to keep modern science away from the -people. - -Also, of course, the militarists have been lifted up by the war wave. -Wisconsin is compelled to have military training, being a “land grant” -institution. So the campus is troubled by the clamor of young men -preparing themselves for slaughter. Officers strut about with artificial -pomposity—I say artificial, because I suspect they are ex-real estate -men and Rotary Club members. However, their disguise serves them with -the khaki-clad sheep who rush here and there in response to barked-out -orders, and have their photographs taken in long lines, to send home to -mamma and papa on the farm. I wandered about watching them; and for -variety I came upon a madman, standing all alone on the campus, leaping -up like a jumping-jack, shooting his two arms this way and that, and -making silence through a megaphone. I was puzzled, until I saw a -moving-picture operator taking the scene; it was a “cheer leader” having -himself perpetuated! - -They have, of course, their athletic craze at Wisconsin, as everywhere -else. Enormous sums are handled, and there is the usual graft; -favoritism in jobs, free tickets and passes, and the “scalping” of -these. There is the usual professionalism, with easy jobs for athletes -pretending to go through college. There are the usual fraternities and -sororities, organized into little snobbish groups, and busy with student -politics, “log-rolling” and “back-scratching.” If the purpose of the -university is to prepare students for what they are to meet in outside -life, these things, of course, have their place. - -They have a daily paper, the “Cardinal,” and I discovered that here also -the students are getting a complete training in the ways of the outside -world. The “Cardinal” is supposed to be the publication of the student -body, and those who edit it are supposed to do the work for the honor -and the experience. But large sums are taken in and no one knows where -they go. There was an investigation by the student senate, and the -findings were kept secret. One student on the board persisted in asking -questions, and he was expelled; he ran for re-election, and on the very -day of election the paper published an elaborate attack upon his -integrity; his answer was published the day after his defeat! The paper -refused publication of another student’s article, demanding to know the -circulation of the paper and the salaries paid to the editors, if any. -It developed that the business manager had borrowed three hundred and -seventy dollars from the paper without security, and that there had been -other such loans not specified. A pretty complete training for -capitalist journalism and politics! - -Here, as everywhere, it is the fraternity and sorority groups which run -the student body. They bring from their wealthy homes the usual -reactionary opinions; and the last reactionary governor, Philipp by -name, laid down the ideal of a university a couple of years ago—the -mothers and fathers of Wisconsin might rest assured that their -university would send their sons and daughters home with the same ideas -they had when they came! I picked up a couple of issues of the -“Wisconsin Octopus,” a humorous monthly published by the student body. -Here is a little sketch, which might have been taken from the “Saturday -Evening Post,” showing a long-haired student in spectacles, listening -enraptured to a frantic Bolshevist orator on a soap-box, while another -figure, labeled “Stude Body,” turns away in disgust. This heads an -editorial, “Boost Wisconsin.” “Empty heads are the cause of mental -revolution,” says this wise editor—forgetting about stomachs. He -denounces “a small group, yet a very insistent and annoying group,” -which is attacking its alma mater. “Wisconsin welcomes criticism, but -criticism made in a holy and healthy manner. Wisconsin has no room for -knockers. They are not welcome.... Let those with radical thoughts keep -them to themselves.” - -I turn to the front cover of this satisfied publication; it portrays a -table in a lobster palace, with a semi-nude girl-student at a -supper-party with a man-student. There is a quart bottle of liquor on -the table, and another in a bucket of ice beside the table, and the -man-student has fallen asleep, dead drunk. Such is student life -according to the “Wisconsin Octopus” for May, 1922. And in case this -issue be not representative, I take up that of January, 1922. This also -portrays on the cover a semi-nude girl-student at a “prom” with a young -man-student, who can scarcely be distinguished from the one in the -“Arrow” collar advertisement on the back cover. The frontispiece of the -issue consists of a drawing entitled: “The Clock Watcher,” and we -discover that a “clock watcher” is a man-student observing the ankles of -a girl-student. On the next page we find a poem, which speaks for -itself: - - Absinth makes the heart grow fonder, - Make the lights go blinking yonder, - Makes one lamp-post seem like ten, - Absent absinth, come again. - -On the next page we find a cartoon, portraying a semi-nude girl-student, -sunk in a lounging chair, smoking a cigarette; we are told: - - A good woman’s a good woman, - But a smoke’s a smoke. - -On the next page we find some sketches, seeming to indicate that the -“prom” is a kind of college kissing game, and that at the end of this -game the girl lies in a drunken swoon. Later on we find three drawings, -“The Famous Prom Soak,” which tell us in three funny ways that the -“prom” is a place where both boys and girls get drunk and have a -headache the next morning. A little farther on occurs an illustration of -a boy and girl who are conversing: - - “I know something that beats the Prom.” - - “What?” - - “Buy a car, and park some place.” - -A little later we learn: “If it’s stag, it’s a souse-party.” A little -later we see a girl walking on an electric-light wire, and it is -explained to us, “A modern girl can’t be shocked.” - -I think I have quoted enough. I leave it to the impartial reader to -decide the question—whose heads are empty at the University of -Wisconsin? Is it the little group of devoted idealists of the Social -Science Club, who in the face of ridicule and scolding have brought a -series of writers and public men, both radical and conservative, to -discuss modern problems before the student body? Or is it the little set -of snobbish fraternity men, who run the social and political life of the -university, and edit its publications for the advertising of their own -sensuality and cynicism? - - - - - CHAPTER L - EDUCATION F. O. B. CHICAGO - - -There was one American captain of industry with a monstrously developed -bump of acquisitiveness; as he described himself: “I am a great clamorer -for dividends.” It was frequently charged that in the early days his -clamoring—or at any rate that of his subordinates—did not stop at arson -and burglary; it is certain that it did not stop at railroad rebates, -“midnight tariffs,” and numerous other violations of law. By such means -he made himself master of the oil industry of the country, and was on -the way to acquiring the railways and the banks and the Child’s -restaurants. He had made one or two hundred millions of dollars, and was -busily turning it into one or two billions; but he found rising against -him a clamor of public execration, and the poor rich man, whose second -most conspicuous bump was of fear, began casting about for some way to -take the curse off himself. - -About that time he met an educator—one of these typical American -combinations of financial shrewdness and moral fervor, a veritable -wizard of a money-getter, a “vamp” in trousers, a grand, impressive, -inspirational Chautauqua potentate. The old oil king was completely -captivated. We can imagine him going home to the privacy of the royal -bed-chamber, or wherever it is that oil kings and queens exchange -domestic confidences. “Say, Laura, I met a fellow today—by crackie, he’s -a wonder! He’s a professor of Semitics, or pyrotechnics, or something or -other, I forget just what—but he knows everything there is, and he’s -going to build me a university and make me the greatest philanthropist -in America!” - -“Now, John,” says the oil queen, “you better be careful and hold on to -your money. The Lord is able to take care of people’s souls, and they -don’t need this newfangled modern learning.” - -“That’s all right, my dear,” says the oil king, “but every business has -to advertise. I figured out that this is the cheapest yet. And, besides, -I always wished I’d had an education, so that you and I might get -invited out to dinner-parties, and not have everybody laugh at us the -way they do.” - -This oil king had a pathetic trust in education, as something you could -buy ready-made for cash, the same as a political machine or a state -railroad commission. If anybody tried to put off on him an oil-field -that had got salt water in, he would know the difference; but it did not -occur to him that there might be fakes in education, or that a petroleum -philanthropist might not be able to order the whole of the human spirit, -F. O. B. Chicago, thirty days net. - -I picture the educational “he-vamp,” President Harper, calling into -consultation some fellow-faker in the architectural line. Says the -architectural wizard: “I suppose this old bird will want something plain -and economical—the biggest floor-space for his money.” - -“Not on your life,” says the educational wizard. “He wants something he -never saw before; he’s going in for culture. You know I specialize in -these old things—Hebrew and Greek and Assyrian and Sanskrit and -Egyptian——” - -“How would it do to give him a row of pyramids?” says the architectural -wizard. - -“No,” says the educational wizard, “he would think that was heathen. -He’s a religious old bird—a Baptist, like me; that’s how I got him, in -fact—met him at an ice cream festival.” - -“Oh, well then, it’s plain,” says the architectural wizard. “What we -want is real old Gothic—stained-glass windows, mullioned, and -crenellated battlements, and moated draw-bridges—” - -“That sounds great!” says the educational wizard. “What does it look -like?” - -“I’ll have one of my office boys get you up a sketch this afternoon,” -says the architectural wizard. “It’s a good style from our point of -view, because it uses about four times as much stone per square foot of -floor-space, and stone is where we get our rake-off.” - -A thousand years ago, you understand, men rode over the earth, clad in -heavy iron armor, like hard-shell crabs. Every joint had to be tightly -covered, lest a flying arrow should pierce the crack; and when they -built themselves homes they were moved by this same terror of swift -arrows, so they made the windows narrow and deep. They built the walls -of thick stone to withstand the pounding of battering-rams, and to hold -up the enormous weight of the pile. Such was the origin of “Gothic” -architecture; and I do not know any better way to expose to you the -elaborate system of buncombe which is called “higher education” than to -state that here in twentieth century America, where we know of bows and -arrows only in poetry, and have the materials and the skill to build -structures of steel and glass, big and airy and bright as day—we -deliberately go and reproduce the architectural monstrosities, the -intellectual and spiritual deformities of a thousand years ago, and -compel modern chemists and biologists and engineers to do their research -work by artificial light, for fear of arrows which ceased to fly when -the last Indian was penned up in a reservation. - -Not alone at the University of Chicago do you find stone towers with -crenellated battlements—that is, notches through which arrows may be -fired, and stones and flaming Standard Oil hurled down; you find them at -college after college all over the United States. I look up some -pictures I happen to have—here they are at Princeton and at Syracuse and -at Colorado! You find Columbia University spending several millions for -a huge Roman temple of white marble, called a library—a structure which -is magnificent for picture post-card purposes, but which gives about ten -per cent of the shelf-room that should have been bought for the money, -and compels everybody in the main reading-room to use electric lights -most of the day! - -I recall one of my earliest radical impulses, derived from the spectacle -I used to see when I stayed late in the afternoon in this library -building. From regions unknown would emerge an army of old women with -buckets and scrubbing-brushes; pitiful, wizened up old creatures -crawling about the marble corridors on their hands and knees, mopping up -the dirt of the students’ feet and the spittle of their mouths. -Manifestly, this cleaning might have been done by machinery, it might -have been done by able-bodied men with mops; but women were cheaper, and -there were those in charge of the university’s affairs who cared more -about money than humanity. - -Of course, we know what such persons will answer; the old women were -glad to get the work. In the same way they answer that chemists and -biologists and engineers are glad to get a chance to do research work, -even at cost of their eyesight. At the University of Chicago they -discovered that men were anxious to get such work, even at the cost of -their health. In his book, “The Higher Learning in America,” Thorstein -Veblen tells of an incident which happened in a certain laboratory -“dedicated to one of the branches of biological science.” Having been -for ten years a professor at the University of Chicago, Professor Veblen -felt under the necessity of withholding names; but I am not under the -same necessity, and I make so bold as to state that it occurred in the -Hull Biological Laboratory of the University of Chicago. - -The building was supposed to be ventilated by a hot air system; fresh -air was taken in from the outside, and warmed over steam coils, and -distributed through the building. It began to be noted that members of -the scientific staff were mysteriously falling sick. They would be -forced to stay at home, or to take a vacation; they would get well, and -then come back and get sick again. Finally, one professor went rooting -about in the basement of the building, and made the discovery that the -university authorities, in order to save the cost of heating, had -boarded up the outside intake, so that the air which passed through the -steam-coils was being derived in part from a manhole leading to a sewer. -The great capitalist university had found it too costly to heat its -Gothic halls—playfully described by Veblen as “heavy ceiled, ill-lighted -lobbies, which might have served as a mustering place for a body of -unruly men at arms, but which mean nothing more to the point today than -so many inconvenient flag-stones to be crossed in coming and going.” - - - - - CHAPTER LI - THE UNIVERSITY OF STANDARD OIL - - -Providence arranged it that soon after the University of Chicago was -built, the oil king’s digestion gave out, and he retired to the country -to live on graham crackers and milk and play golf all day. The job of -turning his two hundred million dollars into two billions was left to -his efficient subordinates, and they were not so much interested in the -old man’s advertising ventures, so that the university was left to run -itself. Veblen describes its spirit as “a ravenous megalomania.” For -years President Harper followed the plan of buying everything he wanted, -and sending the bill to John D. But that was stopped, and now the -running of the university is seen to by the usual board of interlocking -directors, mostly elderly Baptists. They have had in past times some -first-rate scientists; what they have now is a faculty of aged dotards, -who set the tone of the place, and the young men try to act dotards to -the best of their ability. - -They are sensitive on the subject of petroleum at the university; they -blush at mention of the word, and do not admit the conventional -book-plates showing the lamp of knowledge. Some time ago a wag composed -a “doxology” for use by the students, and the young radicals have fun -with this— - - Praise God from whom oil blessings flow, - Praise him, oil creatures here below, - Praise him above, ye heavenly host, - Praise Father, Son—but John the most. - -I met one professor at the University of Chicago who insisted that -teaching was entirely free. He added, with some asperity: “Of course you -will do the Bemis story! We shall never hear the end of the Bemis -story.” - -“Too bad!” I said, sympathetically. “I haven’t heard that story; what is -it?” - -“Just a piece of slander,” said the professor. “I know positively that -the case of Bemis was not a case of academic freedom at all, and he -himself admits it.” - -That was something definite. I ascertained that Edward W. Bemis is an -economist and engineer, with offices in Chicago and New York, so I wrote -and asked him about the matter. I quote his letter, and leave it for you -to form your own judgment: - - I was called from Vanderbilt University to the University of Chicago - to the chair of Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology, at the - opening of the University of Chicago in October, 1892. In March, 1895, - President Harper informed me that the trustees had dropped me from the - faculty the previous December, to take effect in July, 1895. He - informed me then and in subsequent conversations that my attitude on - public utility and labor questions was the cause, and that if he cared - to talk about the reasons for my dismissal, I could not secure any - other college position in the country. - - A great deal was made of the matter in the newspapers all over this - country, under the heading of College Freedom, and many papers took it - up. I did teach after that, for two years, 1897-9, in the Kansas State - Agricultural College, but, finding no openings in the larger - universities, I turned my attention exclusively to the investigation - of public utility questions, and to assisting states, cities and - commissions in such matters. I found a congenial field as head of the - Cleveland, Ohio, Water Department, under Tom L. Johnson, from - September, 1901, to 1910, and have since then spent my strength on - building up an organization of engineers and accountants devoted to - assisting cities and states and other public bodies, including the - national government, in appraisals and rate adjustments of public - utilities. - - I received no calls for teaching, save as above mentioned, since I was - forced out of the University of Chicago, and for over twenty years - have sought none. I have never been a Socialist, or an extremist along - any line, but have investigated and to some degree favored public - ownership of public utilities, and have had a friendly relation with - the American labor movement. - - My opposition to the efforts of certain Chicago utilities to secure - lighting and street railway franchises, while I was at the University - of Chicago, and the public address which I made during the famous - Pullman strike in 1894, wherein I did not endorse the strike but did - say that the railroads had often boycotted each other, violated law, - etc., as well as had the men, were features assigned by President - Harper for the opposition to me, resulting in my dismissal by the - trustees of the university. - -A professor at the University of Chicago who read this manuscript -volunteered to get for me the university’s side of the story, and he -wrote me: - - At the time of his “dismissal” Bemis was in the extension division. - His appointment ran out and he was offered re-appointment, his - remuneration to come from the fees of students. This action might, of - course, be described in Mr. Bemis’ phrase, “dropped me from the - faculty.” - -I submitted that statement to Professor Bemis, who answered by wire: - - My letter which you quote is absolutely correct. No proposition for - continuance of my work, half of which was to advanced students within - the university walls, was ever made to me. - -Another of the casualties of Mr. Rockefeller’s university was Professor -Triggs, as I have told in “The Brass Check,” and I gather they were not -sorry when Veblen moved West. I was told that one professor had recently -been “on the carpet for excess of radical zeal,” and I wrote to ask him -if this was true. He answered that the trouble he had got into was for -being away too much. Said he: “I have never known of anyone at Chicago -being interfered with in any way ‘for excess of radical zeal.’ To be -sure, no such excess exists.” Which I find a charming reply! - -To the same effect is the testimony of John C. Kennedy, formerly a -professor at the University of Chicago. Questioned by Chairman Walsh of -the Industrial Relations Commission, Professor Kennedy stated concerning -the faculty: “A sincere desire to deal with fundamental conditions does -not seem to be there in most cases.... I think they are a poor crowd -among which to look for leaders to bring about any fundamental change in -social conditions.” The reason for Professor Kennedy’s discontent was -that he had been engaged by the University of Chicago Settlement to make -a survey of labor and living conditions among the Stockyards workers. He -had prepared an elaborate and thoroughly documented report, which -several of the packers found satisfactory; but Swift & Company—which has -a member of the firm on the board of the University of Chicago—objected -that Professor Kennedy had drawn “political conclusions” from his data; -that is, he had suggested a remedy for the evil conditions in the -Stockyards, for the workers to organize to protect themselves! These -portions of the report were cut out before it was published, and the -whole matter was hushed up, both by the university authorities and by -the newspapers of the interlocking directorate in Chicago. - -They have one “renommir professor” at Chicago, and are very proud of -him. I don’t think I exaggerate in saying that out of the score of -faculty members I talked with on the subject of academic freedom, not -one failed to mention Robert Morss Lovett as the university’s -certificate of emancipation from Standard Oil. Out of the warmth of his -big heart Professor Lovett gives his help to Hindoo revolutionists -thrown into jail, and to Russian sweat-shop workers clubbed over the -head by the police. I asked him to read this manuscript, and he tells me -that he thinks I am too severe upon the university. He wonders what I -will have to say about places like Minnesota and Illinois, which are so -much worse. To avoid misunderstanding, let me state that I have not been -able to find a single one of the great American universities which is -truly liberal or truly free; but there are degrees of badness among -them, and the University of Chicago is one of the best. I have no desire -to deny it due credit, therefore I note Professor Lovett’s comment—that -during the early days of the university President Harper stood for -liberalism in religion, and thereby lost much Baptist money; also that -the university made an enviable record during the war, in that there was -no interference with the private views of any professor on this -question. - -Shortly after the war there developed a strong movement to refuse -diplomas to about a dozen of the students who were accused of radical -activities, but this movement was defeated at the last minute. I talked -with several of these students, and with others who are now struggling -to defend ideas of social justice at the university. They had a little -paper, called “Chanticleer,” and were so indiscreet as to reprint an -article from the Seattle “Union Record” praising the paper. So the -student daily hailed them as the “boy Bolsheviks” of the university, and -both students and professors joined in a campaign of ridicule and -sneering. The climax came with the fourth issue, containing an article -by Clarence Darrow; not twenty students could be found to distribute -this. Among the most active in attacking the little paper was a dean who -has just died; he never lost an opportunity to denounce the radicals, -and gave no scholarships or honors to such. I am presenting in this book -many cases of college professors “let out” for speaking intemperately -about conservatives; I am wondering if anyone will answer me by telling -of a single professor “let out” from an American college for speaking -intemperately about radicals! - -I talked with another professor at Chicago, who does not want his name -used. I asked him what he thought about the status of his profession, -and he gave the best description of academic freedom in America that I -have yet come upon. He said: “We are good cows; we stand quietly in our -stanchions, and give down our milk at regular hours. We are free, -because we have no desire to do anything but what we are told we ought -to do. And we die of premature senility.” - -They have another professor at the University of Chicago who is not -entirely satisfied with America as it is, and that is Robert Herrick, -the novelist. He expressed the fear that I might try to write the same -kind of book as “The Brass Check”; that is, to show direct pressure of -financial interests upon college professors—whereas the way it is done -is by class feeling, by the tradition of academic dignity, the prestige -of old and established things, “the tone of the house.” I took the -liberty of telling Professor Herrick of a few cases I had collected, and -he admitted that he had had no idea there were things like that going -on. - -Robert Herrick would, of course, never fail in urbanity and -graciousness; but fundamentally, I think he is more pessimistic about -American education than I am. He said: “Universities can’t get money -except by getting great numbers of students; so they dare not set any -higher standards than rival institutions in the same neighborhood. So -the American soul stays flabby; all that counts is show, and in every -department you get by with superficiality. It is a lunch-counter system -of education; read a novel and get a credit; then go out into the world, -and use your college prestige to make a fortune; and then give your name -to a college building. We do absolutely nothing for men and women who -come to college, in the way of giving them true culture, higher -standards of thought or conduct. I go to any university club and look -over the alumni, and I see that we have given them no distinction—in -dress, in speech, in morals, in ideas. You cannot tell them from the -bathtub salesmen or the agents of barbers’ supplies you meet in the -lobby of the Blackstone Hotel.” - -The above is from a man who has been teaching for twenty-nine years at -the University of Chicago; and you may compare it with the pungent -remark of Professor Cattell, who was a teacher for twenty-six years at -Columbia: “The average university club in America could more easily -dispense with its library than with its bar.” - - - - - CHAPTER LII - LITTLE HALLS FOR RADICALS - - -The touchiest problem with all academic authorities is that of “outside -speakers.” They can handle their own professors; by care in selecting -instructors, and weeding out the undesirables before they get prestige, -they can keep dangerous ideas from creeping into the classrooms. But it -always happens there are half a dozen students who come from Socialist -homes, and these get together and call themselves some society with a -college name, and start inviting labor agitators and literary -self-advertisers, to disturb the dignity and calm of scholarship. This -puts the university administration in a dilemma; they are damned if they -do and damned if they don’t. If they refuse to let the radical -propagandist in, there is a howl that they are repressing freedom of -thought; on the other hand, if they do let him in, who can figure what -millionaire may be led to alter his will? - -There is always a little group of disturbers at every large university; -and those at Chicago were moved to invite Upton Sinclair to come to -their campus and repeat his Wisconsin performance. I was not present at -the consultation between the president of the University of Chicago and -his loyal and efficient secretary; but I have been able to imagine the -scene. You understand, there isn’t a particle of prejudice against -radicals, and we have absolute freedom of speech at our university, we -are willing for the students to hear anyone they wish; but we decide -that we had better minimize the trouble by confining this literary -self-advertiser to a small hall, so that students will not announce the -meeting, and the newspapers won’t hear about it, and the wealthy -trustees and donors may not know that it has happened. - -But the day before the lecture there is excitement in our president’s -office—Upton Sinclair has arrived in Chicago, and has telephoned asking -for an interview. He comes; and we discover that he has shaved off the -bushy black Bolshevik whiskers in which we had every right to expect to -find him; also he has left off his red necktie, and has adopted a gentle -and seductive smile—you know how cunning these Bolsheviks are! Our -president’s secretary tries to smooth him down—tells him what a great -novelist he is, and how delighted we are to have him speak at our -university, and how, of course, there is no particle of prejudice -against radicals. Then he is taken into the dark Gothic chamber where -our aged president sits by the dim light of arrow-proof windows. - -Harry Pratt Judson has been at our university since it was founded -thirty years ago, and is a holder of ten college degrees, and a high -interlocking director in all the Rockefeller foundations for the -guidance of American intellectual life. Also he is the author of a -manual for college presidents entitled: “The Higher Education as a -Training for Business,” a book which deserves to be required reading for -every course in educational administration, a standard guide to the art -of persuading the rich to put up their money for mullioned windows and -crenellated battlements and moated draw-bridges. There has to be -somebody to keep the interlocking directorate aware of the importance of -culture, and Harry Pratt Judson is the boy for this job; showing how a -college education really does pay in dollars and cents, and putting it -in language so simple that the basest pork merchant over at the “yards” -can get the point. Says our President Judson: “Men buy and sell, not -merely for fun, but for profit.” And again: “A reputation for honest -dealing with customers is a valuable asset.” And again: “The habit of -sustained mental application is got only by persistently applying the -mind to work in a systematic way.” Can any one deny these statements? If -so, let him speak, or forever after hold his peace, while we, the -administration of the University of Chicago, assert and declare that our -Harry Pratt Judson is an educated educator and an inspired -inspirationalist. - -The Bolshevik author enters the presidential sanctum, still with that -evil seductive smile. He explains that he has spoken to an audience of -two thousand people at the University of Wisconsin, and fears that a -hall seating only two hundred people will not accommodate those who wish -to hear him at Chicago. He understands there is a large auditorium, -Mandel Hall, which seats thirteen hundred—— - -“Ah, yes,” says our president, with that urbanity which distinguishes -him, “but we are accustomed to reserve Mandel Hall for speakers who are -invited by the university.” - -“Well,” says the Bolshevik author—could anyone imagine the impudence?—“I -should be perfectly willing to be invited by the university.” - -“I’m afraid that could hardly be arranged,” says our president, as -sweetly as ever. “Of course, Mr. Sinclair, you understand that we are -quite willing for our students to listen to anyone’s ideas; we have -absolute freedom of speech at this university, but we have our -established traditions regarding the use of our halls, and you could not -expect us to make an exception in your case.” - -“Well,” says the Bolshevik author, “it would seem, President Judson, -that your idea of freedom of speech is that the radicals have a small -hall and the conservatives a large hall.” - -But even that does not cause our president to waver in his urbanity. He -is an old and wise man, accustomed to handling many crude people—you -cannot imagine the things he has had said to him by pork merchants! He -smiles his gentle, rebuking smile, and says: “You must admit, Mr. -Sinclair, it would be better for you to have a hall that is too small -than to have one that is too large.” - -To this the fellow answers that he is willing to take the risk. So our -president sees there is nothing to be gained by prolonging the -discussion, and tells him in plain words that the hall which has been -assigned him is the only hall he can have. - -The Bolshevik author goes out, and doubtless would like to denounce us -in the newspapers, but our interlocking trustees have seen to that—they -own all the newspapers in Chicago, and Upton Sinclair stays in the city -a week, and not one pays any attention to his presence. More than that, -we have got things so arranged all over the United States that Upton -Sinclair can spend three months traveling over the country, stopping at -twenty-five cities, and in all that time have only two newspaper -reporters come to ask him for an interview! - -However, we know that he is a dangerous customer, and we watch with some -trepidation to see what he will do. On the evening of the lecture we go -to the hall, and fifteen minutes before the time set we find a state of -affairs—truly, we don’t know whether to be amused or irritated. We can’t -think how the students managed to hear about this unadvertised lecture, -and it is a distressing thing to see so many young people with a craving -for unwholesome sensation. They have packed the little hall; the aisles -are solid with them; they are hanging from our mullioned windows, and -blocking all the corridors outside the many doors. And all the time more -of them coming! - -The Bolshevik author arrives, accompanied by two or three professors. We -have always said that these “reds” ought to be kicked off the faculty, -and now we see the consequences of tolerating them! The author shoves -his way to the platform, and—we tremble with indignation even now as we -recall his proceedings—he tells the students about his interview with -our august president, and states plainly that he thinks we have -discriminated against him because he is a radical. He asserts, on the -authority of several students, that no difficulty has ever before been -raised about giving Mandel Hall for speakers invited by students; also -he mentions that the university has barred Raymond Robins and -Rabindranath Tagore. And we note that a large percentage of the audience -laugh and applaud, as if they thought such fellows ought to be heard! He -goes on to say that outside is a beautiful warm spring evening, and a -quadrangle with soft green grass, and thick Gothic walls to shelter it -from the wind. If they will go outside and squat, he will come and talk -to them, and there will be plenty of room for everyone who wishes to -hear his self-laudations. - -The students laugh and cheer—what can you expect of young people, who -have little sense of dignity, and think this is a lark? They troop -outside, and more come running up from all directions. Never in the -thirty years of our university has there been such a violation of -propriety. For an hour the man delivers a rankly socialistic harangue to -fifteen hundred students, and when he tries to stop, they clamor for him -to go on, they crowd about and ask him questions, and he is kept talking -until eleven o’clock at night, telling our young men and women about -strikes and graft—all the most dangerous ideas, which we have been -working so hard to keep away from them! Even things right here in -Chicago—the fact that our biggest newspapers have their buildings upon -land which they have stolen from the city schools; the fact that our -school-board has been stealing several millions of dollars of the -people’s money, while a clerk of our city jail has got away with three -thousand dollars belonging to his prisoners! - -However, we are happy to say that some of our students resisted these -Bolshevik blandishments, and gave proof of the principles we have -instilled into them. We have a university paper called the “Daily -Maroon,” which the radicals impudently dub the “Moron.” This paper next -day had a report of the meeting, and it certainly was delightful the way -they gave it to the oratorical author: “His talk was a more or less -skilful combination of a frenzied street corner gathering (to be sure, -there was no soap-box), and a lecture in Political Economy on capital -and labor and the feudal system. All the old platitudes used for the -last decade in liberal workmen’s papers were repeated.” You will not -fail to appreciate the gentlemanly tone of that rebuke; and then, this -most cruel cut of all: “One is tempted, too, to wonder what kind of -novels Mr. Sinclair writes; if they are as full of mistakes in grammar -as his address last night, his publishers must be gray around the -temples.” Reading the above, we were so much pleased that we sent marked -copies to all the directors of the Standard Oil Company and the packers, -so that our friends might have proof that the better classes of our -students do not read socialistic books. - -That was the end of the incident, except for a trick which the wretched -Bolshevik played upon us. Would you believe it, he wasn’t cowed by the -rebuke of the “Daily Maroon,” but actually tried to seduce our student -body next afternoon by engaging in a tennis match with the champion of -our university. Our champion beat him, though by an effort so mighty -that it split his pants. But all the time the author was being beaten, -he kept up a hypocritical pretense of good nature, intending thereby to -win the regard of our young and unsophisticated undergraduates. In this -purpose we are sorry to say he seemed to be successful, for next day the -“Daily Maroon” appeared with a grave editorial, in which it took back at -least a portion of the previous day’s well-deserved rebuke: - - Upton Sinclair plays tennis more pleasingly than he talks or writes. - Although he lost two sets to Captain Frankenstein yesterday afternoon, - he did it with a grace that does not characterize his books and - speeches. He played and lost like a sportsman. He gave no evident sign - of petty displeasure at being defeated. One admires manliness, and one - finds far more of it in witnessing Mr. Sinclair on the tennis court - than in reading one of his tearful harangues of the yellow press - which, he declares, has hounded him, and suppressed his thoughts. - -All we can say about that is, how fortunate that so few Bolsheviks take -part in athletics! - - - - - CHAPTER LIII - THE UNIVERSITY OF JUDGE GARY - - -There is another great ruling class munition-factory in the vicinity of -Chicago, Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois. It is one of -those terrible places, of which there are scores in the United States, -which began as little church institutions, and by the grace of graft -have grown to enormous size. Northwestern is Methodist, and has some ten -thousand strictly pious students, and over six hundred instructors, and -not a rag of an idea to cover its bare bones. The man who was until last -year its president fitted himself for that office by being the -university’s “Director of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research.” The -first vice-president of the university is the general counsel of the -Illinois Steel Company; the third vice-president is vice-president of -the Illinois Steel Company; while the grand duke is the very grandest of -all grand dukes in the United States—that prince of open shoppers and -potentate of reaction, Judge Gary, chairman of the United States Steel -Corporation! - -For many years previously the leading grand duke was James A. Patten, -the grain speculator, whose million dollar corner in wheat was the -sensation of my boyhood. Mr. Patten began life as a clerk in a country -store, and his claim to direct a great educational institution is based -upon his acquaintance with the grain commission business, one of the -most thoroughly organized of American swindles. Mr. Patten is director -of two national banks, a trust company, a grain company, and an Edison -company. He is a malignant “open shopper,” and during his reign at -Northwestern waged incessant war upon two or three liberals who got into -the place. - -One of these men was Professor Gray, whom we have already met at the -University of Minnesota. Gray managed to stick at Northwestern for -sixteen years. He taught economics; a liberal colleague taught -psychology, and the president of the university remarked to a friend of -mine that these were the two hardest departments he had to administer, -because one touched on religion and the other on the pocket-book! Gray -was handicapped in the usual way by low salaries and lack of promotion -for himself and his assistants. For many years he tried to get Harry -Ward as assistant, but could never manage it. - -Mr. Patten was twice elected mayor of Evanston, and when he ran again, -Professor Gray, who was a Progressive, talked against him, and led the -Progressive forces in the legislature that drove Patten’s chairman out. -Naturally, that caused Mr. Patten intense annoyance. He had given the -university a gymnasium, and a generous share of the millions he had -extracted from the bread supply of the American people. So he demanded -that the president should support him; and the president sent for Gray, -and proceeded to administer a rebuke. Gray asked: “Are you speaking -officially or as an individual?” - -The climax of the affair was that Gray asked to meet Patten and thresh -the matter out face to face. They met at luncheon, and Patten presented -his complaint. He was sore because Gray had quoted him as saying with -regard to the pious students of the university—“it had cost more to get -out the Bible vote than any other.” “But,” said Gray, “you did say that, -didn’t you?” Patten admitted that he had said it, so Professor Gray -finally offered to settle the matter by writing a letter to both the -Evanston newspapers, stating exactly what Mr. Patten admitted he had -said, and exactly what he denied; but Patten was not satisfied with this -settlement of the difficulty! - -A little later Professor Gray was appointed by the National Civic -Federation as one of a committee of economists to investigate municipal -ownership in Europe. They were all supposed to be reactionaries, and -their findings were supposed to be what they knew the National Civic -Federation wanted; but Professor Gray had the wretched taste to become -converted to the doctrines of municipal ownership by the facts he -observed in Europe, and he so stated in his report. When he got a proof -of this report he found that it had been doctored in the office of Mr. -Ralph Easley, the very ardent “open shopper” and hundred per cent -plutocratic secretary of that organization. The professor had to -threaten a law-suit against the National Civic Federation in order to -force them to correct the report. - -Also, Gray had a “run-in” with Charles Deering, Harvester Trust magnate, -the second grand duke of the board. Deering asked Gray to speak against -a strike of the Harvester Trust workers, and said that he purposed to -put this strike down with guns. “Yes, Mr. Deering,” said the professor, -“but suppose the day comes when you are under the sod and the other -fellow has the guns.” Needless to say, the authorities of Northwestern -were glad when this too popular professor received an offer from the -University of Minnesota, which had come for the moment under a liberal -administration. A friend of mine was present at a private luncheon, at -which Mr. Patten made the statement that he had got rid of Gray, and was -now going to get rid of another man. - -This especially pious university is the one we mentioned as having -established a rule that only bachelors are to be accepted as teachers; -also the one which we found officially declaring that excellence in a -college professor lies, not in his being able to teach, but in his -diligence in raking in the dust-heaps of history. Last spring they gave -their grand duke the usual honorary degree, and took occasion to have -him instruct their ten thousand students in the principles of American -piety. A copy of the address lies before me, one of those beautifully -but mysteriously printed pamphlets which bear the name of no publisher -and no purchase price, but manage to get circulated by hundreds of -thousands of copies all over the country. - -The subject of Judge Gary’s address is “Ethics in Business,” and he -begins by making some curious admissions. There was a time, “not many -years ago, perhaps not much more than a score,” when in American -business “the rule of might over right prevailed.... Competition was -tyrannical and destructive. Weaker competitors were forced out of -business, often by means not only unethical but severe and brutal. The -graves of insolvents were strewn along the paths of industrial -development and operation. The financially strong grew stronger and -richer.” - -Of course you understand what all this means; it is an amiable -preliminary to the statement which Judge Gary is going to make, that now -all these evil things have changed, this wicked time has passed! But I -would like to put to Judge Gary the question: how did it happen to pass? -Who brought it about, and what were you, Judge Gary, doing at the time? -Were you going about the country, telling boys and girls in colleges -about the need of business reform? The question answers itself. At that -time Judge Gary was head of the Federal Steel Company, and busily -engaged in organizing the Steel Trust, the most perfect illustration in -America of the evils he refers to. Also he was engaged in denouncing as -agitators and disturbers of the public peace the very men, from Theodore -Roosevelt down, whose labors on behalf of reform he now pretends to -justify and accept. - -In those wicked days, he tells the students, the masters of industry -“did not give to employes just consideration. The wage rates were -adjusted strictly in accordance with the laws of supply and demand. The -welfare of the workmen was decided almost entirely from the standpoint -of utility and profit.” But now, all that is over. “The large majority -of business men now conduct their affairs” on the basis “that employes -are associates rather than servants, and should be treated -accordingly.... Conscientious treatment of employes which secures their -respect and confidence will tend to increase their loyalty and -efficiency.” And this from the man who continues to maintain throughout -the greatest industry in America a twelve-hour day, with a -twenty-four-hour day once a week! Who uses all the power of his colossal -organization to deny to his employes the most essential of all -industrial rights—the right to organize for their own protection! Who, -as an incident to this policy, maintains the most widespread and most -infamous system of espionage and terrorism that has ever been known in -an Anglo-Saxon country! This man, who pays more money to spies and -provocateurs in one year than the czar of all the Russians paid in -ten—this man, whose hands are slimy with the blood of union organizers -shot down in cold blood, whose lips are foul with ten thousand lies, -told about his wage-slaves during the last steel strike—this man has the -insolence to stand up before a commencement audience at a “Christian” -university, and declare that justice and kindness now prevail in -American big business, and that wage rates are no longer “adjusted -strictly in accordance with the laws of supply and demand!” - -Such is the state of social conscience in the greatest educational -institution of the Methodist church in America; but, thank God, the -entire church no longer applauds this re-crucifixion of Jesus. The -Inter-church Federation has issued a report on the steel strike; and if -you want to know just how honest a man Judge Gary is, take the trouble -to read their account of the handling of this strike by his Pittsburgh -newspapers. After that you will be able to get the full humor of the -comment of Bishop McConnell of the Methodist church upon the giving of -the degree to Gary. At the “Evanston Conference” the bishop said that -the conferring of this degree did not mean any intellectual attainments -on the part of the recipient; “it merely means that for certain specific -and well-known purposes you are giving him a degree.” In other words, -you are selling your soul for the price of a building! - - - - - CHAPTER LIV - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE GRAND DUCHESS - - -We take the Illinois Central Railroad, with its Columbia trustee, a -recent University of Chicago trustee, a Knox College and a Rockford -College trustee, and an Armour Institute trustee, and one First -National, one Guaranty Trust, and two National City Bank directors, and -find ourselves in the town of Urbana, where the state university is -located. Here is another of these terrible mushroom places, with a -thousand instructors, and ten thousand students exposed to all the -ravages of commercialism. I first heard of this university after the -publication of “The Jungle,” when the Chicago packers flew to their -interlocking regents for protection, and a committee of the university -faculty was appointed to inspect the stockyards and report that -everything was all right. In return for this, Mr. Armour gave some money -for a veterinary college, and Mr. Armour’s partner, Arthur Meeker, was -made a regent, and his portrait now hangs in the Sanhedrim where the -interlocking regents meet. - -This University of Illinois has made itself conspicuous in the -glorification of trade; they have a whole college devoted thereto, with -an especially large building, and ten years ago they had a solemn -ceremonial in which they dedicated this temple to Mammon. The affair was -known as a “Conference on Commercial Education and Business Progress,” -and doubtless it caused great progress in the business of getting -contributions from the plutocracy and its politicians. It lasted two -days, and was addressed by such dignitaries as the president of the -Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the president of the Chicago -Association of Commerce, the dean of the College of Commerce and -Administration of the University of Chicago, and the President of the -Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, who was, and still is, -chief operating engineer of Edison Electric. There was an invocation to -the God of Commerce by the Reverend President of Knox College, and an -address by the President of the Illinois Bankers’ Association, who -opened the Hall of Fame of the University by presenting a portrait of a -lately deceased banker; then there was a prayer of dedication to the God -of Bankers by the Reverend President McClelland; and on the evening of -the last day there was a banquet tendered by the Commercial Club of -Urbana, with all the big business potentates above-mentioned listed as -“honored guests,” and preceded by an invocation to the God of -Gastronomy. - -The university traditions thus established have been reverently -cherished. In 1916 the college put on three lectures, under the auspices -of the Chicago Board of Trade, dealing with the art of gambling in the -staff of your life and mine. A gentleman living in Urbana writes me: - - These lectures were illustrated by lantern slides, conspicuous among - which was one giving the signals used on the Board of Trade in the - rapid gambling when the Board is in session. This was minutely dwelt - upon and the manual code of signs fully explained. After the close of - the lecture I went to a fine old professorial acquaintance. I said: “I - know now where my children are taught grain-gambling. If they are to - be gamblers I want them to be first-class gamblers. Where do you teach - poker, baccarat and other games?” He said: “Upon my word, I never knew - any such thing was carried on by the University of Illinois.” He - appeared much disconcerted, blushing greatly. - -Needless to say, such an institution is profoundly and reverently -religious. It is at this place that the various sects have been able to -get credits for their teachings. The laws of the state prohibit -religious instruction in public institutions; nevertheless, you can go -to the University of Illinois and study in the Bible classes of the -Baptists, or the Methodists, or the Lutherans, or the Campbellites, or -the Seventh Day Adventists—and some day, no doubt, the Holy Rollers; you -may learn about how Jonah swallowed the whale, and how David killed Cock -Robin with his little bow and arrow; and as a reward for these labors -you may receive a university degree—having just as much cultural -significance as if it were conferred by the king of Dahomey. - -I visited Urbana, and took occasion to inspect a file of the student -paper, “The Daily Illini.” A Jewish student had written to this paper a -polite and respectful letter, suggesting that the university authorities -should open the libraries and tennis courts on Sunday, for the benefit -of such as might care to make use of them. The reply was a letter from -the “dean of men,” a piece of insolent rudeness. With elaborate sneering -he informed the heathen student that he lived in a Christian community, -and must make up his mind that this community intended “to preserve the -Christian traditions.” - -Of course, there would be no use talking about a little thing like the -constitution of the United States to so mighty a person as a dean of men -in a state university. Nevertheless, I mention in passing that our -forefathers put into the constitution a provision that “Congress shall -make no law respecting an establishment of religion”; and this, -according to decisions of the Supreme Court, means state legislatures -and all bodies deriving their authority therefrom, including regents of -state universities and their presidents and deans. Perhaps it will be -more to the point if I quote the second letter of the Jewish student, -who suggested that the dean of men should investigate how students -really pass their Sunday afternoons and evenings at Illinois: “Shooting -craps in the privacy of one’s room, playing cards amidst dense clouds of -smoke, or shimmying to the strains of some horrible piece of canned -jazz.” - -The board of this university is distinguished in that it has a grand -duchess, who makes her home in Urbana, and runs both the university and -the town. She is Mrs. Mary E. Busey, wife of a former Democratic -congressman; she is president of the Busey National Bank, and a large -landowner, and in the year 1913, while a regent, she sold a tract of -land to the university for $160,000 or $1,000 per acre, while land -adjoining the tract was purchased for $600 per acre. Mrs. Busey herself -attended these meetings and voted for this purchase from herself. -(Attention Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University!) - -For president of her university Mrs. Busey selected an aged and -venerable product of the university’s own regime, who began his career -twenty-eight years ago as director of the School of Commerce. He is -David Kinley, locally known as “King David.” I am told by several who -have been his victims that he never fails to question an applicant for a -position as to whether he is a Socialist. “This is no time for -disloyalty,” he says; nor will it ever be such a time while King David -reigns. - -Before the war the university was not so careful, and agitators and -disturbers of the academic peace crept in. There was one young member of -the faculty who had acquired at the University of Oxford the evil habit -of going without his hat, and in October, 1917, the dean of the Graduate -School delivered an address to the graduate students, formally -condemning this practice. Other members of the faculty were seen to be -smoking on the street—whereas we have learned from the Jewish student -that university smoking is done only at poker and jazz parties. Another -member was reported to the president by the dean of the college, on the -charge of having accepted an invitation to speak on the topic, -“Philosophical Reasons for the Non-existence of God.” Fortunately, he -was able to prove that he had not accepted such an invitation; also that -he had not received it. - -Another member of the faculty received an elaborate letter from the head -of the sociological department, reporting several evil remarks he was -said to have made to other professors, regarding his having taken some -whiskey with him on a camping trip, and other such matters. This -professor was placed on trial before his dean, and was acquitted of the -evil remarks. Later there were dreadful allegations concerning members -of the faculty having been seen to be drinking at a supper-party at the -country club. All the servants of the club were interviewed by a faculty -committee, and denied the charges, and the agitation died down. -Nevertheless, the activities of the scandal bureau continued, and the -grand duchess became fearfully wrought up. Another investigation was -conducted, this time by secret service agents of the United States -government. Five professors were summoned, one of them a lady, Miss -Shepherd, and she was told that she was “a rank, rotten, vicious -Socialist and Anarchist.” Mrs. Busey was terribly upset, and wrung her -hands, exclaiming, “To think that members of my faculty should behave in -this way!” “My faculty?” questioned Professor Tolman. “Do you mean to -say we are your hired servants?” “Well,” replied Mrs. Busey, “you are in -my employ!” This was one of the incidents I mentioned to Professor -Robert Herrick, who lives in his ivory tower at the University of -Chicago, only a hundred miles away, and thinks that college professors -are controlled by “the tone of the house,” and never get direct orders -from the plutocracy! - -The upshot of the matter was a formal trial before the interlocking -regents, with the dean of the Graduate School presiding. A great array -of witnesses were summoned, and several of the victims described the -scene to me. The affair was carried through with the utmost solemnity; -the master of ceremonies would enter and announce: “Two witnesses wait -without.” The two witnesses would be led in, and questioned as to what -evil things they knew about the radical professors. One old lady, wife -of a high-up faculty-member, had a dreadful charge: “Well, they sit next -us in the Faculty Club, and it’s very unpleasant; Mr. Stevens laughs a -great deal!” - -The ceremonies lasted from ten o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock -at night, and every now and then the accused professors would demand a -chance to cross-question this or that witness, and they would be told: -“Wait; you will have your chance.” Witness after witness testified as to -their political and religious beliefs, but they themselves were given no -chance to be heard, neither were they permitted to call any witnesses -for their side. Late at night the proceedings were adjourned, and the -chance they had been promised was never given. - -Even with this one-sided procedure, nothing wrong could be found with -them, and the report of the regents exonerated them completely. -Nevertheless, two of them were let out at the end of the year, and a -third, Professor Richard C. Tolman, resigned. It is amusing to note that -the charge against him had been disloyalty to his government, and as -soon as he quit the university he was taken by his government into its -most difficult and confidential service—the Department of Chemical -Warfare! Apparently he gave satisfaction, for his government made him a -major, and later on put him in charge of nitrogen fixation work. - - - - - CHAPTER LV - THE UNIVERSITY OF AUTOMOBILES - - -We take the Wabash Railroad to Detroit, traveling under the protection -of a Columbia University trustee; and from Detroit we take the Michigan -Central Railroad, with a Columbia trustee, a Cornell trustee, a -Rochester trustee and a recent Yale and New York University trustee for -directors and two First National, two Guaranty Trust, and two National -City Bank directors; and so we arrive at Ann Arbor, home of the -University of Michigan. In the upper peninsula of this State are -enormous deposits of copper, with a great trust, Calumet and Hecla, in -charge of the region. We shall feel at home here, because the enterprise -is financed by Lee-Higginson, and all the old Boston families, the -Shaws, Agassizs, Higginsons and Lowells, got in on the ground floor. So -now when strikers have to be shot down or kidnapped, we find highly -cultured graduates of Harvard in charge of the job; when they have to be -lied about, the Associated Press is ready, with a Harvard graduate as -general manager—see “The Brass Check,” pages 358-361. - -In the lower peninsula are great manufacturing cities, including -Detroit, headquarters of the automobile industry. The grand duke of the -state university is Frank B. Leland, president of the United Savings -Bank and brother of a great motor magnate. As his right-hand agent and -local manager at Ann Arbor he has Mr. Junius P. Beal, former owner of -the Ann Arbor “Times,” prominent Republican politician, director of a -bank and an insurance company, and owner of most of the saloon property -in Detroit; also Judge Murfin, a leading stand-pat politician; a doctor, -who is also an active politician; the manager of the Grand Rapids street -railways, who is interested in banks; and a Bay City manufacturer, who -is president of a national bank. - -No account of education in Michigan would be complete which did not -mention Senator Newberry, the especial darling of the plutocracy of the -state. Newberry is the son-in-law of A. V. Barnes, president of the -American Book Company, which is the school-book trust, the most -important single agency in the corrupting of American education. We -shall come to know this American Book Company intimately when we deal -with our public schools. Suffice it for the moment to say that when -ex-Secretary of the Navy Newberry bought his way into the United States -Senate, he used money which had been pilfered from the school children -of the United States. Mr. Fred Cody, henchman of Newberry, and convicted -with him, is an American Book Company agent, while his brother, Frank -Cody, is superintendent of schools in Detroit. You see what a tight -little system they have in Michigan! - -As president of the university they had until two years ago a native -son, who began teaching there fifty years ago. He is described to me by -one who had much dealings with him as a typical “go-getter,” with the -mentality of a hardware sales agent; very expert at getting money from -the rich, but in the realm of the intellect “a bouncing old fool.” A -year or two ago they got in Marion LeRoy Burton, the great -inspirationalist whom we met at the University of Minnesota. We saw him -introduced there with brass bands and fireworks, and I have a friend who -saw the same thing happen at Ann Arbor; these inspirationalists, it -seems, live always in the glare of fireworks and the blare of brass -bands—or else the sound of their own eloquence, which is the same thing. - -The University of Michigan is another of these huge educational -department stores, a by-product of the sudden prosperity of the -automobile business. Its spirit was interestingly revealed by the -Detroit “News” of two years ago, at which time the enrollment amounted -to twelve thousand. Said the “News:” - - Whether it is wise or best for the individual and society is difficult - to decide; but it is true and very natural indeed that for nearly all - of these young persons an education is not greatly worth while if at - the end of the college course or soon thereafter it can not be - translated into good pay and the material comforts of life. The old - ideal of education as an end in itself, as the deepening and - broadening of one’s view of life, as the acquiring of a certain amount - and kind of culture, has gone from among us. - -At this university they have, of course, all the usual paraphernalia of -fraternities and sororities and “student activities”; also they have an -oversupply of what passes for religion in a commercial age. There are -five or six hundred instructors, employed to prepare boys and girls for -money-making, and a few fond idealists, who struggle to introduce a -little understanding of the intellectual life. At this, as at other -universities, you hear wailing about the impossibility of getting -college students to study; so you would have thought that when a man -came along who proved himself a wizard at that art, the harassed -authorities would have grappled him to their hearts. I put it to you, -overworked and troubled college professor, in whatever part of America -you may be: suppose some one put to you the task of getting seventy-five -college boys to come to you, begging you to teach them in off hours, and -outside the regular classes, and without any credits; offering to rent -rooms for the purpose, clean them up themselves, buy lumber and saw it -and build benches with their own hands—would you say you know how to do -that? Suppose you were asked if you could spend hundreds of hours in -intimate association with such students, and never once hear a dirty -story, never once hear talk about football or society politics, never -see a man light a cigarette—would you say that any man alive could do -such a thing? Suppose it were up to you to get yourself invited to the -toughest fraternity-house on the campus, to read the Bible to the men -between five and six o’clock in the afternoon, and have everybody in the -fraternity-house attend, and even bring in crowds from the other -fraternity-houses—would you think that could be done in any American -university? And if a man were doing all these things, would you say that -he ought to be made dean of men, and then, as quickly as possible, -president of the university—or would you say that he ought to be fired -from the university in disgrace? Of course it would depend; before -giving your answer, you have to know whether the man is a Socialist! - -He is; and so he was driven from the University of Automobiles. His -story was told to me by some of his former students, who ask me not to -use his name; he has another job, and might very easily lose that. So -let us call him Smithfield. He began teaching at Ann Arbor fifteen years -ago, starting in on rhetoric. Naturally, the way to make rhetoric -interesting is to see how it is used by live writers; so Smithfield and -his classes would read H. G. Wells, and the plays and prefaces of -Bernard Shaw, and the essays of John Stuart Mill. He would set his -classes interesting stunts to do; a passage from Wells to write over in -the style of Milton, or one of Shakespeare in the manner of Carlyle. His -classes grew, and when he turned them over to others they fell off. The -head of the department brought him three boys, sons of the interlocking -directorate, who could not pass; Smithfield taught them, and they -passed. “It’s a marvel,” said the professor; “I don’t see how you do -it.” - -But parents began to complain. Their children were coming home with -different ideas; they were learning real things about modern life, -instead of the pretenses the parents were used to! A nephew of Mr. Henry -Leland, of Lincoln Motors, brought to Mr. Bulkley, the banker, at that -time a regent, the dreadful story that Smithfield was a Socialist; so -the president of the university summoned him in haste: “My dear -Smithfield,” said he, “can’t you see that if you were to divide -everything up, it would not be many years before the more able people -had got possession of everything again?” Such was the mentality of the -aged native product; and he was backed by Mr. Beal, the resident regent, -owner of banks and saloon real estate. The boys had to come to this -latter to ask for the use of a hall for a lecture by some unorthodox -person, and they would regularly be asked this question about dividing -up! - -Matters got so serious, with complaints of rich parents, that there was -a formal investigation by a committee. Thirty students were corralled -and questioned by five members of the faculty. “Have you ever read a -Socialist book? Have you ever been to a Socialist lecture? Where did you -get these ideas? Were you taught Socialism by Professor Smithfield?” One -and all, the boys testified that Smithfield had never taught them -Socialism; he had taught them to think. He had been tireless in -impressing upon them that they should learn to hold their minds in -suspense, and to judge for themselves; they should test new ideas, and -accept what they found convincing to their reason. As a result of this -investigation, one of the deans informed Smithfield that he had been -suspended by the regents, but this statement turned out not to be -true—not yet! - -These professors were charming fellows in their social life; but when -they were offended in their class prejudices, they became vindictive. -They were incensed against Professor William E. Bohn, who was a -candidate on the Socialist ticket, and made a speech at Kalamazoo, which -was taken up by the capitalist press. Professor Bohn’s manuscript showed -that he did not say what the papers accused him of saying, and many -members of the audience substantiated his statement, nevertheless he was -fired. About this same time they barred Jane Addams from speaking in a -college building; she was arguing for woman suffrage, and that was a -contentious political question, unfit for student ears! - -For thirteen years Smithfield was in perpetual hot water, being “called -up” and cautioned and pleaded with by the authorities. “What is the -matter?” he asked of his dean. “Can’t I teach?” The answer was, “You -teach too God-damned well.” This was Mortimer E. Cooley, a high-up -authority in the engineering world, one of those valuation wizards about -whom we learned in our study of Harvard. Dean Cooley has been interested -all his life in privately owned public utilities, and he stated his -point of view to one of his professors: “An engineer owes his first duty -to the man who employs him.” In the pamphlet, “Snapping Cords,” by -Morris L. Cooke, of Philadelphia, it is narrated how Professor Cooley -serves his masters; he went to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and -told these students that “in 1911 the average rate of return on all the -capital (of all utility corporations) was but 2.3 per cent.” Mr. Cooke -cites a circular of Henry L. Doherty & Company, New York investment -bankers, giving a table of net earnings of such corporations for the ten -years from 1902, to 1912, and they amount to: gas and electric, 8.45; -industrials, 7.79; railroads, 4.25 per cent. Mr. Cooke adds the -important note that the securities of such utility corporations are from -fifty to one hundred per cent in excess of invested capital! - -Dean Cooley was troubled, because he could not get his engineering -students to take any interest in ideas. They ought to have a little more -culture than the average business men, he thought; so he tried to get -them to read Shakespeare and Milton, but in vain; he tried to get them -to read Darwin and Huxley, but in vain. Chemistry and physics they got -in the laboratory, but they had no biology and wanted none. Smithfield -tried them on the social sciences, introducing them to Bertrand Russell -and Bernard Shaw; and these hustling young engineers suddenly discovered -that literature had something to do with life. In six semesters this -teacher had eight sections, over two hundred students. But every bit of -this was abolished by the university authorities, under pressure of the -plutocracy of automobiles, railroads and banks. - -It was then that Smithfield’s students took matters into their own -hands. They asked if he would meet with them for talks, and they started -an open forum, renting some rooms above a drug store, and doing all the -work themselves. They cut out smoking and drinking, and took to debating -social problems. As one of them phrased it to me, “We let loose a spirit -of real knowledge, and if we could have gone on, we should have changed -the social order in ten years.” But, of course, that is exactly what the -plutocracy of Michigan did not intend to have happen; they are going to -keep the present social order—which means that we are going to have -civil war in America, with the horrors we have seen in Russia and -Ireland. - -Some boys came to Smithfield, saying they would like to meet on Sunday -mornings and study religion. Smithfield thought he would like to know -something about religion himself; so they got together and began to read -the Bible. Of course they read it with their eyes open; they studied the -class struggle in ancient Judea, the Hebrews enslaved by the plutocracy -of Rome, the Hebrew proletariat enslaved by their own exploiters, with -the help of priests and preachers of institutionalized religion. You can -see the same thing in Ann Arbor and Detroit, so Professor Smithfield’s -boys discovered the Bible to be “live stuff.” - -Presently came the Y. M. C. A. hand-shakers, seeking to introduce Bible -study into the fraternity-houses. They would select some fraternity man -to read the Bible between five and six o’clock in the afternoon; and -then it was the Alpha Deltas, who boast themselves the toughest bunch in -town, came to Smithfield and asked him to read to them. All the other -classes petered out, and came to nothing; and naturally the “Y” people -were sore, because a radical was able to hold his classes while they -could not. - -Professor Smithfield’s attitude toward the war was about the same as my -own; that is, he swallowed the allies’ propaganda sufficiently to think -there might be a greater hope for democracy if the allies were to win. -He made speeches, and sold Liberty Bonds, and his enemies could not get -him on this issue. So the scandal bureau was put to work. Professor -Smithfield’s wife was a teacher of swimming in the public schools of -Detroit, and presently it began to be rumored that she had had a -red-headed baby. One of the students told me the origin of this -red-headed baby story, but I forget it; maybe the wife had been seen to -pat a red-headed baby on the street, or maybe she had taken care of a -red-headed baby for some friend—any little thing like that will do for -the scandal bureau. It happens that the wife is likewise a Socialist, -and in 1919 she answered some questions which students asked her about -the Newberry case. As we have seen, the superintendent of schools in -Detroit is a brother to Newberry’s leading henchman, so Mrs. Smithfield -lost her position as a teacher of swimming. - -Shortly afterwards her husband lost his position as a teacher of modern -ideas. They did not notify Smithfield himself, but the newspapers got -hold of it, and the reporters interviewed his dean, and also Regent -Beal, and both declared the report was untrue, it was a mistake. The -dean told Smithfield it was a mistake; but shortly afterwards Smithfield -discovered that it was the truth. And if you want to know why college -teaching is dull, and why college students drink and smoke and gamble -and go to “petting-parties,” you have the whole answer in this -experience of one live and interesting teacher. - -They have a newspaper at the university, the “Michigan Daily,” and on -Sunday they publish an eight-page literary supplement of very excellent -quality. In October, 1922, a senior student, G. D. Eaton, published in -this supplement a review of John Kenneth Turner’s book, “Shall It Be -Again?” an exposure of the dishonesties of the late war, based upon -documents, and therefore not to be answered. The student who reviewed it -had been an ardent patriot, and had endeavored to enlist; being rejected -as under weight, he managed to get in by a trick, and performed his -military duties competently. He was invalided, and is at the university -as a ward of the Federal Board of Vocational Rehabilitation. Immediately -on the appearance of his review, President Burton summoned the faculty -members of the Board of Control of Student Publications, and directed -this board to dismiss Eaton at once, the declared reason being one -sentence in the review: “Most history professors are senile, simple and -misguided asses.” A faculty member visited the offices of all three -student publications, and not merely forbade that Eaton should -contribute to any of these papers, but forbade that the papers should -mention his dismissal in any way. The Dean of Students endeavored to -have the government withdraw support from Eaton, so that he would have -to quit the university. Extraordinary efforts were made to keep the case -from getting into the newspapers; but a month later the Detroit “Free -Press” got hold of the story, and gave young Eaton a little course in -practical journalism. They got an interview with him, and from this -interview they cut everything that might be favorable to his case; as -the rest was not unfavorable enough, they embellished it with fourteen -distinct falsehoods, which Mr. Eaton lists in a letter to me. Also I -ought to mention that this returned soldier was mobbed and badly beaten -by the students for an article in the “Smart Set,” discussing the -university. His successor as editor has been forbidden to publish an -article proving that freedom of opinion among the students is not -desired or permitted. - - - - - CHAPTER LVI - THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STEEL TRUST - - -We set out for Pittsburgh; and we can take either the Baltimore and -Ohio, with a Johns Hopkins trustee for president and another Johns -Hopkins trustee for director, also a Pittsburgh trustee, a Princeton -trustee, a Lafayette trustee, a Teacher’s College trustee, a Lehigh -trustee for directors, also a Morgan partner and a First National Bank -director and two Guaranty Trust Company directors, and a trustee of the -University of Pennsylvania; or we can take the Pennsylvania Railroad, -which is interlocked with the Guaranty Trust Company, Massachusetts -Tech, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Yale, the United States Steel -Corporation, Bryn Mawr College, Wilson College, the University of -Pennsylvania, the Girard Trust Company, and the University of -Pittsburgh. It is this Pittsburgh institution we are now going to -investigate, and we shall have no difficulty in tracing its financial -connections. As one of the professors remarked to me, “At Pittsburgh the -plumbing is all open.” - -He might also have added that this plumbing has been “swiped.” In other -universities the members of the plutocracy who run things have put up at -least a part of the funds; in Pittsburgh they have made the people put -up the funds, while the interlocking directorate takes the honors and -emoluments. We saw Judge Gary being made a learned doctor of laws at -Northwestern University; and that was not so bad, because everybody -understands that this particular title is merely a compliment for -big-wigs and money-bags. But at the University of Pittsburgh they made -him a doctor of science, which is supposed to be a real degree; and if -you could plumb the depths of Judge Gary’s ignorance on every subject -except making money and killing men, you would appreciate the absurdity -of this academic performance. - -The grand duke of Pittsburgh is Mr. A. W. Mellon, Secretary of the -United States Treasury, and reputed to be the third richest man in the -country; he is president of the Mellon National Bank, and vice-president -or director in a list of fifty-five great financial and industrial -organizations. As second grand duke he has his brother, Mr. R. B. -Mellon, vice-president of his bank, and vice-president or director of -fifty-six organizations—beating his brother by one! As active assistant -they have Mr. Babcock, mayor of Pittsburgh, lumber magnate and director -in a long list of corporations. There are twenty-seven other members of -this regal board, and any time a full meeting was held, they could -transact the business of most of the banks and steel companies of -Allegheny county. The typewritten list of their directorates, which lies -before me, fills ten solid pages. I know you don’t want to hear it all, -so I will just give a glimpse, here and there: a steel king, whose -father left him sixty millions; the treasurer of the Pennsylvania -Railroad, western lines; a coal operator, vice-president of a national -bank; the chairman of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company; a steel -magnate; a physician who married Standard Oil; the head financier of the -Thaw family; the chairman of a foundry company; a president of seven oil -companies; another representative of the Thaw family; the owner of -several newspapers; the president of an electric company; the president -of a foundry company; the manager of several aluminum companies, Mellon -enterprises; the president of the Heinz pickle palaces; a real estate -and coal man; the president of a national bank and three coal companies; -the president of a Mellon trust company; a United States senator and -Mellon attorney; a young steel magnate; the president of the Carnegie -Steel Company; two corporation lawyers; the head of the Carnegie -Institute, a Presbyterian clergyman, and the Episcopal bishop, who has -just fled from the smoky hell of the steel-country to his eternal -reward. - -We saw at the University of Pennsylvania a peculiar arrangement, whereby -a private institution, entirely controlled by private plutocrats, -receives a subsidy every year from the state, and spends this money for -anti-social purposes. At Pittsburgh we see the same arrangement; the -state contributes nearly a million dollars a year to be expended by -these steel and oil and coal and railroad and money kings. This means in -practice that every year the chancellor of the university has to make a -deal with the political bosses. Finding himself inadequate to the task, -he has turned it over to a firm of lawyers, one member of which was -speaker of the legislature, and afterwards candidate for the Republican -nomination for governor. Those who put through the appropriation get ten -per cent of it; this is known as the “cut,” and is a regular custom—even -the public hospitals in Pennsylvania have to pay such tribute. There is -a network of graft, involving every kind of organization in the state; -the saloons, the doctors, the fraternal organizations—anybody who wants -special privilege or freedom to break the laws has to put up bribes. The -lawmakers protest against this or that steal, but when the orders come, -they vote. How big is the rake-off we may judge from the fact that the -mayor of Pittsburgh put up six hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars -to secure his election to an office which pays a salary of eleven -thousand dollars a year! - -The people are helpless; they have no idea what is going on, because -they have no newspapers, the so-called newspapers of Pittsburgh being -merely house organs of the steel companies. The papers have an -association regulating their output and prices, also the number of -editions. They have agreed to issue no “extras,” and have put up a bond -of ten thousand dollars, which they forfeit if they violate this -agreement. At the time of the steel strike they flooded the country with -hysterical lies about the strikers; the record stands complete in the -report of the Interchurch Federation. - -Pittsburgh University is another mushroom establishment, with five -thousand students and no ideas. The steel kings condescend to run it, -but they do not patronize it; the interlocking trustees send their sons, -not to Pittsburgh, but to the big Eastern universities. “Pitt” is -bitterly jealous of “Penn,” which is old and aristocratic and athletic. -For a time Pennsylvania refused to play football with them, and they -went to the state legislature, seeking to have this made a condition of -the state appropriations for their rival! - -The chancellor of the university was a preacher named McCormick, but he -failed to “get the dough,” so he quit, and they put in ex-President -Bowman of Iowa University, a product of the Columbia University -educational machine. Bowman is known as “Mellon’s man,” but he also has -failed as a “vamp.” It appears that somebody tried to work a little -scheme on Grand Duke Mellon; it was announced in the newspapers that he -had made a gift of land worth two million dollars. The papers played it -up, with pictures of the Mellon brothers and fatuous interviews with -Chancellor Bowman. But Mr. Mellon came out with the statement that all -he had promised to do was to put up a hundred thousand dollars to secure -an option on the property. They are hard-fisted fellows, these steel -men, and as the saying is, they “have to be shown.” They can see that it -is worthwhile to train experts in steel-making, so Carnegie Tech is -taken care of; but when it comes to general culture, this Latin and -Greek stuff and highbrow ologies—they let the legislature do it! - -The professors tell a story about Mayor Babcock, lumber magnate and -interlocking trustee. Chancellor McCormick wanted to advance a young man -in the chemistry department over the head of his senior, who was a Jew. -He explained in a meeting of the trustees that it would look all right, -because the Jew was not a Ph. D. Mr. Babcock, deputy grand duke of the -board, had fallen asleep, and now he opened his eyes suddenly. “Ph. D? -What the hell’s that?” - -Needless to say, they don’t waste much time fooling about academic -freedom at the University of Pittsburgh. The nearest approach to a -radical that ever got into the place is a professor at the law school, -one of the twelve lawyers who signed the protest against -Attorney-General Palmer’s raids on the constitution of the United -States. There was a terrible uproar in Pittsburgh over this. The -professor received a letter of protest from the chancellor, and was -called in for a long argument. The new chancellor came in at this time, -and at the first meeting of the board he started his money “spiel.” -“Gentlemen,” said he, “the first duty before the university is to raise -six and a half million dollars.” But Mr. Babcock thought that the board -had another duty, which was to listen to him curse the radical -professor. The secret service department of the Steel Trust was put to -work, and there was a report on this professor, and he lost his chance -to become head of his department. “We must lie low now,” said the -chancellor. “We have a big program ahead.” - -Needless to say, they are very devout at this University of the Steel -Trust. One of their grand dukes was the elder Mr. Heinz, distinguished -author of “Fifty-seven Varieties,” and proud owner of sixty-eight pickle -factories and forty-five branch houses. Mr. Heinz was an eminent -Presbyterian, and head of the World’s Sunday School Association, and -left a quarter of a million dollars to Pittsburgh University for a -building to teach Sunday School work. Naturally, therefore, it seemed a -dreadful thing to the interlocking trustees that the church should turn -traitor to their interests. Trustee Follansbee furiously attacked the -Interchurch World Movement report on the steel strike; at a meeting in -New York he said that it had set back the cause of Christianity fifty -years. And when the United States Senate sent out a committee to -investigate the strike—then suddenly the fighting steel kings discovered -what a handy thing it is to own an educational machine! Mayor Babcock -gave the senators a grand dinner-party, to which he invited his -chancellor and some of his trustees and deans, and these eminent and -disinterested gentlemen loaded the senators up with information -concerning the Bolshevik uprising in Western Pennsylvania. - -Needless to say, there are no liberal movements of the students at this -university, and no “outside speakers” bringing them improper ideas. A -recent graduate writes to me: - - One cannot describe the stupidity and ignorance of the students. Most - of them could never see beyond themselves; most of them attended - school to avoid working, for the sake of the diploma which at least - would give them more pay, if not secure them a better job, and some - even because they could not think of a better, easier, and happier way - to spend four years. The professors and instructors were even worse, - there being hardly one who could inspire a student. - -Also needless to say, there is no organization of the professors; the -university has the “open shop” as well as “open plumbing.” At the time -of the Scott Nearing affair at Pennsylvania, there was a strong movement -for faculty representation, and several of the men who stood for this -movement were charged with insubordination and fired; others, who stood -by the authorities in order to curry favor, got promotions. A University -Council was established, but it proved a tender plant, and did not -survive in the smoke-laden atmosphere of the steel country. Chancellor -Bowman has now laid down the law, that all appointments are subject to -annual renewal; teachers are no different from other employes, and he -intends to run the university like a business concern. This is the sort -of talk that brings satisfaction to steel kings! - -I was told about a professor who was brought before the chancellor, upon -the charge of having destroyed the religious faith of one of his -students. The boy’s father had complained, and it developed that the -professor, in a private talk with the boy, had been asked and had -answered questions about the divinity of Jesus. There was a solemn -council of the chancellor, the dean, and all the professors in this -department, and the chancellor drew up a statement for the professors to -sign, to the effect that they would do everything in their power to -avoid tampering with the religious faith of the students. They refused; -the utmost they were willing to sign was an agreement that they would -not go out of their way to tamper with the religious faith of their -students. - -These men, of course, are teaching the scientific method, which is -incompatible with revelation; they know it, and the chancellor knows it; -all he asks is to avoid trouble with parents and interlocking trustees -who are making money out of the system of private monopoly, and wish to -keep the thoughts of their wage-slaves upon their future heaven and off -their present hell. A friend of mine tells me that, at the time of the -Braddock shootings the Pittsburgh professors “talked like -Bolsheviks”—but only among themselves! When it comes to public talking, -that is attended to by people like Mayor Garland, a former trustee, who -at a big meeting of faculty, students and alumni declared that “in a -community like Pittsburgh, which depends upon a high tariff for its -prosperity, it would be very wrong for any professor to advocate free -trade.” A friend of mine asks: “Was he joking?” I answer that one might -as well expect to hear a convocation of Catholic prelates joking about -the Immaculate Conception. - -And while we are in this neighborhood we ought to make note of the -curious experience of Prof. G. F. Gundelfinger, author of “Ten Years at -Yale,” who was assistant professor of mathematics at the Carnegie -Institute of Technology, and wrote a personal letter to the president -protesting against an indecent orgy of the students, publicly conducted -and led by the president. The letter was sent to the president’s home, -and was opened by his wife; Professor Gundelfinger was fired a few days -later. He made a public fight, and the trustees dismissed the -president—but they did not take Professor Gundelfinger back! - - - - - CHAPTER LVII - THE UNIVERSITY OF HEAVEN - - -We travel to Buffalo by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and from Buffalo we -continue our journey by way of the New York Central Railroad, which has -a Columbia trustee and a Cornell trustee and a Rochester trustee for -directors, a recent Yale and New York University trustee for director, a -Lake Erie College trustee for vice-president, a Guaranty Trust director -and two National City Bank directors; and so we arrive at the University -of Heaven, which has God Almighty for a director. - -Thirty years ago there was nothing here; now there are a score of -elaborate buildings, and six thousand students. Never has there been -such a series of grand dukes and duchesses as at this university; Mr. -John D. Archbold, president of the Standard Oil Company, and Huyler, the -candy king, and Samuel Bowne, the cod liver oil king, and L. C. Smith, -the typewriter king, and Mrs. Russell Sage, the charity queen, and E. L. -French, head of Crucible Steel and the Halcombe Steel Company. At -present they have as their chief duke Horace S. Wilkinson, steel -magnate, one of the leading powers in the steamship lines of the Great -Lakes. As assistants there are half a dozen prominent business men of -the town, including the two leading merchants; a former brewer of New -York, who is head of a great asphalt company and a sugar company; Mrs. -Bowne, the widow of Samuel Bowne; Mr. Childs, the coal tar king; Mr. -Flaccus, the Pittsburgh glass magnate; the Honorable Louis Marshall, -millionaire lawyer of New York; the Honorable Edgar T. Brackett, leading -politician of Saratoga Springs, headquarters of New York state’s -gambling and political conventions; and the Reverend Ezra Squier Tipple, -D.D., Ph.D., president of Drew Theological Seminary, professor of -practical theology, and author of the “Drew Sermons, Series One and -Two,” and of the “Drew Sermons on the Golden Texts, Series One, Two and -Three.” - -All this has grown out of the genius of one man, the Reverend James -Roscoe Day, D.D., Sc.D., LL.D., D.C.L., L.H.D., chancellor of the -University of Heaven. He made it, unassisted save by God. - -What is Heaven—in the plutocratic sense? It is a place whose streets are -paved with gold and flowing with milk and honey. It is inhabited -exclusively by the elect, all others having been cast into outer -darkness. It is a place entirely under the control of the “right -people”; all unorthodox thoughts are barred, “chapel” is conducted every -morning, and if anybody does not like the way we run things, he can go -to hell. - -Some time ago I made you acquainted with the ideal university president -of the metropolitan plutocracy, Nicholas Murray Butler; a man of the -world, dignified and urbane, his religion of the Episcopalian variety, -reserved and proper. Compared with him, Chancellor Day of Syracuse -University is provincial and naive, representing the adoration of wealth -in its primitive, instinctive form. His emotions flow with child-like -enthusiasm; his denomination might be described as evangelical -Mammonism. His fervor is such that he is not ashamed to bear testimony -before the world; to raise his hands in public and shout: “Money, money! -Hallelujah! Amen!” This chancellor brings to the support of his -plutocracy the direct personal revelation of the Almighty. When he makes -commencement orations, or gives interviews to the interlocking press, or -sends telegrams of congratulation to the murderers of strikers, he -brings to their support the latest decisions and interpretations of the -Throne of Grace. “God has made the rich of this world to serve Him.... -He has shown them a way to have this world’s goods and to be rich -towards God.... God wants the rich man.... Christ’s doctrines have made -the world rich, and provide adequate uses for its riches.” These are -from the chancellor’s book, “The Raid on Prosperity”; you can find more -of it quoted in “The Profits of Religion.” - -Recently he has published another book, “My Neighbor the Workingman,” -and in this book we find God in a bloodthirsty mood. It appears that the -radicals are taking advantage of our courts, which “assume innocence -until guilt is proved.” There must be “a suspension of this order of -things,” God says; “we have found no foe more worthy of extermination.” -Strikes, God teaches us, are efforts to make labor superior to law; “the -strike is a conspiracy and nothing less.” Yet when labor proposes to use -legal methods, God does not seem to like it any better; we find Him -discussing the founding of the Labor Party in Chicago, and speaking of -the delegates as “these Simian descendants”—and just after He has made -His chief complaint against strikers, that they call non-union men bad -names! God portrays the Socialist utopia: “The soap-box orators, in the -tramp’s unclean rags, will take charge of the banks, and the bomb-makers -can be started to run the factories.” Opposed to this is God’s own -utopia, and you may take your choice: “The rich and the poor dwell -together. There is divine wisdom in the plan. They always have so lived. -They always will so live. Noble characters are in both. It must be the -divine order.” - -This chancellor of the University of Heaven was providentially equipped -for his rôle. He stands about six and a half feet high, and broad in -proportion, with the face of a Jupiter commanding the lightnings. He has -a magnificent rolling voice, so that Jehovah’s commands are heard as -usual amid the thunders of Sinai. He is a masterful personality; he -knows instantly what God wants, and he goes after the bacon and gets it -for God, and every plutocrat, meeting him, recognizes him as the ideal -person to take charge of the thinking of posterity. - -No nonsense is tolerated at Syracuse; they know what truth is, and how -it should be taught, and you teach it that way or you get out, the -quicker the better. Early in the chancellor’s administration he -discovered that John R. Commons was tolerant toward free silver, and he -fired him, giving as his reason that the professor was tolerant towards -Sunday baseball! Every year he discovers that several others are -tolerant towards something ungodly, and he fires them. There is no -“tenure” or faculty control, or stuff of that sort; it is the chancellor -who pays the salaries, and the chancellor who decides what the various -men are worth—and he generally decides they are not worth much. He said -at a faculty meeting, “You fellows needn’t think you mean anything to -me; I could replace you all in an hour and a half.” - -This is his regular manner toward his faculty; he subjects them to the -most incredible indignities. For example, he gave the degree of doctor -of science to one of his grand dukes, Mr. E. L. French, president of -Crucible Steel. At a faculty meeting at which this project was brought -up, one of the professors ventured to suggest that it might be better to -make it an LL.D., which is generally understood as having an honorary -significance, instead of an Sc.D., which is understood to indicate -actual achievement in the scientific field. Chancellor Day pointed at -the objector a finger which trembled with rage, and shouted: “Sit down -and shut up!” This was Professor E. N. Pattee, and I find him still -listed in the Syracuse catalogue as “director of the chemical -laboratory,” so I presume that he sat down and shut up as directed. - -Several people described to me the eloquence of the chancellor’s -sermons, with the tremolo stop which reduces his auditors to tears. I -asked one of them, “Does he believe in his religion?” The answer was: -“No more than I do. He has no particle of Christianity or of faith; he -uses it merely as a shield.” To his faculty its purpose appears to be to -beat down their salaries. If you go into his office to ask for a raise, -he will glare at you and pound on the desk, shouting: “What’s this I -hear about you, John Smith? Do you believe in the divinity of Jesus? -Have you been saying that you distrust the verbal inspiration of the -Pentateuch?” Or maybe he will say: “I want you to understand, young man, -I have been hearing reports about you. You were seen walking on the -street with Professor So-and-So’s wife!” Or maybe he will say: “I have -taken the trouble to inquire, and I find that you subscribe to the -‘Nation’ and the ‘New Republic.’” - -Heaven, from the point of view of college professors, is an intellectual -sweatshop. I was told of a professor of geology, who was there for -twenty years, and finally got up the nerve to ask for a raise, and he -got fifty dollars a year. Another professor asked for a raise, but the -chancellor discovered that this man had written a book, and he said: “A -man who has written a book ought not to expect promotion; it shows that -he had spare time on his hands.” All contracts with the university are -verbal, and you take the chancellor’s word for your fate. It may seem a -dreadful thing to say about heaven, but the fact remains that a number -of the chancellor’s faculty, both past and present, unite in placing him -among those college heads who do not always tell the truth. - -A few years ago he got rid of his treasurer, Mr. W. W. Porter, who had -served the university for nineteen years. The chancellor published a -series of accusations against Mr. Porter, and the latter replied in a -printed statement of twelve thousand words, which I have before me. It -is a dignified and frank and convincing document. Mr. Porter bears -testimony to that same “wrath and vindictive spirit and methods” upon -which all authorities agree. He goes on to give the documents and -figures of a series of petty grafts perpetrated by the chancellor: For -example he states that laborers worked on the chancellor’s farm, and -were paid out of the university treasury amounts aggregating $710.82; -also, that the chancellor sold this farm to the university “at cost,” -and when the treasurer asked for proper vouchers, “he immediately flew -into a passion, stating that his word was sufficient”; also, that a -member of the chancellor’s family purchased a building, and leased it to -the university, to be used as a book-store, at an excessive rental; -also, that the chancellor sold his old automobile to the university at -an excessive price; “the chancellor sold horses, wagons, harness, etc., -at various times to the university, making out bills in favor of himself -and receipting the same, acting as both seller and purchaser.” We might -go on to summarize twelve closely printed sheets of this kind of thing; -but space is limited, so we content ourselves by stating that we know -where this document is, and we will submit it to Professor Brander -Matthews on demand! - - - - - CHAPTER LVIII - THE HARPOONER OF WHALES - - -For a score of years the worst scandal at Syracuse was a sort of -Rasputin, whom the chancellor maintained at the university as his -intimate and confidant. The man was a Nova-Scotia herring fisherman, -originally hired by the late Dean French to split wood and mow lawns. It -is generally whispered at Syracuse that he must have found out something -about the chancellor; at any rate, he was suddenly promoted to become -superintendent of buildings and grounds, and became the chief power -behind the throne. Dean Kent of the Engineering College, the most -distinguished man who has ever been on the Syracuse faculty, criticized -the inefficient heating and care of the buildings, whereupon this man -demanded his dismissal, and incredible as it may seem, secured it. The -incident almost caused a strike of the students of the engineering -school. One professor writes me: - - No picture of the chancellor’s regime would be perfect without the - portrayal of a half-dozen or more prominent members of the faculty - waiting in the ante-room outside the chancellor’s office, having been - told that the chancellor was too busy to see anyone. While they are - waiting patiently, the chancellor’s favorite struts through this room, - dressed in a jaunty suit, jostles against members of the faculty in an - arrogant manner without apologies, does not even knock at the door, - enters and engages the chancellor in conversation, interspersed with - ribald laughter, for an hour or more. This was almost a weekly - occurrence for a generation. - -And when someone made bold to criticize the chancellor for making an -intimate of this low character, he flew into a passion and declared that -anyone who so criticized him was criticizing Jesus; for had not Jesus -chosen his friends among fishermen? So the intimacy continued; and last -summer it came to a climax. The story is told in a letter from a friend -at Syracuse, who is accurately informed concerning affairs at the -university. I quote: - - For some weeks Mr. Spencer, the manager of the dormitory grocery - store, has been missing considerable quantities of groceries and - meats. He made repeated complaints to the police, but nothing was - accomplished. At length the situation became so bad that two - detectives were stationed nightly at the store. Two weeks ago last - Friday night about ten in the evening an automobile stopped about a - block from the store, the driver then entered the building, and when - he was well loaded with plunder, the detectives closed in. To their - surprise they found that they had bagged the chancellor’s favorite. He - was taken to the police station and examined, and his house was - searched, where more groceries were found. Hurlbut Smith, now - president of the board of trustees, was sent for, and at his request - the matter was kept out of the papers, because the pledges to the - university emergency fund are being paid so slowly, that he feared the - effect of such an incident. The chancellor and his favorite are now - trying to bulldoze Mr. Spencer, manager of the store, into the - statement that the chancellor’s favorite often came to the store, took - groceries and left a slip for them; but Spencer down to date has not - made this statement, perhaps because he is not a liar. - - Later: the board of trustees forced the “resignation” of the favorite. - The chancellor stormed at the trustees, and two all-day sessions were - held over the issue. His old legal supporter, Louis Marshall, tried - all the wiles of a spell-binder on the trustees for over an hour, but - could get only three votes for the chancellor’s favorite. The - chancellor has now made him his chauffeur and butler; but he will have - to go down-town for groceries hereafter! - -The chancellor’s furious rages, the vileness of his language, and the -slanders which he circulates about men who displease him—these things -would be incredible, but for the fact that man after man unites in -testifying from personal knowledge. Thus, Professor A. G. Webster, now -of Clark University, tells of seeing the chancellor insult one of his -professors on the campus; and subsequently Professor Webster mentioned -this incident in a letter to the Boston “Herald,” whereupon the -chancellor wrote to the “Herald” in scathing terms, denying all -knowledge of the incident or of Professor Webster. But, as it happened, -Webster had in his files a letter from the chancellor, offering to -appoint him head of the department of physics! - -Dr. Homer A. Harvey, a physician practising at Batavia, New York, was a -brilliant professor of Romance languages at Syracuse, and was studying -medicine in his off-hours, taking various courses at the university. -After two years the chancellor discovered this grave offense, and his -first step was to deposit the professor’s salary-check in the bank, -short the amount of a recent increase in salary. The professor did not -discover this until some of his checks were returned by the bank; then -followed an interview with the chancellor, in which the young instructor -was stormed at and denounced, and commanded instantly to abandon his -studies at the medical college. He refused to do so, and resigned his -teaching position. The chancellor flew into a dreadful rage, but the -young instructor walked out, and completed his medical studies and got -his degree. A year later he wrote to the chancellor about another -matter, and received a suave and sympathetic letter, disclaiming all -knowledge of the late unpleasantness. Dr. Harvey declined to accept this -statement, whereupon the chancellor flew into a rage, and wrote a second -and furious letter, bringing a great number of false charges against Dr. -Harvey—and incidentally revealing a complete and detailed knowledge of -the unpleasantness which he had just denied! Shortly after that Dr. -Harvey learned that reports were being circulated at Syracuse, to the -effect that at the time of graduation he had “been caught cheating at -the finals, and had been brazen enough to boast openly of it.” Dr. -Harvey adds: “The source of that falsehood I have no difficulty in -surmising.” - -And the same despotic methods which the chancellor applies to his -faculty he applies to his students—to everyone, in fact, but his rich -donors. A student who had been working in industry during the summer -started a “discussion club” in one of the dormitories. It was only a few -hours before he was “on the mat” before the chancellor. “Young man, -study your books. Do what you are told at this university.” Some of the -students took to meeting secretly at the home of one of the professors, -and they brought a Socialist from town to explain his ideas. The -chancellor’s spies brought word of this, and he stormed into a faculty -meeting. “This place is honeycombed with sedition!” Still worse was the -situation when they took a straw vote for president in 1920, and it was -discovered that four of the students had voted for Debs. The newspapers -got word of this, and shouted for blood. - -Recently the University of Heaven had a sensational experience. An -instructor became insane, and shot and killed the dean who had -discharged him. Chancellor Day has long ago adopted the thesis, -generally popular among the plutocracy, that all Socialists are -lunatics; he now committed what his professor of formal logic would -explain to him as “the fallacy of the undistributed middle term.” He -jumped to the conclusion that because all Socialists are lunatics, -therefore all lunatics are Socialists, and he trumpeted to the world the -announcement that his dean had fallen victim to a Bolshevik assassin. To -the bewildered editor of “Zion’s Herald,” a very pious Methodist paper -of Boston, the chancellor announced that he had a right to “see red”; he -had seen a pool of blood beneath the body of his slain professor! - -The chancellor has personally excluded all radical and liberal -publications from the library. Every book which deals with the subject -of government ownership opposes that doctrine; all others have been -systematically cleaned out. The chancellor even carries his hatred of -labor unions to the point of crippling the university. Workingmen have -been changed two or three times in one week; the chancellor set the -maximum price that a workingman is worth at twenty-eight cents an hour, -and as a result, the boilers of the heating plant were ruined, and the -cost was four thousand dollars. - -There is the same strenuous watching, with the help of spies and -stool-pigeons, over the religious life of the university. Judge Gary was -brought there last summer, to preach his piety to the students, who have -chapel every morning, and “are expected to attend regularly the Sabbath -church service of the denomination to which they belong.” The chancellor -received a protest from some minister, whose daughter had learned -something about evolution, and he announced to the faculty: “You men are -hired to teach your subject; don’t try to teach theology.” Then, -observing a cold silence from this group of scientists, he added: “I -don’t expect you to change your opinions, but do, for God’s sake, be as -pious as you can!” - -The old rascal is decidedly cynical among his intimates, fond of telling -smutty stories, and willing even to joke about the educational game. His -professor of psychology came to him, telling him about the wonderful new -intelligence tests which some universities were using in place of -examinations. “Fine!” said the chancellor. “We’ll use them, but don’t -let them affect admissions. We want to give everybody a cheap education. -Tell them it’s a good one, and they won’t know the difference.” -Confronted by the usual trouble of raising funds, he let himself be -persuaded to try an appeal for small donations from a large number of -the alumni; but the results did not equal the cost of the circulars, and -the chancellor remarked at a faculty meeting: “I never went fishing for -small fish with a net; I went out and stuck my harpoon into a whale.” - -In the days of his prime our vicegerent of Heaven was really a whale of -a whaler; but he met with one great disappointment, which appears to -have wrecked his career. He spent twenty years cultivating the president -of the Standard Oil Company. He chiseled off the label of one of his -buildings, the College of Liberal Arts, and labeled it the John Dustin -Archbold College. He got Archbold to give him a stadium and a gymnasium, -also a mansion to live in; but he hoped for more than that, and for ten -years he whispered to his faculty: “Be careful now, behave yourselves, -we have a great endowment coming.” But Archbold died and left him -nothing, and all the family could be got to put up was half a million -dollars. - -From that time on the chancellor’s star began to wane. The university -had been running into debt, and some time ago the banks refused to carry -it any further, and the grand dukes refused to “come across.” The alumni -would do nothing, for they share in the detestation with which the -chancellor is regarded by the faculty and students. In order to confound -his enemies, the chancellor hired a firm of professional money-raisers, -who undertook to get six million dollars in thirty-six weeks for -Syracuse. But before they had gone very far they realized that no one -would put up money, so long as the chancellor remained in office; they -told him so, and he dismissed them for incompetence. They sued for -thirty-six thousand dollars still due, and it was shown that the -chancellor had spent a huge sum of the university’s money on this -fiasco, and without getting a penny of return. - -The debts of the university now amounted to a million and a half, and so -matters came to a head. The interlocking trustees had done everything -they could think of to persuade the aged whale-hunter to resign, but all -their efforts failed, so they worked out a most ingenious scheme. One -morning the chancellor opened his copy of the Syracuse “Post-Standard” -at breakfast, and there, to his consternation, he found himself -confronted with an elaborate front-page article to the effect that he -had resigned. There was his picture, and there were columns upon columns -of laudatory articles about himself, written by his leading teachers and -his leading grand dukes and duchesses. Never was there such a series of -panegyrics of a triumphantly retiring chancellor! - -All the Syracuse newspapers had it, and what was the poor man to do? -Should he dump out all that milk and honey into the dirt, and make for -himself a horrible scandal? He bowed to his fate, and the trustees -appointed Dean Peck as acting chancellor; but shortly afterwards Dean -Peck died of heart-trouble, and our whale-hunter moved back into his -office. There was no one with authority to keep him out, and he set the -university carpenters at work making alterations on his new home and -made to his faculty the triumphant announcement: “You see, gentlemen, -God has vindicated me; He has struck Peck down, in order that I may -return to my position!” Such is the University of Heaven; and we close -with the familiar comment: “Heaven for climate, hell for company.” - -P. S.—While this chapter is being prepared for the printer, the -chancellor resigns once more. Whether this time it is permanent, only -God knows. - - - - - CHAPTER LIX - AN ACADEMIC TRAGEDY - - -We continue on the New York Central Railroad to Albany, and then take -the Boston & Albany, which is leased to the New York Central, and has a -Harvard “visitor,” a recent Harvard overseer, a Massachusetts Tech -trustee, and a trustee of Clark University for directors. It is to this -latter university we are bound, to study one of the tragedies of our -academic history. - -In the gold rush of ’49, a hardware and furniture dealer of -Massachusetts went out to California, and established a monopoly in his -line and made a fortune. He came back home, expecting to be welcomed by -the aristocracy of his state; but they snubbed him, and so he turned his -thoughts to education. He endowed a university, and put at the head of -it one of the most original and fertile minds that have ever appeared in -the educational field in America. President G. Stanley Hall of Clark -University has been interested in almost every branch of advanced -science; he is the author of great works on adolescence and senescence, -and was the first to introduce psychoanalysis into academic teaching. He -brought Freud and Jung to America, and even made so bold as to apply the -psychoanalytic method to Jesus Christ. Instead of making Clark the usual -academic department-store, he made it a place where the most advanced -men in every field of science found a home, and where students came to -specialize in the highest and most difficult branches of knowledge. - -The founder was a plain old boy, and gave them two plain brick -buildings, modeled on his “Boston Store,” the great retail establishment -of Worcester. So undistinguished are these buildings that the story is -told of a farmer driving by, learning that this was Clark University, -and exclaiming: “Christ! I thought it was the jail!” Yet these brick -buildings carried the name of American science all over the world. We -saw in our study of Columbia University that the great home of the -plutocracy had one distinguished scientist for every thirteen members of -its faculty, whereas the poor and unpretentious Clark had the highest -standing of any university in the United States, having one -distinguished scientist for every two members of its faculty! - -This was not what the old hardware and furniture merchant had wanted; he -did not understand what was going on, and saw no sense in a professor of -mathematics who filled six blackboards with a complicated demonstration, -nor in a professor of chemistry who discovered substances with names -that filled whole lines of print. He quarreled with President Hall, and -cut off most of the funds of the university, and started a second -institution, Clark College, where poor boys could get an education in -three years; to this latter institution he left a large part of his -money. Of course, there was no other plutocrat in America who cared for -what President Hall was doing, so for a generation Clark University was -starved for funds. Nevertheless, many of the scientists stayed, because -it was a place where they could do their work in their own way. They -were free not merely to teach their own specialties, but to help run -their university. Never in America has there been such an unruly -faculty; men would pound on the table, and shake their fists in the -president’s face, calling him a great number of impolite names, and -threatening to resign; but he would argue it out with them, and they -would stay on. - -The strongest emotion which animated old Jonas Clark was a hatred of the -plutocracy of Worcester, which had scorned him. More than anything else, -he wanted to make certain that this plutocracy should never get hold of -his university or his college. Concerning the university he laid down -the law in his will: - - And I also declare in this connection, that it is my earnest desire, - will and direction, that the said university, in its practical - management, as well as in theory, may be wholly free from every kind - of denominational or sectarian control, bias or limitation, and that - its doors may be ever open to all classes and persons, whatsoever may - be their religious faith or political sympathies, or to whatever - creed, sect, or party they may belong, and I especially charge upon my - executors and said trustees, and the said mayor to secure the - enforcement of this clause of my will by applications to the Court as - above provided, or otherwise by every means in their power. - -Such is the purpose for which Clark was founded. Its founder is dead, -and two years ago its great president retired at the age of -seventy-four, and the tragedy of America’s most intellectual university -can be told in one sentence—the plutocracy of Worcester has got it! - -There are eight members of the board of trustees today. The grand duke -is Mr. A. G. Bullock of Worcester, chairman of a life insurance company, -president of a railroad and a railroad investment company, trustee of a -savings bank, director of the Boston & Albany Railroad, two other -railroads, a gas company, a Boston trust company and a Boston security -company. The second grand duke is Mr. F. H. Dewey, lawyer, president of -the Mechanics’ National Bank and of the Worcester street railways, -president of five other street railway companies and a steam railway, -trustee for a savings bank and a national bank, vice-president of a gas -company and two railroads, director of three railroads, an investment -company, an insurance company, and a telephone and telegraph company. -The third grand duke is Mr. C. H. Thurber, business manager of Ginn & -Company, school book publishers, the largest and most active competitors -of the American Book Company. Mr. Thurber’s political views are -described to me by one who knows him well: “Anybody more liberal than -ex-President Taft is a Bolshevik to him.” - -These three constitute the finance committee and run the university. As -assistants they have Judge Parker, one of the most notorious of the -aristocratic corporation lawyers of Massachusetts, counsel for the men -who smashed the Boston police strike; Chief Justice Rugg of the -Massachusetts Supreme Court, a former Worcester lawyer and a very -conservative individualist; Mr. Aiken, a high-up interlocking director, -formerly of Worcester, but now president of the National Shawmut Bank of -Boston; a cautious young lawyer of Worcester, in partnership with Judge -Rugg’s son; and another young man, who has just been appointed to the -board, and is expected to serve as another dummy. - -This board is a close corporation, self-perpetuating, with no elected -representative of faculty or alumni. For twenty years the finance -committee has had charge of the investing of the endowment, and I should -like to call the especial attention of Professor Brander Matthews of -Columbia University to what they have done. I am not intimately familiar -with the changing standards of American high finance, but I do not know -whether the administration of this finance committee is what would be -described in banking circles as “honest graft” or “dishonest graft.” -They have invested the funds of the university through their own banks, -railways, trolley lines and gas companies, and have paid the university -four per cent interest on the funds, while neighboring institutions have -been getting five or six per cent. For example, the treasurer of -Wesleyan University writes: “All the invested funds of the university -netted us last year 5.71%. This will show you, of course, that we carry -very small balances in our banks and make no investments through them.” -As we have seen, Clark University has been making investments through -the banks, and it has thereby lost 1.71% on $4,700,000, or $80,370 per -year for twenty years, a total of $1,607,400, which went to make fat the -banks of Worcester instead of to educate the students of Clark. Also I -took the trouble to inquire concerning the State Mutual Life Assurance -Company of Worcester, and I find that for the year 1921 it realized -5.51% on its book assets. Mr. Bullock is chairman of this concern, and -his son is vice-president and general counsel; and you see how much -better they do for themselves than they do for Clark! - -The treasurer of Clark is the head of a big Worcester bank, and his -reports of the university’s finances were not audited; this -irresponsibility continued for some time, and this year Chief Justice -Rugg asked that the report be audited in future. I am told by a former -professor that it is almost impossible to get hold of a copy of this -treasurer’s report, and when you do get it you find it a mass of -enigmas. Thus the university carries one large block of New Haven stock -at 200, and another at 110! Mr. Dewey, the lawyer who handles the -finances of the university, is one of the shrewd big business -manipulators of Massachusetts. He and Bullock were with the Mellon crowd -which manipulated the legislature, and Dewey was head of the New England -Investment Company, the holding concern for the New Haven Railroad, the -device whereby the big investors skimmed off the cream from that huge -system, and left the “widows and orphans” hungry. It is only the -peculiar workings of our system of justice which enabled these able -gentlemen to escape the penitentiary; and you find that their university -has large holdings in all these half broken-down railroads—the Boston -and Maine, the Vermont Valley, the Norwich and Worcester, the Providence -and Worcester—and more than a hundred thousand dollars in Mr. Dewey’s -gas company! - - - - - CHAPTER LX - THE GEOGRAPHY LINE - - -Needless to say, Clark University had been for a generation a cause of -indignation to the town of Worcester, which is the largest manufacturing -center in New England, and next to Pittsburgh the most notorious “kept -city” and “open shop” town in America. Clark regarded Worcester as the -Mammon of Unrighteousness, while Worcester regarded Clark as a nest of -atheism, infidelity, and Bolshevism. An American university with no -stadium, no gymnasium, and no chapel, no “eleven” and no “nine,” no -rowing crew and no “petting-parties”! Obviously, no gentleman would send -his son to such a place; it would be left for “muckers” and Bolsheviks. -One of the trustees expressed his opinion of the matter to a student -with whom I talked: “The college would fare better if it turned out a -winning football team than if it had eleven of the most famous -scientists in the country. That’s what the public wants, and that’s the -way to get the money.” - -When President Hall resigned, the plutocracy of Worcester perceived that -their chance had come. They arranged for the president of Clark College -to resign at the same time, and they cast about for some man of their -own type to take charge of both institutions. The selection was made by -Mr. Thurber, business manager of Ginn & Company; and again I don’t know -whether I should describe it as “honest” or “dishonest” graft. One of -the principal “lines” of Ginn & Company is the Frye-Atwood elementary -school geographies, which are handsomely illustrated, and have been sold -to the extent of over half a million copies to school boards throughout -the United States. The author of these books was a professor of -geography, first at the University of Chicago, then at Harvard. It -occurred to Mr. Thurber what an admirable thing it would be, if, instead -of advertising these geographies as written by a professor at Harvard, -he could advertise them as written by the president of Clark University! -Also if he could use Clark University as a place for tea-parties to -entertain visiting delegations of school superintendents and teachers -desirous of meeting the distinguished author of Ginn & Company’s leading -“line”! - -Of course I don’t mean literally “tea-parties”; in the educational world -these publicity enterprises proceed under the decorous title of Summer -Schools. Elaborate advertising campaigns are undertaken, the praises of -this or that particular “line” are seductively set forth, and the -schoolmarms flock from all over the United States—likewise the -principals and the high-up superintendents—and they meet the -distinguished authors of school books, and listen to their patriotic -eloquence, and go home singing the wonders of the various “lines.” Then -when the new orders are placed for text-books, the enterprising salesmen -are on hand to get the business. - -Mr. Thurber announced that he had a new president for Clark College and -Clark University; he announced it at the commencement dinner, and there -was consternation on the faces of everybody present, because nobody had -ever heard of Wallace Walter Atwood, professor of physiography at -Harvard University, and author of “The Mineral Resources of Southwestern -Alaska,” and “The Glaciation of the Uinta and Wasatch Mountains.” I am -told that one of Professor Atwood’s colleagues at Harvard, hearing the -news, remarked: “I suppose Clark thinks it is getting a geographer and -an educator; Clark will find it has neither.” And Clark did! President -Atwood may be a well-informed man in his narrow specialty; certainly he -fulfils the ideal of the interlocking trustees, in that he is a hundred -percent pious and a hundred percent patriotic and a hundred percent -plutocratic. But when it comes to the administration of a university, -and to broad questions of public welfare—I have cast about and tested -all the terms in my vocabulary, but I have been unable to find any one -word to describe the ignorant crudity and childish absurdity of this -former Harvard physiographer. - -He announced at the very beginning that he had no interest in being the -president of a poor man’s university; he was going to start a “drive” -for funds, and make Clark a normal and respectable place. In an address -to the students he set forth the advantages of a technical education, -using the standard phrases of the “go-getters”: “As an expert witness -you can sometimes get as much as a hundred dollars a day.” This to a -group of men whose chief pride was that they had a real understanding of -the intellectual life! One student came to him to ask for time to pay -his tuition fee. “Why do you come here if you can’t pay what you owe?” -asked the president, sharply. On the other hand, to a famous athlete, -member of a wealthy family, who had found it impossible to pass his -examinations, he said: “Don’t worry too much about that; we all get by -in the end; it took me five years to get through myself.” - -At the formal inauguration ceremony President Atwood announced—doubtless -with a sly wink at Mr. Thurber on the platform—that he was going to make -Clark University the great center of American geographic and -physiographic education. Now I have no desire to deny the importance of -these subjects; they are interesting specialties and have their place; -but when some one sets out to raise them into major sciences, we may be -sure that we are dealing with a buncombe artist, and may look with -certainty for commercial motives. In the Clark University bulletin we -find the commercial ideal set forth in the plainest possible language: -“Many of the universities and colleges of this country are now calling -for trained geographers. Commissioners of education, normal schools, and -high schools are looking for men or women who can serve as supervisors -or as special teachers of geography. The large financial houses are -endeavoring to train men in commercial geography in their own schools. -The departments of the government are now using trained geographers, and -the Civil Service Commission has recently recognized the profession of -geography”—etc., etc. - -Under President Atwood’s regime the graduate work in mathematics and -biology has ceased. The two best psychologists are gone, and the -department has declined to nothing. The department of chemistry is -undermanned and woefully deficient in equipment. History and the social -sciences are even worse off, and no adequate work in government is -offered, in spite of the fact that the will of the founder specifies the -preparing of useful citizens as the first task of the university. -Instead of that—we have geography! There is an independent “Graduate -School of Geography,” free from faculty control and headed by President -Atwood himself, with a professor of meteorology and climatology, and a -lecturer in anthropogeography—delicious mouthful for schoolmarms to take -home to Main Street!—also four other professors and lecturers, and four -more listed as “offering closely related work.” There are twenty-one -courses in this Graduate School, and a “special series” of six lectures, -besides a program of anti-Bolshevik propaganda, described as a -“Conference on Russian Affairs,” with five lecturers, including Mr. A. -J. Sack, ex-chief of Ambassador Bakmetieff’s lie-factory! In addition to -this, there is the Summer School, with only one course in psychology, -and only two in education, and only two in social science—but with -twelve in geography! And worse yet, there is to be a “Correspondence -School,” with endless courses in the Frye-Atwood geographies, for rural -school and grade teachers, with the horrified and agonized faculty of -the university compelled to give university credits for this commercial -work! - -Men who can thus turn culture into cash are seldom permitted to hide -their light under a bushel in capitalist society. President Atwood has -also become editor of a magazine; or rather director of the “Institute -of International Information,” a contrivance for getting subscriptions -to a magazine called “Our World.” In its pages you may find a picture of -our worthy physiographer in full academic regalia, holding one of his -geography books, decorated with ribbons, clasped in his hands. For four -dollars you may join this “Institution,” and get the magazine for a -year, and “have the privilege of asking any question of international -significance, etc.” The funniest thing about the proposition is that our -pious and super-respectable president of a reformed atheist university -is here working hand in hand with and advertised alongside of Mr. Arthur -Bullard. Surely President Atwood does not know who this terrible -creature Bullard is—an international revolutionary conspirator who, -concealing himself under the alias of “Albert Edwards,” endeavored to -undermine American institutions by a Socialist novel called “Comrade -Yetta,” and a most shocking “free love” novel, “A Man’s World!” - - - - - CHAPTER LXI - A LEAP INTO THE LIMELIGHT - - -The program of converting Clark University into an advertising -department of Ginn & Company proceeded merrily so far as concerned Ginn -& Company; but it caused great distress to the faculty of the -university, which held a series of meetings and prepared a memorandum to -the board of trustees, in which they bitterly denounced the new policy. -Also there were signs of revolt among the students; even the Rotary -clubs and other business organizations of Worcester began to tire of a -diet of geography, fried, boiled and hashed for three meals a day. I -have not been admitted to the inside of President Atwood’s psychology, -but some of his professors suspect that he began to realize that -something desperate must be done, and resorted to the favorite device of -George M. Cohan, who, whenever one of his plays began to lag, would come -dancing out on the stage with an American flag. - -The students at Clark maintain a Liberal Club, and invite speakers of -all points of view to discuss public questions before them. They are -accustomed to question these men and tear their arguments to pieces, and -if the men cannot thoroughly document their statements, they have an -unhappy time. That the students really conduct an open forum is proven -by the fact that they brought not merely Harry Laidler to defend -Socialism, but the Reverend Murlin, president of Boston University, to -speak against it. They invited Frank Tannenbaum to defend the radical -movement, and they invited the Reverend Dr. Wyland of Worcester to -denounce it. Dr. Wyland’s point of view on social questions is -sufficiently revealed by the fact that in the Worcester “Telegram” he -referred to Scott Nearing’s “licentious and seditious utterances”—and -this without having attended Nearing’s lecture! - -It was early in 1922 that the Liberal Club announced a coming lecture by -Scott Nearing, and obtained President Atwood’s consent for it. A few -days before the lecture President Atwood summoned the president of the -club, and told him that there was to be a geography lecture that evening -and asked that the Nearing address be shifted to a different and smaller -hall. President Atwood himself, of course, went to the geography -lecture; when it was over he came to the hall where Nearing had been -speaking for an hour and a half to some three hundred people. I am told -that on the steps of the building he met a high-up society lady of -Worcester, wife of one of the interlocking directors. This lady was -trembling with indignation, and told President Atwood about the horrible -thing that was going on in the hall—a Bolshevist speaker was shamelessly -defaming the American people. - -President Atwood went in, and listened to the address for about three -minutes. Scott Nearing was discussing the control of American -intellectual life by the plutocracy, and, as it happened, he had just -got to the subject of educational institutions, and was describing the -contents of “The Higher Learning in America,” by Thorstein Veblen—who -happens to be Atwood’s brother-in-law. Atwood listened, and his bosom -swelled. Some poet has described Opportunity as a beautiful caparisoned -white horse, which gallops by and stops for a moment in front of a man, -and then gallops on. At this moment Atwood perceived that the steed had -halted before him; here was the way to make the Frye-Atwood geographies -known, not merely to all the schoolmarms of the United States, but to -all leaders of patriotic thought all over the world! President Atwood -leaped upon the horse—and rode into the limelight! - -What he did was to rise up in the audience, and tell the president of -the Liberal Club to stop the lecture. He had to repeat this several -times before the bewildered student got his meaning; then the student -went upon the platform and told Nearing to stop, and Nearing politely -did so. In talking about the matter with Nearing, I told him that I -thought he had made a mistake; he should have insisted upon his right to -finish his lecture—and I was assured by students at Clark that if he had -done this, the audience would have politely put the president of the -university out of the hall. But it didn’t happen that way; Nearing -stopped, and President Atwood went to the front of the platform and -informed the audience that the meeting was dismissed. He said this three -times, while the amazed people stared at him. He turned and instructed -the janitor to “blink” the lights, so as to compel the audience to -leave. - -There were half a dozen of the faculty present, also the venerable -scholar, ex-President G. Stanley Hall. One of the professors came -forward and remarked that it seemed rather late to dismiss the meeting. -President Atwood answered: “We can’t have these things going on here.” - -“Why not?” asked the professor. - -“This is no proper audience to hear such remarks.” - -“But the audience consists of at least fifty percent college men.” - -“Yes,” said President Atwood, “that’s the worst of it.” And he pounded -on the wall in his excitement. “This kind of thing must be stopped! I am -going to crush it with every means in my power!” - -The author of the Frye-Atwood geographies was new to Clark University, -and does not possess the mentality to understand the place; he was -genuinely bewildered by the uproar which followed. The students called -mass meetings of protest; they organized and appointed committees, and -proceeded in vigorous and determined fashion to make good their right of -free speech. The incident, of course, was telegraphed all over the -country, and brought back upon the head of the unhappy physiographer a -storm of ridicule and denunciation. He fled from it, and shut himself up -in his house. The student committee could not get access to him; but -finally they dug him out, and put him on the griddle. - -I talked with a member of this committee, and he told me how the -president had called to see him at a fraternity house, almost weeping, -and saying that his life had been threatened. Next day he received a -delegation from the student-body, and made them a prepared speech, in -which he said: “I deeply and sincerely regret the dramatic manner in -which I interrupted Dr. Nearing.” But a day or two later he appeared -before a mass meeting of the whole student-body, and read them an -address entitled “Extra-Curricula Activities and Academic Freedom,” in -the course of which he said that Scott Nearing had “maligned the moral -integrity of the American people,” and added: “I know that I should have -closed that meeting. I do not regret that I have shown in a positive way -that I disapprove of such influences within the halls of the -university.” To a committee of the students he stated that he had -evidence of “a world-wide plot to bring Bolshevism from the street -corner into the colleges,” and this evidence he intended to lay before -the board of trustees. He intimated that the liberal professors at Clark -were privy to this conspiracy; but when the time came for him to produce -the “goods,” all he had was the absurd magazine articles of Cal -Coolidge! - -You see, the poor fellow is utterly ignorant of the problems with which -he is trying to deal; a child in his mentality, he was talking to -students who had been trained in the social sciences, and were -accustomed to do their own thinking, and to produce evidence for their -statements. These students persisted in pinning him down as to what he -meant by freedom of speech and of teaching, and they succeeded in -extracting from him one extraordinary piece of obscurantist dogma. He -said to them: “If, in teaching geology I had in my class Lutherans who -believed in an actual six day creation of the earth, I could only state -that scientists were aware that the earth is very old and it is our -theory, nothing but theory, that it evolved through countless eons; but -as to its actual creation, whether or not it took six days we do not -know. I could say nothing which seemed to contradict the beliefs which -they had gained in the home.” - -Another student who had a session with him made very careful notes, and -has placed these at my disposal. Said President Atwood: “When I came to -this college and found that you had no chapel, I was shocked to the -depths of my soul. My father was a minister, and I regard religion as -the fundamental basis of all education.” The student replied by -informing his president that the study of religion formed an essential -part of all the sociology courses at Clark. Said the student: “Do you -suppose that many members of the student-body agreed with what Nearing -said?” “No,” replied President Atwood, “maybe not, but they would have -if they had a chance to hear him.” The student laughed at this, and told -him that if he had let the meeting alone and sat quietly, he would have -heard Scott Nearing questioned and made to back his assertions, if he -could. The president was told about the misadventure of the Reverend -Wyland, who had come to talk against Bolshevism, without knowing a -single thing about the subject; he had been questioned and backed into a -corner, and when he got off the platform he was “as limp as a rag.” But -somehow that did not satisfy President Atwood! - -How simple-minded he is you may perceive from the fact that he allowed a -professor of his geography department, coming forward in his defense, to -point out that Harvard, by holding on to Laski, had lost more than a -million dollars! He went before the Rotary Club at Worcester, which -received him with tumultuous cheering; he was their kind of man! Also -the Reverend Wyland defended him—with the result that the student -glee-club canceled a concert at Wyland’s church. The clergyman gave out -to the press a statement that the reason for the canceling was that not -enough tickets had been sold! President Atwood called off the weekly -assembly, because he dared not face the students; they might refuse to -sing, he said. They used to cheer him on the campus, but now they passed -him in silence; when he addressed them at the mass meeting, there were -present not merely the state police, but a number of private detectives. -The newspapers had scare headlines: “POLICE PROTECT COLLEGE PRESIDENT -FROM STUDENTS.” - -An interesting aspect of this affair is the behavior of the kept press -of Worcester. One of the students said to me: “I read ‘The Brass Check,’ -and I couldn’t believe it, but now I know it is true, because I saw the -Worcester newspapers do practically everything that you told about.” -Throughout the whole affair the students were orderly and dignified; yet -their local newspapers sent over the country wild tales about riots and -threats. The Worcester “Telegram,” in its first account of the incident, -ran the headline: “SPEAKER FLAYS SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, GOVERNMENT”—whereas -Scott Nearing had not once mentioned the government. Next day the -“Telegram” quoted the president of the Liberal Club as saying: “If we -could raise enough money we would engage Upton Sinclair.” This anecdote -is told in the “Clark College Monthly,” a student paper, which declares: -“This statement is without the slightest foundation in fact. Asked by a -reporter if the Liberal Club planned to have any more radical speakers, -as for example, Upton Sinclair, Fraser had replied: ‘Why, he is in -California’; and thus grows the mighty oak!” - -One day more, and the “Telegram” buried the students’ official statement -in an obscure page, and ran the headline: “STUDENTS TALK STRIKE, PREXY -SAYS, ‘LET THEM TRY IT’!” The Springfield “Union” declared that the -“notorious Scott Nearing was delivering an anarchistic lecture.” -Throughout the whole affair both these papers referred to the -student-body by such phrases as “irresponsible college boys,” -“make-believe radicals,” “children who should be spanked,” and “sincere -young people of an impressionable age”; entirely concealing the fact -that the average age of Clark students, including the freshman class, is -twenty-one years, while the average of the Liberal Club members at the -time of the Nearing lecture was twenty-five and six-tenths years. - -To conclude the story: the protests of the students availed them -nothing. The author of the Frye-Atwood geographies announced his -intention to oversee their activities and their thoughts; and he has -done so. He did not announce his intention to get rid of the professors -who had publicly opposed him, but he proceeded to make it so -uncomfortable for them that they would hasten to remove themselves. The -great tragedy of American academic life is the lack of solidarity of the -faculty. Even the more courageous and public-spirited men among the -Clark faculty did not seem to feel that they owed a duty to the -institution and its traditions; instead of proceeding to organize the -faculty, and to stand as a unit against the degradation of Clark, what -has happened is that six of the best men have resigned in as many -months; they have found congenial places in other institutions, and -their colleagues are left to their fate. As John Jay Chapman puts it: - -“The average professor in an American college will look on at an act of -injustice done to a brother professor by their college president with -the same unconcern as the rabbit who is not attacked watches the ferret -pursue his brother up and down through the warren to a predestinate and -horrible death. We know, of course, that it would cost the non-attacked -rabbit his place to express sympathy for the martyr; and the -non-attacked is poor, and has offspring, and hopes of advancement.” - -The students, of course, are helpless; no student-body can ever control -an institution, except for a brief period, by some violent outburst. The -best trained and most intelligent men go out every year, and a new crop -of youngsters come in, who know nothing of the traditions of the -institution; nor can they find out what is going on in the outside -world, since the librarian of the university keeps the “Nation” and the -“New Republic” hidden away in the basement, among the obscene literature -which can only be got by special signed request! So all that the -interlocking directorate has to do is to sit tight and hold on to the -purse-strings. In two or three years the last trace of the Clark -tradition will be forgotten, and the university which stood at the head -of America’s scientific life will be one more of the regulation standard -educational department-stores—but distinguished by the fact that every -summer it conducts geographical tea-parties, at which the distinguished -author of the Frye-Atwood geographies tells the assembled fifth-grade -schoolmarms that “the great object of you teachers is to prepare the -minds of youth to stand firm against the great wave of radicalism which -is sweeping American institutions off the face of the earth.” - - - - - CHAPTER LXII - THE PROCESS OF FORDIZATION - - -While we are contemplating academic tragedies, let us take our familiar -Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with a Johns Hopkins trustee for president -and another Johns Hopkins trustee for director, also a Princeton -trustee, a Lafayette trustee, a Teachers’ College trustee, a Lehigh -trustee for directors, also a Morgan partner and a First National Bank -director and two Guaranty Trust Company directors and a trustee of the -University of Pennsylvania. We travel to Baltimore, where we shall find -another university fallen upon exactly the same pitiful fate as Clark; -save that the interlocking trustees have handled the matter more deftly, -and have not made themselves a scandal in the newspapers. - -Johns Hopkins University was founded by an old Quaker, who left three -and a half millions to endow a university, with a medical school as an -integral part. He had the wisdom to call in a great educator, Daniel -Coit Gilman, who did in Baltimore exactly what Stanley Hall did at -Worcester; the money, instead of being spent on buildings, was spent on -men. I doubt if any institution in America has made as great a -reputation with as miserable a physical equipment as Johns Hopkins -University. Recently a friend of mine was walking down the street with a -stranger to Baltimore, and my friend remarked: “There is Johns Hopkins.” - -The other looked, and thought my friend was joking. “Why, that must be a -‘nigger school,’” he said. - -“That is Johns Hopkins.” And the other asked: “Where is the rest of it?” -But there was no rest of it; these old buildings were the whole thing. -But to this place came live young men of ability, some of them for -almost nothing, because here the intellectual life was honored, and -scientific investigators could do their own work in their own way. - -The business men of Baltimore regarded Johns Hopkins exactly as the -business men of Worcester regarded Clark. It was opened without prayer; -therefore it was an atheist university, a terrible place. Now that the -work is done and the reputation made, of course they are proud of Johns -Hopkins, as well they may be, since it and the “Star-Spangled Banner” -are Baltimore’s only contributions to world culture—unless some day they -count H. L. Mencken and the author of “The Goose-step,” both of whom -were born there! - -Some twenty years ago Gilman retired from Johns Hopkins, to start the -Carnegie Institution at the age of seventy. For ten years the university -was administered by one of its professors; then the interlocking -trustees cast about for some one of their own type of mentality, and -pitched upon Professor Goodnow, formerly of the Columbia Law School. As -we have seen, Goodnow did not get along with Nicholas Miraculous, but -that was a long time ago, and the servants of the plutocracy gain in -wisdom and caution as they grow older. Professor Goodnow had been legal -adviser to the Chinese government, and had recommended that they should -not attempt to found a republic—the last word of an American scholar to -a people struggling for freedom! President Goodnow possesses a rather -uncouth and forbidding personality, and I am told that he is a poor -speaker, but he is a favorite orator at Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ -Association banquets, because he tells them what they like to hear; also -because he has set out to make Johns Hopkins what they like a university -to be—an elegant country-club with athletics and “college spirit” and -“rah-rah-stuff.” - -They have moved out to a magnificent new site at Homewood, and have -fifteen million dollars, and all the beautiful buildings which are the -price of a university’s soul. The board of trustees has as its chief -grand duke Mr. Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio -Railroad. As president the board has Mr. R. Brent Keyser, copper -magnate, and director of Mr. Willard’s railroad, also of a bank. There -is Mr. Levering, coffee merchant, and president of a national bank; also -Mr. Blanchard Randall, a merchant, director of a national bank, a trust -company, an insurance company, and a railroad, and reported to have made -a million dollars out of one speculation during the war; also Judge -Harlan, reactionary politician, counsel for a trust company; Mr. Woods, -a steel magnate; Mr. Griswold, a prominent financier; Mr. White, -another; Mr. Theodore Marburg, ex-minister to Belgium; and Newton D. -Baker, who called himself a radical, but forgot it when he became a -cabinet member. - -Also I ought to mention one of the hidden influences in the university, -Bishop Murray of the Episcopal church, a sort of pope of reaction in -Baltimore, a bigoted mediaevalist who drove the Reverend Richard Hogue, -secretary of the Church League for Industrial Democracy, from his pulpit -in Baltimore, and broke up the church open forum by publishing in the -Baltimore newspapers advertisements carefully veiled so as not quite to -be libelous. Now the bishop is busy immortalizing himself by building a -twelve million dollar cathedral; giving lawn parties to the rich, and -making speeches explaining how the great structure is to be four hundred -feet long and to have the highest tower east of the Mississippi. As a -Johns Hopkins professor phrased it to me: “The church is running to -plant; and so is the university.” - -Mr. H. L. Mencken, who lives in Baltimore and watches from a high tower, -told me what has happened under the new regime. “It is a process of -Fordization. The university has a campus, and the usual outfit of -uplifters; it has a summer school, with advertising and journalism and -gas engineering and folk-singing and pedagogy and counter-point taught -in six weeks, and every known kind of Main Street stuff. It has gone -flop at one crack to the level of Ohio Wesleyan; it is a technical high -school for the manufacturing of ten-thousand-dollar-a-year Chautauqua -fakers.” Mr. Mencken insists that a student got his doctorate degree for -marking on a curve the vocabulary of Latin students after six months’ -training. Also he told me the tragic tale of a professor of psychology, -who “had a hyena of a wife,” and some other woman made love to him, and -his wife started a divorce suit, and he had to leave the new Baltimore -Chautauqua. On the other hand, a gentleman who was for many years one of -the most prominent members of the board of trustees held that position -in spite of the fact that everybody in Baltimore society knew that he -was living with another woman while he had a wife. He still holds a -position on the bishop’s committee to raise funds for the cathedral! - -On the outskirts of Johns Hopkins hovers Miss Elizabeth Gilman, daughter -of the former president, a gentle but indefatigable ghost, troubling the -uneasy souls of the new Chautauqua-masters. Miss Gilman is a Socialist, -and an ardent champion of starving wives and children of strikers. She -sees her father’s great university in process of being kidnapped, and -now and then her distress breaks out into pamphlet or leaflet form. -During a strike of the typographical union, Miss Gilman wrote to -President Goodnow, protesting against the university’s having its -printing done in anti-union shops, but he coldly declined to have -anything to do with “questions of that sort.” I went to see Miss Gilman, -to ask her to tell me about her experiences. She could not bring herself -to do it, and, I think, in order to be fair to her, I ought to say that -it is to others I owe what I have written here. I persuaded Miss Gilman -to state over her own signature her opinion of the new Johns Hopkins, -and this she did, as follows: - - The university has been to me more like a sister than an institution. - I gloried in what she stood for and in what she accomplished. During - the last few years it seems to me that she has lost much of her - intellectual leadership in America, at the very time when academic - freedom and democratic principles need brave champions. The fine new - buildings and campus have not to my mind compensated for a - considerable lowering of intellectual ideals and accomplishments. - Money getting is horribly dangerous to institutions as well as to - individuals, and the Johns Hopkins University has been out to get - money. It is true that this money has been given for education and not - for profit, and yet even so, there may be the insidious temptation of - adopting purely business standards. We need in Baltimore, as well as - throughout the country, courageous, untrammelled leadership, as - expressed in the motto of the Johns Hopkins University, “The truth - shall make you free.” My hope is that a new cycle may be at hand, and - that the Johns Hopkins University will again lead in all that is best - and highest. - -I talked with three Johns Hopkins professors, and had a curious -experience with each one in turn. Each told me of some feeble little -effort he had made at liberalism, and how deftly and subtly he had been -sat down upon by the university authorities. I made notes of the little -anecdotes, planning to tell them here, without names, to show you how -the proprieties are maintained by privilege; but to my great grief, each -professor came to me in turn, or wrote to me subsequently, to ask that I -should not use anything of what he had told me—the anecdote would -certainly be recognized, and his career of usefulness might be hampered. -Such pitiful little stories—and such pitiful little fears! - -I found only one professor at Johns Hopkins who was willing to be quoted -in my book. This gentleman I met at luncheon in the University Club of -Baltimore, and he indulged himself in bitter sneers at the so-called -“radical” type of professor. I myself could name about twelve really -radical American college professors; but from the talk of this Johns -Hopkins professor you would have thought there were thousands. To be a -“radical” was the way to get promotion, said this Johns Hopkins man; to -attract notoriety to yourself and make yourself somebody. Once you had -got the name for being a radical, then the trustees wouldn’t dare to -fire you, because that would be a violation of academic freedom. I -smiled gently, promising this sarcastic gentleman that I would send him -a copy of my book when it was written, and let him see how his -statements sounded side by side with the facts! How do you think they -sound? - - - - - CHAPTER LXIII - INTELLECTUAL DRY-ROT - - -There are a few other universities, which in past times have established -reputations in America; for example, Cornell University, located at -Ithaca, New York, on the Lackawanna Railroad, with a Cornell trustee, a -Columbia trustee, and a Princeton trustee; also on the Lehigh Railroad, -with a trustee and recent president of Lehigh College, a trustee of the -University of Pennsylvania, and a trustee of Lafayette College for -directors. Cornell today has some six thousand students, and as choice -an outfit of trustees as a plutocratic imagination could invent. The -grand duke is Mr. George F. Baker, reputed to be, next to Rockefeller, -the richest man in America. I might take a page of this book to list all -the various institutions of which Mr. Baker is an interlocking director. -He is president of the First National Bank of New York, one of the three -great institutions of the Money Trust, and also a trustee of the Mutual -Life Insurance Company, a great treasure-chest. He is director in a -dozen railroads, and his son is director in many more. - -Next to Mr. Baker stands Mr. Charles M. Schwab, president of Bethlehem -Steel, and H. H. Westinghouse, chairman of the Westinghouse Company. It -will suffice to indicate a few of the others—the head of the biggest -bank in Ithaca; the head of a great machinery company, president of a -national bank; a corporation lawyer and bank director; a metal -manufacturer, director of many railroads; an ex-governor and prominent -Republican politician; the chairman of the Bankers’ Trust Company of -Buffalo, president of a steamship company, a lumber company and a -railroad company; the vice-president and counsel of the New York Central -Railroad; a prominent corporation lawyer; a judge, ex-mayor of Ithaca, -and director of a national bank; the president of a national bank and -director of half a dozen others; the president of the Ithaca Trust -Company, director of many other banks; an official of Mr. Schwab’s -shipbuilding corporation; the chief justice, and another justice, of the -New York Court of Appeals; and, finally, that Major Seaman whose heroic -defense of the Chicago packers you may read about in Chapter IV of “The -Brass Check.” - -Not so very long ago Cornell had a famous president, Schurman, who had -studied the Goose-step in three of the Kaiser’s universities. I received -an interesting account of him from Mr. W. E. Zeuch, who was on the -Cornell faculty, when the Bolshevik-hunters got hold of some letters, -written to him by another professor. This other professor was quite a -“red,” and Zeuch was trying to “tame him down”; the letters of Zeuch -were not published, but he was represented as a Bolshevist, and his -scalp was demanded. Cornell at this time was in the midst of a “drive” -for ten millions, and a lumber magnate wrote to President Schurman that -so long as Zeuch remained he would not lead the “drive.” The economics -department of the university appointed a committee, which endorsed Zeuch -and declared that a contract had been made, and that the university -should stand by a competent man. In twenty-five years the university had -never rejected the decision of such a faculty committee; nevertheless, -President Schurman proposed that Zeuch should resign from the faculty, -and accept a position as a “fellow,” to do the same amount of work and -receive the same salary! - -Also they had a flurry at Cornell over Thorstein Veblen three or four -years ago. He had been scheduled for appointment; his courses had been -listed, and the members of the economics department had sent out to -various colleges a circular letter calling attention to the fact that -Veblen was to come to Cornell, and that graduate students could get work -with him there. But the interlocking trustees got busy, and the call was -countermanded. Nevertheless, in the interest of discrimination it must -be specified that Cornell is to be numbered among our less illiberal -universities. One professor made so bold during the war as to advocate -the financing of the war by taxation rather than by bonds. This would -have meant that the plutocracy would have to pay at least a part of the -costs instead of collecting it all by installments from you and me. The -trustees of the university heard this professor explain his ideas; they -did not take action to recommend this policy to the country—but they -refrained from firing the professor. Also there is another professor, an -elderly gentleman, who is a great favorite with the students, who take -his liberal ideas with playful good humor. Several of this old -gentleman’s friends assured me that he would tell me the story of his -twenty-five years’ struggle for the right to think for himself; but -apparently the old professor decided that he did not want to have any -more struggles! - -Henrik Willem Van Loon, author of “The Story of Mankind,” was also a -member of this Cornell faculty, and gave me an amusing account of the -atmosphere of the place. President Schurman was selling four hundred -thousand dollars worth of education per year, “training boys to become -superintendents of sewage disposal plants and presidents of Rotary -clubs.” Van Loon was gravely rebuked by Schurman, because of a humorous -remark which created a scandal; he had been writing on the blackboard, -when a thunderstorm had come up, and he playfully compared himself to -Moses writing the Ten Commandments amid the thunders of Sinai. Van Loon -swears it is true, and I am compelled to believe him—that when he asked -to see the Dante collection they took him to inspect an electric manure -sprayer! - -Or take Brown University, located at Providence, Rhode Island, on the -familiar New Haven Railroad. Here is an extremely wealthy institution, -catering to the sons of the plutocracy, and almost as snobbish as -Princeton. It was built in part out of Rockefeller money, and the man -who has been its president for the last twenty-three years is a Baptist -clergyman, for ten years pastor of Rockefeller’s Fifth Avenue church in -New York. For “chancellor” the university has an extremely wealthy -cotton manufacturer, president of a bank; for treasurer it has the -president of the Providence Banking Company, also treasurer of the -United Traction and Electric Company, and of the Rumford Chemical Works. -The three most active grand dukes of the board are Mr. Bedford, chairman -of the Standard Oil Company, who represents the Rockefeller interests; -Mr. Sharpe, head of the Brown & Sharpe Company, the largest -manufacturers of tools in the United States; and Mr. Metcalf, a big -textile manufacturer, president of the Providence “Journal” Company. - -Also there is the manager of the Brown & Sharpe Company; the president -of the Cadillac Motor Car Company; the head of a big New York banking -company, president of a railroad and a coal company, director of three -railroads, three trust companies, a milk company, a patent medicine -company, and a brick company; a very wealthy manufacturing chemist; an -influential New England textile manufacturer; a steel magnate; a lawyer, -who is president of a land company and secretary of several railroads -and trust companies; the treasurer of the largest textile manufacturing -company in New England, who is director in half a dozen others, and in -half a dozen of the largest financial institutions; another Providence -banker; and, finally, Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes. Mr. Hughes -first came under my observation when I studied the life insurance -scandals in New York City. I noted that he sternly carried these -investigations to the point necessary to put Morgan and his group in -control, and stopped exactly at that point. For this service he was -awarded a national reputation and the governorship of New York State. He -has since occupied the Supreme Court bench, and come within a few votes -of being president, and is now guiding the foreign affairs of our -country, making a desperate and almost a successful effort to exceed the -futility of the Wilson administration. - -What happens to a great and wealthy university under such a regime? -Brown has a high tradition, derived from Roger Williams, most famous of -New England’s religious rebels. But in 1899 its president, Andrews, was -ousted, because he had dared to back Bryan in the campaign of 1896. -Quite recently occurred a similar case, when William MacDonald, -professor of history, was forced out, to become one of the editors of -the “Nation.” Brown in its day had such outstanding men as Lester F. -Ward and Meikeljohn, now president of Amherst; but those days have -passed, and there has followed a regime of intellectual dry-rot. It is a -League of the Old Men, maintaining a caste system, based upon seniority; -any young instructor who arises to suggest a new idea is quickly taught -his place. A professor who knows the situation intimately writes: - - In the fields of history, political science, economics and sociology - the policy under Faunce has been silent and safe decay. These - departments were once among the most eminent in the country. Now they - are absolutely dead. Except for some formal texts by Professor Dealey - no important publication has come from these departments in over a - decade. The economics department is now being made over into a - business school to train men to make more money. The general - educational policy throughout the institution under Faunce has been - that of comfortable quiescence. With the exception of one man in - physics and three biologists there has been practically no - intellectual activity or scholarly productivity at Brown for the last - fifteen years. This situation cannot be excused on the ground of lack - of resources. Brown has plenty of money and pays very high salaries. - It could get some of the best and most productive men in any line of - research and teaching if it cared to do so. The decline of scholarly - interests at Brown has been accompanied by a parallel growth of - interest in and expenditures for the safer field of physical outlet, - namely, athletics. - -Under such a regime what becomes of the students? Exactly the same thing -as we found happening to students at Harvard, Wisconsin, and California; -they get drunk. In “The Book of Life,” Chapter XXX, I discussed the -morals of our young people, as set forth in an editorial in a student -paper of Brown University. Said this student editor: - - The modern social bud drinks, not too much, often, but enough. She - smokes unguardedly, swears considerably, and tells “dirty” stories. - All in all, she is a most frivolous, passionate, sensation-seeking - little thing. - -Let us move on to Wesleyan University, located at Middletown, -Connecticut, also on the New Haven Railroad. Here is an institution with -an old-time Methodist foundation and traditions of liberalism, and the -usual board of interlocking trustees, the grand duke being a -Philadelphia manufacturer of gas meters who is most versatile, being -director in four large gas companies, two street railways, a bank, a -trust company, four insurance companies, a publishing company, a sugar -company, and a transfer company. Nine years ago his university began its -downward course, with an especially notorious case of invasion of -academic freedom. Willard C. Fisher had been a member of the faculty for -twenty years, and professor of social economics for fifteen. He was one -of those college professors who insist upon being a citizen; he served -two years as councilman in the Middletown city government, and four -years as mayor. He was not a Socialist, on the contrary, an active -opponent of Socialism; but he considered himself a servant of the -people, and did not hesitate to warn them of the economic waste and -social peril of extreme inequality of wealth and the oppression of -labor. - -As a teacher in a Christian community, he considered it his duty to -assert that industrial relations should be moralized. He organized the -Consumers’ League of Connecticut, and served it for many years as -president. He developed the habit of attending legislative hearings at -the capital, and speaking in support of progressive measures, such as -workmen’s compensation, income tax, industrial sanitation, factory -inspection, and prison reform. And there, of course, he came into -conflict with the interlocking trustees and the interlocking alumni. One -influential alumnus, a wealthy manufacturer, was always a member of one -House or the other, in order to watch out for the interests of -industrial employers; and naturally it vexed him to be opposed by a -professor of his own college. He declared this vexation openly; and also -a group of Wesleyan lawyers declared their vexation, when the -legislature employed Professor Fisher to write a workmen’s compensation -measure! - -Also there arose an embarrassing situation, when Professor Fisher, as -mayor of Middletown, discovered a trustee of the college to be -delinquent with public school funds of which he was the custodian. -(Memo. for Brander Matthews!) Mayor Fisher exposed this situation; nor -did he consider it necessary to suppress his disapproval of President -Shanklin’s well-known habit of taking the thoughts and utterances of -other writers and giving them to the world as his own. This president, -who has been at Wesleyan for thirteen years, got his degree from the -Garrett Bible Institute at Evanston, Illinois; but apparently a number -of other college presidents have sympathized with his lack of -distinction, because no less than ten of them have showered honorary -degrees upon him! - -Matters came to a head when President Shanklin started a drive for a -million dollars. In a public discussion the president of a Hartford -trust company asked Professor Fisher if he expected to go about the -state speaking as he did, and have trust company presidents contribute -to the support of the college in which he taught. It was widely rumored -at Wesleyan that President Shanklin got contributions upon the condition -that Fisher should be kicked off the faculty. A number of men of wealth -refused to contribute on other terms; and so the president cast about -for a handy pretext. - -He found one. In the course of a public address, widely reported in -Connecticut newspapers, Professor Fisher made the playful suggestion -that it might be a good idea to close all the churches for a while, to -give the people a chance to find out the difference between true -religion and church formalities. Very soon thereafter Professor Fisher -was asked to resign, and the president gave the reason—not the -suggestion of the closing of the churches, but the broad publicity given -to this suggestion by the newspapers! Professor Fisher might have stayed -and made a fight, but he had been so humiliated by the changed spirit -and atmosphere of Wesleyan, that he quit; and now the university is on -the intellectual level of the Garrett Bible Institute of Evanston, -Illinois! - - - - - CHAPTER LXIV - THE UNIVERSITY OF JABBERGRAB - - -Some fifteen years ago my postman brought me a puzzling communication -from Sweden; a large and expensive linen envelope, carefully sealed with -a great deal of red wax, registered, and addressed: - -“Editor, Jabbergrab, Finanz-Lexikon, New York City.” At first I could -not make out why the missive was delivered to me, but then in one corner -I noted “Jabbergrab is mentioned in Upton Sinclair’s ‘Industrie-baron’'” -I recognized “Der Industriebaron” as the German title of my story, “A -Captain of Industry,” written when I was twenty-two years old; it is a -satirical biography of a great financier, and after his ignominious -death the story quotes some eulogies of his career from an imaginary -publication, “Jabbergrab: Heroes of Finance.” - -I made so bold as to open the envelope, and found several sheets of -heavy foolscap paper, written in German in an exceedingly fine hand, and -giving the data for a biographical sketch of a wealthy Swedish lumber -magnate and financier. Here, in carefully tabulated and precisely -ordered form, were the minute details of his life—the enterprises with -which he had been connected, the offices he held, the properties he -owned, the names of his children, the college degrees they had earned, -the names of his race-horses and the prizes they had won, the names of -his yachts and the cups they had won—all these items duly attested and -signed by the great man himself. - -Gradually it dawned over me what had happened. The man had read my -satirical story, missing the point of the satire. He thought that I -really felt all that admiration for a man of wealth and social eminence; -and reading about Jabbergrab’s “Heroes of Finance,” the desire possessed -him to have his own career immortalized in this biographical directory. -So he had sat himself down, and painfully written out the data for the -proposed sketch, and had sent it by registered mail to “Jabbergrab.” - -It is the Jabbergrabs of America who have created a good part of our -“higher” education, and placed upon it the stamp of their crude and -simple faith in material success. I have shown how the spirit of -Jabbergrab has destroyed two shrines of American scientific life, Clark -University and Johns Hopkins; I purpose next to show what that spirit -does, when it has its way from the beginning, unhampered by any -intellectual traditions. I invite you to visit New York University, an -institution whose buildings are scattered about in various parts of the -city, including an office building on Washington Square, in the heart of -the clothing district, and another in Wall Street. - -New York University has enrolled no less than thirteen thousand -students, and is described to me by one who works in it as “an -intellectual sweat-shop.” As chancellor it has one Brown, who learned -the Goose-step from the Kaiser, and as treasurer one Kingsley, a Wall -Street banker, interlocked with the United States Trust Company, the -Sixth Avenue Elevated Railroad, and the Union Theological Seminary. Last -year Chancellor Brown published in the New York newspapers a series of -thirty “advertising talks” on education, in the very latest “follow-up” -style. These talks came to me in a little pamphlet, with a cover all -printed over with photographs of newspaper clippings, and accompanied by -a circular, carefully disguised to look like a personal letter, and -beginning: “Dear Mr. Sinclair: You are one of the prominent citizens we -had in mind when we prepared the enclosed advertisement. What we have -learned of you encourages us to believe that this appeal of New York -University must strike a responsive chord in you.” - -I may be over-suspicious, but I believe that these statements are not -entirely in accordance with the truth; I believe that if they were made -in accordance with the truth they would read this way: “You are one of -the twenty-two thousand persons whose names we have got from ‘Who’s Who -in America,’ and we are taking a chance on being able to interest you in -our university.” These necessary differences between advertising and -fact are understood and taught to the students in all university schools -of advertising. - -Chancellor Brown sets forth the fact that out of his thirteen thousand -students, ten thousand are earning the money to pay for their education. -I believe that every college student in the country should do this—my -own son is doing it—so I should be the last man to sneer at New York -University’s lack of academic and social prestige. But here is the -point: self-supporting students who go to night-school in New York go in -order to increase their money-making capacity, and they judge the -education they get by that criterion, and they irresistibly mold the -educational standards of the institution they attend. So the spirit of -education becomes that of Jabbergrab—ravenous greed, veiled by buncombe -and hypocritical pretenses. That is what you have at New York -University, and the fact is made clear in Chancellor Brown’s own -pamphlet. Talk Number Sixteen is headed: “Welcome to the Advertising -Men.” Says our Chancellor of Jabbergrab: - - New York University is host today to members of the National - Association of Teachers of Advertising, who are holding a sectional - conference in this city while a similar conference for Western members - is held at the University of Wisconsin. I am glad to welcome the - members of this Association. Since I have been writing these little - talks I have gained a feeling of warmer sympathy with all advertising - men and their work. I have learned something of the fascinations—as - well as the difficulties—of the profession. - -So you see, our University of Jabbergrab has discovered advertising to -be a “profession”; it takes its place alongside chiropody, palmistry and -fox-trotting. If you want to know what these new “professors” are doing -to American journalism, I invite you to read Chapters XLIII-XLVII of -“The Brass Check”; I invite you to study the samples of advertising -there quoted—one of which occupied a full page in all the most popular -and respectable American magazines—and then come back to Chancellor -Brown’s pamphlet and read his statement: “Many advertising men, I am -told, were formerly teachers. The two professions seem to me to have a -great deal in common.” - -I should be sorry indeed to believe that about all American teachers, -but I know it is true of some of the teachers who have been selected by -the University of Jabbergrab. For example, consider Professor William E. -Aughinbaugh, an editor of the New York “Commercial,” a director in -sixteen corporations, and for seven years “Professor of Foreign Trade” -in New York University. He boasts of having crossed the equator -thirty-six times on commercial missions, and he publishes through one of -our most esteemed publishing houses, the Century Company, an elaborately -got up book, entitled, “Advertising for Trade in Latin America.” The -price of this book is three dollars, and if you will study its maxims -and apply them, you will find it worth all that. For example: - - Latin-American advertisements are replete with the nude female form, - which appeals strongly to all classes of readers. Due to the fact that - a majority of the inhabitants are brunettes, or have Negro or Indian - blood in their veins, the blonde exerts a stronger appeal to their - imagination and for that reason should be employed when necessary or - advisable to use such an illustration. - -And so we know what the Chancellor of Jabbergrab means when he writes: - - Advertising men have it in their power to educate millions of people - not only in an intelligent use of commodities but in well-considered - habits of thought and action. - -Let us hear Professor Aughinbaugh again: - - Reproductions of famous holy or religious paintings or scenes from the - Bible may also be profitably used.... It occurred to me that if a - saint could be found whose special duty was to prevent loss of life - during seismic disturbances, much might be done through his aid to - bring calm into these regions of terror. I selected my second name, - “Edmund,” as the cognomen for the new assistant deity, added the - prefix “Saint” to it, and wrote an appropriate earthquake prayer which - was printed beneath the picture of the home-made saint. Of course each - card contained our advertisement (of a patent medicine) which the - supplicant for protection must have seen as he prayed. - -And so we learned what the Chancellor of Jabbergrab means when he -writes: - - I can appreciate the reasons that impel any manufacturer to spread - abroad through the columns of our newspapers and magazines the - information about his worthy products. I can believe, too, that this - information is often of real service to the public in guiding them to - wise decisions regarding their expenditures and investments. - -And again let us hear Professor Aughinbaugh on the subject of how to -deal with the custom-laws of the countries with which you trade: - - When I have decided upon an advertising campaign in any given - Latin-American country, the requisite amount of cards, hangers, - booklets, posters, banners, and other materials are boxed and shipped - to the various ports, consigned to some man of straw. Upon their - arrival at the local port they will be stored in the customs warehouse - to await claim by the alleged consignee. At the expiration of sixty or - ninety, or one hundred and twenty days, in accordance with the local - laws, these goods will be advertised for sale to the highest bidder. - By previous arrangement with your agent, or some merchant, who has - been advised of the dispatch of these goods to his port, they can be - bid in very cheaply and delivered to the person most concerned with - their use. In Venezuela, for instance, on one shipment alone the - duties would have amounted to much more than one thousand dollars, yet - the local wholesale druggist bought the entire consignment at auction - for eighty-five dollars. - -And so we know exactly what the Chancellor of the University of -Jabbergrab means when he says to the “Sectional Conference of Teachers -of Advertising”: - - I believe, also, that the teachers of advertising can make a valuable - contribution to the education of our future business men by teaching - them how to use the force of advertising intelligently, effectively, - and for the human benefit. - -It happened that I saw Professor Aughinbaugh mentioned also as -“Professor of Foreign Trade at Columbia University.” Wishing to get the -record straight, I asked my brother-in-law, who has been helping me get -material for this book, to write Professor Aughinbaugh a note asking him -where he was a professor. Thinking that possibly he might be away, or -ill, or for some other reason might fail to reply, I asked my -brother-in-law to write also to New York University for the information. -The result was two letters: one from Professor Aughinbaugh stating that -“for two years past I have held the same position in New York University -and Columbia University. The work became too hard for me and I was -obliged to resign my professorship at New York University, now devoting -my time to Columbia University.” The second letter was from the -registrar of New York University, and stated: “Dr. William E. -Aughinbaugh was, from October 11, 1915, to June 13, 1922, Lecturer on -Foreign Trade at New York University. He did not, at any time, have -professorial status.” - -Here was, obviously, a contradiction. Professor Aughinbaugh is listed in -“Who’s Who” as Professor of Foreign Trade; and “Who’s Who” states that -it publishes no information except that furnished by the person -concerned. Also, in a circular of his book, Professor Aughinbaugh is -shown as “Chairman of Foreign Trade.” Wishing to make certain about this -matter, I dictated to my secretary a formal note, calling Professor -Aughinbaugh’s attention to the discrepancies, and asking him to state -which title was correct. This note was signed by my brother-in-law and -mailed, and no reply to it has ever been received. - -But some three weeks after it was mailed, there called at my office in -Pasadena a man who announced himself as an agent of the Department of -Justice, and gave the name of “A. J. Taylor.” He interviewed my -brother-in-law, a young man of twenty-one, and stated that my -brother-in-law had been writing letters of a “scurrilous and defamatory -nature” to Professor Aughinbaugh; that he had asked questions such as he -had no business to ask, that he had made “improper statements” about the -wife of Professor Aughinbaugh, and that he was to “stop writing -letters,” or he would get into serious trouble. Subsequent inquiry of -the Department of Justice in Los Angeles, of the United States Attorney -for this district, Attorney-General Daugherty in Washington, and Post -Office Inspectors of New York, Washington and Los Angeles, brought the -positive statements that no such person as “A. J. Taylor” was known, and -no investigation of any such matter had been undertaken. The Postmaster -at Pasadena stated that he had received letters from private parties in -New York, complaining of “blackmailing” letters written by my -brother-in-law; and some ten days later there came a letter from -Professor Aughinbaugh to me stating that he had learned from the postal -authorities in California that I had written to him, under my -brother-in-law’s name, and asking what was the purpose of my inquiry. I -replied, stating to Professor Aughinbaugh exactly what was my purpose, -and asking him if he would in return answer some questions of mine, as -follows: - - 1. Did you send this A. J. Taylor to see my brother-in-law? - - 2. Did you tell him to represent himself as an agent of the Department - of Justice? - - 3. Did you make to him any statement which would have justified him in - the wholly false and absurd assertion that my brother-in-law had ever - mentioned your wife? - - 4. If you did send this “A. J. Taylor,” who is he, and where can he be - located? - - 5. If you did not send him, can you offer any suggestion as to how he - learned about the correspondence between my brother-in-law and - yourself, and what interest he had in troubling himself about the - matter? - -To these questions Professor Aughinbaugh made no answer, except to send -me in an envelope three circulars of his book, in one of which he is -described as “lecturer,” in another as “instructor,” and in another as -“chairman.” I wrote again, calling his attention to his failure to -answer, but no further response came. From the publishers of “Who’s Who” -I learn that the lecturer-instructor-chairman-professor himself -furnished them with the information concerning his status; also that he -has recently written to them asking to be recorded as no longer -“professor” but as just plain “lecturer!” - - - - - CHAPTER LXV - THE GROWTH OF JABBERGRAB - - -Modern industry is an enormously complicated thing, and specialized -teaching of industrial processes is just as necessary as any other kind -of education. I would not give anyone the impression that I object to -the teaching of advertising or foreign trade or finance, any more than I -object to the teaching of plumbing or manicuring fingernails. My point -is that all these arts should be taught in trade schools, and they -should be taught _as trades_. For example, the International Harvester -Company maintains an excellent school for training its employes; it does -not pretend that this school is a “university,” it does not call the -turning out of harvester machines a “profession,” and it does not -constitute a high-speed steel worker a “doctor of science.” It is when -these schools of commerce and departments of trade crowd into -universities, and take to themselves academic honors and dignities, and -exploit themselves with high-sounding phrases of religion and social -idealism, that I am moved to protest; as when I see some parasitic vine -climbing a beautiful shade-tree, spreading out over the surface of the -tree, blocking its light and air and choking it to death. - -That is what is happening in the field of American higher education; it -is happening not merely at New York University and other great -“intellectual sweat-shops,” it is happening at practically every one of -our state universities and at most of our great endowed institutions. It -was Harvard which started this vile business, with a College of Commerce -and Administration; Columbia followed suit, and the plague has spread -from Maine to California. I consult a few college catalogues at random, -and I find that at the University of Illinois they are teaching -millinery, also at the University of Nebraska and the University of -Southern California. At the University of California they have a -“costume laboratory,” also a course in “jewelry.” At Boston University, -made out of the millions of Isaac Rich, the merchant, and Lee Chaflin, -the shoe manufacturer, they will teach you how to collect tips at summer -hotels. The commercial men and women who specialize in such subjects -come into the universities, and they bid against the professors of -liberal arts for power and prestige and pay—and how much chance do you -think a scholar or lover of belles-lettres stands against such people? - -You understand that the president of a university, making up his salary -budget, is like all other business men, he pays what he has to pay. And -here is the Professor of Department-store Advertising pointing out that -at Goldberg & Isaacstein’s, in the shopping district, he can get fifteen -thousand a year, and he has a letter in his pocket to prove it. He will -come to the university for twelve thousand, because of his love of the -higher things of life, but he won’t take a cent less, and the president -tries once or twice and finds out that he is not bluffing. For a year -the president has been trying to get a first-class Professor of -Commercial Correspondence, who understands the three varieties of -“follow-up letters”; and the Director of his School of Business keeps -telling him that any man who really commands that precious knowledge can -get ten thousand a year. But who is there in the outside world that will -pay anything to a professor of archeology, or to a man who can explain -the Einstein theory, or a man who knows more about the life of Dante -than anyone else in America? Such men have to take what they can get, -and their salaries remain stagnant while the value of the dollar is cut -in half. - -At the University of Minnesota I was told about a discussion at a -meeting of the regents. The president of the university was very anxious -to get Professor Stuart P. Sherman, well known as a conservative -literary critic. Some one remarked that Sherman would want six thousand -dollars; whereupon the grand duke of the board put down his fist on the -table. “There’s not an English man in America worth six thousand -dollars!” he declared. I am sorry I cannot state exactly what value this -gentleman sets upon the services of a grand duke of the plutocracy, but -it is at least a score of times the sum of six thousand a year. But you -see, this gentleman has all his life been buying men at their market -price, and he knows that market price, and has no idea that they have -any other value. - -At the University of Chicago they have a School of Commerce, which is -growing like the weed that it is, and in their advertising literature, -with its variety of “follow-up letters,” they tell you that after two -years’ training you can command a salary of twelve thousand dollars. -This, of course, is the kind of talk that brings the business; these are -the courses which the “he-men” take. And after they have got a degree, -they become professors, and perhaps deans, and they run the university. -If it is a question of starting a drive for funds, they are the ones who -know how to get out the “literature,” they are experts in the psychology -of mendication. They understand the newspapers, and how to get favors -from them; they understand the politicians and the big business men who -run the politicians; they are the fellows after the trustees’ own -hearts, and when the time comes for the old president to be shelved, it -is one of these “go-getters” who is in line for the place. We have seen -that happen at one university after another; at the University of -Illinois President Kinley was Director of the School of Commerce, and at -Northwestern University President Scott was Director of the Bureau of -Salesmanship Research. - -Let us return to our University of Jabbergrab, where these new -educational tendencies “rule the roost.” Chancellor Brown sets forth -that the “School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance” of his university -contains six thousand students, and that from it has sprung a “Graduate -School of Business Administration,” also in the last three years a -“School of Retailing.” Twenty-two department-stores and other retail -establishments in New York “have made direct connection with the -university, and thirty-seven college graduates are each morning pursuing -their studies in retailing in our class-rooms, and in the afternoon of -the same day are receiving practical experience in the various -operations of the stores themselves.” I have not attended these classes, -but I do not need to inquire what these students are learning; I can go -to the New York department-stores, and see them displaying “marked-down” -goods, which were marked up before they were marked down. I have only to -read their imbecile advertisements in the New York newspapers, setting -forth the latest fads and foibles of “Milady,” and the latest -“importations” of the latest “creations” of the keepers of French -mistresses. - -New York University’s catalogue lists three professors of marketing, -five professors of finance, four professors of accounting, four of -business English, three of management, one of salesmanship, one of -merchandising, one of foreign trade, one of life insurance—and a -Director of the Wall Street Division! - -Of course, this new kind of education is yet in its infancy, and we must -not expect perfection. Pick up this university catalogue ten years from -now, and you will find its deficiencies made up; you will find a -Professor of Stock-watering and an Instructor in Political Manipulation. -You will find an eloquent statement setting forth the fact that the -handling of labor has now become an enormous American industry; that -there are hundreds of large agencies for the putting down of strikes, -and salaries as high as twenty and thirty thousand dollars a year are -paid to competent masters of such work; therefore the university is -establishing a Department of Strike-Breaking, with a Professor of -Gunmanship and a Demonstrator of the Third Degree. Also there will be -eloquent “advertising talks,” explaining that business men now spend -most of their time keeping agitators out of their factories, and that -the secret service departments of great corporations have come to be the -most important part thereof; so the university is now establishing a -Department of Espionage, with a Professor of Varieties of Bolshevism, -and a Dean of Deportation Proceedings, and a Special Lecturer on -Attorney-Generalship. - - - - - CHAPTER LXVI - JABBERGRAB IN JOURNALISM - - -In all these new academic department-stores one of the leading -departments is that of journalism. Here they teach you how to write for -and edit newspapers; and needless to say, what the students want is to -be prepared to fill positions on the capitalist press, and their -judgment of a school of journalism is conditioned upon the salaries -secured by its graduates. The first school of this kind was started at -Columbia, with an endowment left by Joseph Pulitzer, the father of -“yellow” journalism. Being curious to know what kind of ethics Mr. -Pulitzer’s school is teaching, I pick up a publication of the Alumni -Association, “Clean Copy.” The title page contains a list of officers, -and I note the chairman’s name, and his address—prepare yourself for a -laugh!—care Ivy Lee, 61 Broadway, New York City! So we learn that the -Columbia School of Journalism is preparing students to work in the -offices of “Poison Ivy!” Its standards are such that it is willing for -an employe of “Poison Ivy” to be chairman of its Alumni, and to -advertise that fact in its paper! - -When I first came in touch with Mr. Lee’s lie-factory, he was press -agent for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., at a thousand dollars a month; then -he became prize poisoner for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and now he has -in New York and Washington a great publicity bureau, serving all the -railroads of the United States in their war upon the American people. -What “Poison Ivy” gets for this work I have no idea, but it must be a -generous sum; a friend of mine was looking for an apartment in New York, -and entered one of those new palatial houses just off Fifth Avenue, and -was informed by those in charge that the cheapest apartment in the place -rented for twenty-five thousand dollars a year—and one of the tenants is -Ivy L. Lee! It is interesting to note that it took a combination of our -three most aristocratic universities, Princeton, Harvard and Columbia, -to turn out this super-professor of prevarication! - -Also the University of Wisconsin got in early on the journalism -business. One of its professors got out a textbook, which was used until -quite recently at Wisconsin, and is still used at many other places; -there are thousands of practicing journalists in America today who got -their ethical ideals from Professor Hyde’s text-book, which advises -students about dramatic criticism: “Very few critics are so fortunate as -to be able to say exactly what they think about a play; they must say -what the editor wants them to say.”... The dramatic critic “must praise -more cleverly, and give his copy the appearance of honest criticism.” - -Needless to say, they have a school of journalism at the University of -Jabbergrab. The director of this department is James Melvin Lee, who got -his training for the teaching of journalistic ideals on the staff of -“Leslie’s,” the barber-shop weekly, and later for four years as editor -of “Judge,” the bar-room comic. Concerning Professor Lee’s journalistic -standards I have intimate knowledge, derived from a protracted -controversy over “The Brass Check”; so here I can draw you a complete -picture of Jabbergrab in action. - -A controversy with Professor Lee is a good deal like fighting one of -those enchanters you read about in the fairy tales—your sword goes -straight through him, and leaves him the same as he was before. He made -his first attack on “The Brass Check” at the Brownsville Labor Forum, -and his cry was that he wanted definite facts—there were none in my -book! Again and again I supplied him with facts, and discovered the -curious phenomenon—he paid not the slightest attention to any which I -supplied; he would come again, demanding the same ones! The New York -“Globe” saw in our controversy a good journalistic stunt, and they -invited Professor Lee and myself to row it out, and gave each of us a -total of six columns. And here in the “Globe,” Professor Lee repeated -one after another all the various demands and challenges which he had -issued at the Brownsville Labor Forum—overlooking almost all the data I -had furnished him in the meantime! - -For my first article in the “Globe,” I took the trouble to go over “The -Brass Check” and count the number of cases which give complete -documentation—names, places, and dates—and these came to a total of two -hundred and thirteen. In addition, there are perhaps a dozen or two -anecdotes which I narrate upon the authority of other people, being in -every case careful to name my authority. Finally, there are half a dozen -trivial incidents—such as the fact that an old college professor of mine -fell down an elevator shaft in a department-store—which I did not -document, for the reason that these incidents occurred to me in the -final revision of the book, and I could not have the files of the New -York newspapers consulted in time. Professor Lee’s method of controversy -was to pick out these few trifling incidents, and recite them to the -Brownsville audience, and to the readers of the New York “Globe,” with -elaborate challenges to me to produce this information. Thus, to a -single anecdote of Gaylord Wilshire being misrepresented by the -Associated Press, Professor Lee devoted three paragraphs in the “Globe,” -demanding at great length the names of the newspapers and the dates; I -supplied him with the names and dates of two newspapers—but to no result -that I could discover. - -Both in his Brownsville address and in the “Globe” controversy he took -up my story of the Associated Press crimes in Colorado; but he was -careful to confine himself to one detail, my telegram to President -Wilson—because he was able to argue that this telegram was libelous and -that it was “self-advertising.” He made no mention of any other aspect -of the whole series of suppressions which I proved against the -Associated Press during that Colorado coal strike. Still more -significant is the fact that nowhere in these controversies could I get -him to mention the conduct of the Associated Press in the West Virginia -coal strike. The reason was obvious enough; the Associated Press had -here been so indiscreet as to come into court and submit its own -dispatches in evidence, and its poisoning of the news was proved by its -sworn official admissions. This was not the sort of “facts” that -Professor Lee was looking for, and so he never let anyone hear about -them! - -Equally significant was his handling of the false report sent out by the -Associated Press, to the effect that my wife had been arrested during -our demonstration in front of the Standard Oil Building, New York, -during the Colorado coal strike. I stated in “The Brass Check” that my -wife notified the Associated Press of the falsity of this report, and -demanded a retraction. In his first letter to me Professor Lee made the -flat statement: “_The Associated Press does not have proof; it did not -receive it._” In my reply, I pointed out to Professor Lee the naïveté of -his own statement; how without one particle of evidence, he accepted the -word of the Associated Press, and turned it into a flat statement of his -own. My wife filed libel suits against thirty Associated Press -newspapers which had published the false report, and the Associated -Press was liable for every dollar that these newspapers might have to -pay. Was it humanly believable that not one of these newspapers would -notify the Associated Press of the filing of these suits? On the -contrary, was it not certain that every one of these papers, under the -advice of their attorneys, would notify the Associated Press of the -filing of the suit, and of the paper’s expectation that the Associated -Press would defend it? I sent to my New York office a copy of a -newspaper, containing an account of the filing of the suit, and -Professor Lee inspected this evidence in the presence of my New York -manager; but did this make any difference to him? It made not a -particle! When he took up the controversy in the New York “Globe,” he -brought up the same argument again: “The point at issue is whether such -attention was called to the Associated Press!” - -Still funnier was what happened in the case of Professor Lee’s demand -that some one should name a newspaper which had suppressed the name of a -department-store in connection with a discreditable news item. Professor -Lee, reading “The Brass Check,” observed that most of my anecdotes of -this kind dealt with newspapers in Philadelphia, Boston, Milwaukee and -other cities. Therefore, he phrased his challenge at the Brownsville -Labor Forum so that it referred only to _New York_ newspapers; he called -for names, places and dates—and of course nobody at the Brownsville -Labor Forum could supply such data. In the New York “Globe” he repeated -this challenge, very proudly and very confidently. But, alas, right in -the middle of the controversy, his friends on the kept press threw him -down! On June 27 he published in the “Globe” his article headed, “Lee -Calls on Sinclair for Names, Dates, Places”; and nine days later the New -York “Evening Sun,” in its baseball edition, Wednesday, July 6, 1920, -page two, column eight, published a story about a man who had sued a -department-store and collected money from it—and nowhere in the article -was the department-store named! - -Also I ought to mention the behavior of this professor of Jabbergrab in -connection with the New York “Times.” This controversy, with all the -documents, is given in a pamphlet, “The Crimes of the ‘Times,’” which -you may have for the asking. I will here mention only one or two -details. The “Times” reported Professor Lee’s Brownsville address to the -extent of two columns, quoting mainly his defense of the “Times.” I -replied in a letter, and the “Times” did to this the most dishonest -thing a newspaper can do—it refused to publish the letter, but discussed -it in an editorial, and falsified its contents! I sent the “Times” a -telegram, calling attention to the falsifications, but they refused any -sort of redress. These falsifications stand in the files of the paper; -they are listed in its index, found in every large library in the -country. Students of “The Brass Check” will come upon those falsehoods; -but they will know nothing about my answer, for my humble little -pamphlet is not catalogued in libraries. I trust therefore that the -reader will pardon me if I take two paragraphs of this book to state the -facts; especially since every step of the controversy was a test, not -merely of the “Times,” but of the Director of Journalism of New York -University. - -The incident in dispute is told on page 77 of “The Brass Check,” dealing -with the publication of my novel, “The Metropolis.” The New York “Times” -had prepared a front-page news story about this novel, and the story was -killed at the last minute by Mr. Ochs, publisher of the “Times.” -Professor Lee, in his Brownsville speech, declared that this narrative -of mine was absurd upon its face. In my letter to the “Times,” I put it -up to the “Times” to say whether my narrative was true or false. The -“Times,” refusing to publish the letter, declared editorially that no -such incident had occurred. Said the “Times”: “Mr. Sinclair refers to -this tale in his letter to the ‘Times,’ but with a shifting of ground. -For his own positive statement in ‘The Brass Check’ he now substitutes -the alleged statement of a ‘publicity agent’ of a publishing house,” -etc. - -Now the facts were as follows: “The Metropolis” had been published in -serial form in the “American Magazine”; and in “The Brass Check” I had -stated that it was this magazine which had arranged for the story in the -“Times.” Subsequently I recalled that it was Moffat, Yard & Company, the -publishers of the _book_, who had made the arrangements, and this -correction I noted in my letter to the “Times.” Manifestly, this made no -difference, so far as concerned the “Times”; but you see what use they -made of this “shifting of ground”! Their assertion, that I “relied upon -the alleged statement of a publicity agent of a publishing house” was a -flat falsehood; for in my letter to the “Times” I told them that “I saw -the proofs of the proposed story with my own eyes.” A day or two later I -was able to telegraph them statements from the two gentlemen who had -composed the firm of Moffat, Yard & Company, Mr. W. D. Moffat and Mr. -Robert Sterling Yard, both declaring that they plainly remembered the -preparing of the story by the “Times,” and their disappointment when -they found it did not appear as promised. The “Times” received this -testimony, but refused publication to it, and paid no attention to my -telegrams of protest! - -And now, where was Professor Lee during this controversy? Professor Lee -had furnished the “Times” with the ammunition to attack me; he had -defended their journalistic practices, and they had published his -defense. Here he saw them committing a piece of the baldest journalistic -rascality—and what did he do about it? I telegraphed him again and -again, asking him to take steps to induce the newspaper to correct its -published falsehoods. Later on, I challenged him again and again to -withdraw his published endorsement of the newspaper’s ethical code. His -reply was to go before the University Settlement, and repeat his attack -upon “The Brass Check” and his defense of the “Times”—and the “Times” -once more featured his address! To the manager of my New York office -Professor Lee made the smiling statement that he was publishing a -magazine for business men, and he did not care how much I attacked him -in public—it would only help him with his business clients! - -You have heard me protesting against the practice of covering -commercialists and servants of privilege with the mantle of academic -dignity; and here you see what it means, and why it is done. The New -York “Times” did not dare to answer “The Brass Check” itself; for a year -it had ignored the book—save to post in its editorial rooms a statement -that anyone found with a copy in the office would be summarily -discharged! But then came forward a personage with the high-sounding -title of “Director of the Department of Journalism of New York -University”; and the “Times” made itself into a megaphone, to carry this -hitherto negligible voice to the farthest ends of the earth! - - - - - CHAPTER LXVII - THE CITY COLLEGES - - -There is another crowded institution in the great metropolis, the -College of the City of New York, where I got the one degree of which I -boast. I went back there this spring, after twenty-five years, and it -was a curious experience. They have their new buildings, all in the -venerable Gothic style, with arrow-proof windows; and in the faculty -room I inspected a row of oil paintings of those old professors who had -been the chief torment of five years of my youth. They were so lifelike -it gave me a chill; I expected to see the old red-whiskered professor of -Latin, or the old white-whiskered professor of Greek, come down from his -frame and denounce me for my twenty years of socialistic agitation. - -This college has grown to enormous size, with some sixteen thousand -students, and all the regulation “Main Street” courses; also there is -Hunter College for women, with four thousand more. These are the only -colleges in New York to which Jews can now get admission on their -merits, and the student membership of “C. C. N. Y.” is eighty-five -percent Jewish; the Anglo-Saxons who constitute the interlocking -trustees have a difficult time to keep down the active-minded East-side -boys. One of them, Leon Samson, ventured to ask a question of General -Webb at a “preparedness” meeting, and for this he was expelled. (He -moved on to Columbia, from which he was expelled on the basis of garbled -newspaper reports of a speech in opposition to the draft.) The students -have not been allowed to have an open forum, and the list of speakers is -sternly censored. Scott Nearing was barred, also the Reverend John -Haynes Holmes, and a lecture by Bouck White was forbidden very -dramatically an hour before it began. Incredible as it may seem, Glenn -E. Plumb was not permitted to debate the “Plumb plan” before these -students! - -I found here all the regular methods for holding down the faculty. Said -one young professor: “Our president commands a cruel form of torture; he -sets you to teaching freshmen for the rest of your life.” Promotion -depends upon conformity, and dark secrets are whispered, and suffocation -befalls those upon whom suspicion lights. I talked with one professor, a -bit of a liberal, who gave me a curious picture of the operation of the -academic terror. He had been recommended by the head of his department -for promotion, but had been passed over; he went to his dean, and tried -to drag out of him what was the matter. “Do you know?” Yes, the dean -knew. “Will you tell?” No, the dean shook his head. “Will you tell me -this, then? Does this reason, whatever it is, operate next year?” No, -the dean wouldn’t tell that. But for three years it did operate, and a -live man was deprived of his right to advancement, and kept upon a dead -routine until his spirit should be broken. - -I sat with three of these young professors, and one after another they -told me their stories, and I noted their phrases. “There is nothing -brutal about it; we know our places, and we keep to them; but we think -of things that we ought to be doing, and we don’t respect ourselves; we -invent sophistries to quiet our consciences, we build up a defensive -mechanism.” And one of the men told me how he had gone out during the -summer, and had got a job as a salesman. “I was trying to get over my -fear,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that I could earn a living in the -world.” - -“Did you earn it?” I asked. - -“Yes,” he answered; “but I didn’t get over my fear. I don’t want to be a -business man and have to sell things!” - -They told me of the efforts of various professors to introduce courses -in literature, biology, political science. The heads of these -departments are old men, some of them in office forty years; dull, -timid, afraid of new ideas. To them everything since 1870 is worthless, -and until quite recently they would not allow any modern courses, -obviously in fear that if live teaching were introduced they would lose -their students. I picture these poor pedagogues; I picture the other old -men I knew on that faculty—exactly the same as all the other old men of -all the other old faculties of all the other old universities. Modern -life comes rushing down upon them like a storm, and they have no idea -what to do with it, how to handle it. It is a hail-storm of boys and -girls—thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them. What -are they? What do they mean?—these strange, wild creatures, thrusting -themselves forward, demanding their “rights,” clamoring for new things -never heard of by old professors! Despising Tennyson, and demanding -Bernard Shaw! Doubting the Bible, disputing property rights, questioning -marriage, discussing outrageous things—divorce, birth control—actually -right out in public! I recalled Jack London’s short story, about a group -of old Indians up in Alaska, who saw the white men coming in and -undermining their ancient civilization. These Indians formed a society -to destroy the new intruders: “The League of the Old Men.” And I thought -to myself: that is what modern education is—a league of the old men to -make the young what the old want them to be! - -Colleges which are located in big cities have one advantage, in that the -students more frequently live at home, and are less apt to develop that -pest known as “college spirit.” On the other hand, being in the midst of -roaring commerce, they are even less apt to think about anything but -preparation for money-making. Most of these “city colleges” and -“universities” are nothing but trade-schools: for example, the -University of Cincinnati, which boasts of four thousand students. The -same men who control this place control the banks of the city; they took -a professor of economics and made him president of a bank, raising him -from four thousand dollars to twenty-five thousand—a lesson for all -college professors to ponder! It was this institution which started the -wonderful scheme of having students spend their mornings in college -classrooms and their afternoons in factories, department-stores and -banks. More than a thousand students are now following this plan, in -some two hundred and fifty business places in Cincinnati! - -Or take Washington University, in St. Louis, which also has four -thousand students. The trustees of this place were described to me by a -member of the faculty as “hard-boiled, self-made millionaires.” The -university advertises in the newspapers for students, setting forth in -plain language the increase in earning power attributable to a college -training. The students here were forbidden to organize a liberal club; a -young lawyer, a member of the faculty, is known as a Bolshevik, and when -I asked him why, he said it was because, in a group of millionaires, he -heard the opinion expressed that Judge Gary was the best man in the -country for president, and he kept silence! - -The other day I received a letter from a man in Philadelphia, sending me -the advertisements of “Temple University”; I had never heard of such a -place, but I looked it up—and behold, it has over eight thousand -students, with a School of Theology, a School of Chiropody and a School -of Commerce with courses in Salesmanship, Hand-lettering, Advertising -Copy and Layout, Advertising Campaigns, Psychology of Advertising. The -president and creator of this place is Russell H. Conwell, a Baptist -preacher, one of Philadelphia’s great men, described by John Wanamaker -as “my yoke-fellow.” He is the author of a lecture entitled “Acres of -Diamonds,” which up to 1915 had been delivered five thousand times, and -had earned four million dollars. This, with a biography of the preacher -and a history of his university, is available in book form; the most -characteristically American thing which I have read since the -autobiography of P. T. Barnum; a perfect product of that combination of -commercial ecstasy and sentimental religiosity which is the soul of my -country. The title, “Acres of Diamonds,” is derived from the story of an -Arab who went out to hunt for diamonds all over the world, and never -discovered that he had acres of them on his own farm. Dr. Conwell has -discovered that you can exploit the labor of your fellow man in -Philadelphia just as well as anywhere else, and he pronounces the law of -God that “to make money honestly is to preach the gospel.” I took the -trouble to go over the first forty pages of his lecture, checking off -the words which refer to wealth in its many forms—money, gold, silver, -diamonds, riches, millions, dollars, fortune, etc. You may think I am -joking, but try it for yourself; in the first forty pages of the lecture -I counted two hundred and eighteen such words! And each one of them -spoken five thousand times—more than one million words of greed uttered -to American audiences by one single preacher of Jesus! - -Or take the University of Southern California, with nearly six thousand -students, located in the heart of Los Angeles, metropolis of our “land -of orange groves and jails.” I have no words to describe the ravenous -commercialism of this region, the earthly paradise of oil stock salesmen -and “realtors”; its varied and multiple greeds affect my imagination -like the sounds of a vast menagerie at feeding-time. Needless to say, -the university of this outdoor stock-exchange has all the Jabbergrab -courses: Feature Writing, and Advanced Advertising, Investments, -Commercial Banking, Credits and Collections, Corporation Finance. The -catalogue gives a list of commercial organizations which are called in -to supervise various courses; for example, the course in business -correspondence is under the patronage of the “Better Letters -Association!” - -The grand duke of this institution is Mr. E. L. Doheny, jr., whose -father is the biggest oil magnate in the West, president of half a dozen -bloated Mexican and California oil companies, of which Mr. Doheny, jr., -is vice-president. Mr. Doheny, sr., boasts of owning the biggest private -yacht in the world, and gives elaborate entertainments on this yacht, -and has photographs of himself and his guests filling pages of our -Sunday newspapers. Mr. Doheny has been vehement in support of -intervention in Mexico, and fortunes of his money have been spent in -intrigues to produce Mexican revolutions. Needless to say, therefore, he -is deeply religious; appreciating the importance of all methods of -holding down the masses, he gives a quarter of a million dollars to -build a Catholic church, while his son is on the board of trustees of a -Methodist “university.” - -The articles of incorporation of this institution provide that the -trustees shall all be Methodists. They have a School of Religion, with a -big foundation, and courses in such topics as “Personality in Missions,” -“Functions and Methods of Evangelism,” and “The Pastoral Office under -Modern Conditions”—which might be more briefly phrased as “How to Handle -Doheny.” As I write, the devout young Christian commercialists of this -school engage in a mass riot with the students of the University of -California’s southern branch, and one of the students of the latter -institution has the letters “U. C.”—that is, University of -California—branded on his forehead with nitric acid. This was supposed -to have been done by the students of the rival institution; but -investigation by detectives brought out the fact that it had been done -by some of the student’s own fellows. They did not like him, because he -neglected student activities; also they wanted to discredit the -University of Southern California, by putting the job off on it. You can -learn everything at American universities—even the “frame-up”! - - - - - CHAPTER LXVIII - THE LARGE MUSHROOMS - - -America is half a continent, and its wealth is enormous, and there is a -constantly increasing swarm of young people who want the social prestige -which a college education gives. They have an opportunity to treat -themselves to four years of pleasant idleness on papa’s money, and they -avail themselves of that opportunity. So all over the country spring up -mushroom universities, swelling to unwieldy size, and making frantic -efforts to accumulate traditions and reputation. We have visited a dozen -of the great state universities, following our route along the Northern -tier of states. To complete our survey we should also visit the prairie -country, and see what this plutocracy of railroads and banks is doing to -its young people. - -Let us begin with the University of Nebraska, the dominant institution -of the prairie country. This place contents itself with a small board of -the big insiders—Mr. Hall, president of one of the largest banks in the -state; Mr. Seymour, a banker of Elgin, and Mr. Landis, a banker of -Seward; Mr. Judson, the largest retail merchant of Omaha, and Mr. Bates, -wealthy rancher and insurance man. All of these gentlemen know money; -they know nothing whatever about education, yet they guide the thinking -of some eight thousand students. A study of promotions and salaries -reveals the usual fact, that instructors who deal with commercial -subjects have been advanced far beyond those whose humble task is the -improving of the students’ minds. - -I am told of one professor who has been twenty years in the place, and -who is a liberal, though in no sense a Socialist. Being a staunch -believer in democratic institutions, he has criticized the -anti-democratic elements in the university, and has been called into -“conference” by those in control, and had the law laid down to him -concerning his teachings. He has been held back upon what amounts to a -starvation salary. Being an elderly man, he cannot make a change. -Another, a professor of economics, a widely-known authority on matters -of taxation, was appointed on a commission to study the revenue system -of the state. He proved his competence so thoroughly that he was invited -by the state legislature to appear before its committee on revenue and -taxation, and give them the benefit of his knowledge. One of this man’s -colleagues describes to me what happened: - - Back-stair influences were instantly mobilized. The professor was - called into conference and warned not to meet with the committee, - because it was not advisable for an instructor of the university to - become involved in political questions. The professor insisted that he - ought to give a law-making body the benefit of his own information. - Suffice it to say, the professor never met with the committee, because - it was hinted to him that dire consequences might follow. This man - also is on a starvation salary. - -Equally significant was the case of the gentleman who had charge of the -dairy department of the University of Nebraska. The dairy business of -Lincoln and vicinity is in the hands of a grasping corporation, which -flagrantly adulterates its products; so the head of the dairy department -conceived the idea of distributing the products of the College of -Agriculture at a price much below that charged by the corporation. The -dairy products of the university being genuine, there was great demand -for them, and as my informant tells me, “the upshot of the competition -on the part of the university led to a fight on the man who had charge -of the dairy department, and ultimately resulted in his dismissal.” - -I explained my purpose to deal with “war cases” in this book, only when -the war was used as a pretext to get rid of liberals. There was a series -of such cases at the University of Nebraska in 1918. Several professors -were dismissed, but the records of the trial plainly show that they were -dismissed because of economic unorthodoxy. One taught mathematics, and -stated to the board of regents that he had not considered it his -business to teach his students about the war. We have noted many cases -of college professors being told that it is their duty to teach their -specialty, and not meddle in public questions; now again we note that -this rule applies only when they are advocating measures contrary to the -interests of the plutocracy. When the plutocracy wants to go to war, -then all professors have to teach war—even those who are supposed to be -teaching mathematics! - -An interesting demonstration of the policy of depriving college -professors of their citizenship has just been given at the University of -Oklahoma. Here is a state of oil speculators and starving tenant -farmers. One of the products of their degradation is the squalid frenzy -known as the Ku Klux Klan; and the board of regents has just issued a -decree, declaring that the university must “keep the good-will of all -factions and parties,” and therefore members of the faculty are -forbidden to take part in the controversy over the Klan. What this means -is that they are forbidden to oppose it; I am told on good authority -that the president of this board is a member of the Klan, as also the -vice-president of the university, and about two-thirds of the faculty! -The same decree forbids members of the faculty to take part in politics; -but this does not interfere with five out of seven members of the board -of regents being actively engaged in putting down the Farmer-Labor party -by every means of intimidation and corruption. - -Next let us glance at the University of Iowa, which has nearly six -thousand students, and is controlled by the railroads which run this -“rock-ribbed” Republican state. A member of the faculty writes me that -its president is “politically a Harding Republican, and personally he -has no curiosity about or sympathy with liberal thought of any kind. His -attitude toward freedom of teaching in his faculty is a purely pragmatic -one. Since his main job is to get funds from the state legislature, he -does not propose to allow the ‘indiscretions’ of a professor to damage -the cause of the university there. In other words, a professor can say -anything he wants to in the class-room, if his students don’t talk too -much and thus arouse sentiment in the state unfriendly to the -university. An ‘injudicious’ remark might cost the university a -half-million dollars in much needed appropriations.” An excellent motto -for this state of Iowa has been composed by Ellis Parker Butler, as -follows: - - “Three millions yearly for manure, - And not one cent for literature.” - -Or take Ohio State University, with nine thousand students. Here the -president is a clergyman—“missionary and pastor,” he describes himself; -also he is a coal merchant and farmer, vice-president of a bank and -president of an insurance company, and faculty committees have to wait -while he keeps his important business appointments. His professors are -underpaid, and when they get into debt, he doesn’t increase their -salaries, but loans them money from his City National Bank at the -prevailing rate of interest. This, you perceive, offers a quite unique -method of controlling academic activities. President Thompson, I am -told, is frequently quite kind-hearted to those who conform to primitive -Calvinism in their personal righteousness; but on the other hand, a man -who does not subject himself to the established order is sternly -disciplined—for his own good, of course, as when a child is spanked. -Ludwig Lewisohn was on the faculty for six years, and tells me of one -professor who struggled many years to pay off a debt incurred for the -funeral of his wife; another, an excellent teacher and scholar, who did -not indulge in riotous living, but found that with the increase of -prices during the war his family could hardly keep alive, delayed to pay -a bill for a pair of shoes, and the shoe store sent the bill to the -president of the university, and this guardian of the business -proprieties fired the professor, stating that he “lacked integrity.” - -Lewisohn declares that at the faculty gatherings in this university he -never in his life heard a fundamental discussion of any subject; -everything was “silence and stealth.” Another professor writes, -describing the extreme patriotism prevailing: “A bugler plays taps every -Wednesday at convocation hour, and everyone is supposed to stand still -with bared head. The president is attended at all functions by his -‘military staff.’ All instructors must swear to an oath of allegiance in -the presence of a notary before they can receive their salaries.” This -correspondent tells me how a member of the staff was forced out because -he had separated from his wife; also how the “university pastors” on the -campus are trying to establish a School of Religion, at state expense, -and to get their courses listed for university credits. With a clergyman -for president, this ought to be easy; especially when the president -holds the opinion which President Thompson expressed in answer to a -suggestion that his professors ought to have more opportunity to study -and improve their education. He said that most of them held Ph. D. -degrees, therefore their education was a closed matter, and their only -duty henceforth was to teach, both in the regular session and in the -summer schools! - -A gentleman who was a member of President Thompson’s faculty for more -than ten years writes me about the place as follows: - -“My personal difficulties were primarily with the head of the -institution, who is a Presbyterian minister, a man who would not tell a -lie, but a man whose word cannot be depended upon; very jealous, -sensitive to criticism, apparently always your friend to your face and -your bitterest foe to your back. My observation is that ninety per cent -of the faculty at Ohio State are afraid to offend the president for fear -he will make them suffer for it, either in failing to promote them or to -raise their salaries. The result of this condition is a servile faculty -that are working harder to have a good ‘stand-in’ with the president -than they are to develop their subjects. I think another result of this -condition is to make narrow-minded, selfish, self-seeking men. One of -the reasons that prompted me to leave teaching was the little -narrow-minded individuals with whom I was compelled to associate, men -whose chief thought seemed to be, how can I get my salary raised. I am -farming now, and I must say that I find the companionship of my cows and -horses a great improvement over some of my associates in university -circles.” - - - - - CHAPTER LXIX - THE LITTLE TOADSTOOLS - - -So far we have been dealing with the great educational centres, which -number their students in thousands and even tens of thousands; but for -every one such institution there are scores of little places scattered -over the country, with anywhere from a hundred to a thousand students -each. In general, one can say concerning these little places that they -try to be as much like the big places as possible. They get the local -financial celebrities on their boards; they get the Gothic buildings -with arrow-proof windows, and ivy of the quickest growing variety; they -dress up their faculty in fancy robes, and their graduating students in -caps and gowns; they have their fraternities and sororities, their full -equipment of athletic teams and alumni boosters. And, just as in country -villages you find more spying and more spite than in big cities, so in -little colleges you find class greed and religious bigotry incessantly -on the watch for any trace of a new idea. - -To Beloit College, in Wisconsin, befell a singular fate—it got upon its -faculty a young man of talent, who wrote a live novel. “Iron City,” by -M. H. Hedges, is a picture of life in a small college, located in a -manufacturing town, and of the ferment of modern ideas trying to break -into such a place. Mr. Hedges declares that he did not indicate Beloit -especially, and has received many letters from professors in other -college towns, saying that the cap fitted them. But the gossips of -Beloit insisted upon riveting the cap upon their own heads, and there -was a dreadful scandal. - -Beloit is a town of twenty thousand inhabitants, its one big industry -being the Fairbanks-Morse Manufacturing Company, the largest makers of -scales in the world. Mr. Morse is the grand duke of the Beloit board, -and has as his assistants Mr. Salmon, director of the Beloit Water, Gas -& Electric Company, and Mr. Tyrrell, head of a great knitting works in -an adjoining town; also a big Chicago wheat broker; the head of -Montgomery Ward & Company; a great paper manufacturer; a leading Chicago -insurance man; a local preacher; and a “special investigator” of the -United States Department of Justice. So you see Beloit is fully equipped -to install, not merely a college of commerce and a department of -divinity, but also a school of spying. - -With the publication of “Iron City” its secret service got to work -immediately; I am told by one who was on the inside that three days -after the book was out, one of the trustees called President Brannon on -the telephone from Chicago, exclaiming: “I understand you have a -novelist on your faculty. Why do you have people like that?” In less -than a month the board of trustees had formally demanded Professor -Hedges’ resignation. President Brannon is a scientist, whom we saw -kicked out of the University of Idaho by the mining kings; he had some -liberal ideas when he came to Beloit five years ago. He liked his -novelist, and tried to save him, calling him his best teacher; but the -uproar was too great—the outraged townspeople stopped speaking to -Professor Hedges and his wife on the street. Shortly after this, three -liberal professors were driven from the institution, and the president -pleaded for them also; it is said that he threatened to resign—but I -note that they are gone, while he is still in office. - -President Brannon had an interesting plan to remedy the housing shortage -and improve the community spirit in this manufacturing town. He started -a “chamber of commerce,” for the purpose of constructing a million -dollars’ worth of homes on a co-operative basis, with the help of the -labor unions. The banks, the utility company heads, and the -Fairbanks-Morse people vigorously opposed the plan and tried to head it -off; after it had got started they called up the local merchants and -other members of the new “chamber of commerce” on the telephone, and -ordered them to have nothing to do with so dangerous an undertaking, -under penalty of loss of credit at the banks. So the “chamber of -commerce” no longer exists. - -There is peace now in Beloit and its college. The last danger passed -when a student was expelled after publishing in the student paper a -review of “The Brass Check”! The head of the local knitting works, one -of the ultra-religious type of trustees, comes to the college and makes -orations, being introduced as “a progressive Christian employer”; -whereas it is well known among the students that the white slave -industry of the town is recruited from girls who cannot earn living -wages in the knitting works. - -These manufacturing towns are scattered over the Middle West, and they -and their colleges are very much alike. Let us have a glimpse at -Marietta College, in Ohio. The recent president of this institution was -formerly editor-in-chief of the Chicago “Inter-Ocean,” and championed -the infamous Lorimer and the greedy Yerkes. A student with whom I talked -was present in a class in sociology, to which President Hinman made the -statement that preachers should not discuss social and civic problems. -Some of the students took exception to this idea, and attempted to argue -with him, whereupon he barred discussion in that class for the rest of -the year. He fired a Y. M. C. A. secretary for the crime of having -offered to a student a ticket to “Damaged Goods”—a play which had its -opening performance in Washington, attended by President Wilson and his -wife, and all the members of the cabinet and the Supreme Court. - -The grand duke of this board was Mr. W. W. Mills, local traction magnate -and capitalist, president of the First National Bank, interested in a -cabinet company, a brick company, a bridge company, a chair company, a -floral company, a paint company, and a street railway company. This -versatile gentleman also controls the two newspapers of the town, and -censors the proceedings of the state conferences of the Congregational -church. His brother, also on the board, is director in the bank and -president of the chair company. The rest of the board was made up of Mr. -Mills’ nephew, Mr. Rufus Dawes, a powerful millionaire of Chicago, -president of a dozen different gas and electric companies; and his -brother, Mr. Charles G. Dawes, president of the Central Trust Company of -Illinois, and comptroller of the currency under President McKinley; a -retired merchant, director in the Mills bank; a local railway attorney, -related to the Mills; the president of the Mills paint company; the -postmaster of the town, protégé of the Mills; an attorney for the Mills -corporations; the pastor of the Mills church; a corporation lawyer, -director in the Mills bank; and a retired minister, related by marriage -to the Mills. Professors Morse and Owens were let out of Marietta upon -suspicion of liberalism, and in explaining the various reasons, the -latter wrote: “Mr. John Mills expressed a sincere desire to wring my -neck because I remarked at a dinner where he was present that the men in -his mills are an unusually intelligent set.” This referred to the chair -company, in which conditions were especially terrible; there were cases -of married men receiving as low as seven dollars a week in wages! Says -Professor Owens: - - We were urged to be Americans, and yet if we raised our wee small - voice in favor of a wage that would enable the workers to live up to - accepted American standards, we were at once regarded as dangerous - anarchists. They were utterly blind to the fact that wages should be - raised not only in the interest of justice but of efficiency. - Repeatedly we stated that we were entirely willing to stand by each - and every statement we had made. If we had lied we were willing to - suffer the penalty. But we were denied every opportunity to present - our view of the situation, denied a hearing which one of our by-laws - said we were entitled to. - -You remember Professor Bolley of the North Dakota Agricultural College, -and his brave statement that a college professor is a citizen. For -example, may a college professor become president of his local school -board? Surely, yes!—you will say. But wait a moment; let me complete the -sentence, “May a college professor become president of his local school -board under a labor administration?” Well, now—of course—that depends! - -At Rockford, Illinois, a manufacturing and commercial center, is a very -exclusive college for young ladies, with a wonderful board of trustees, -including a great agricultural implement manufacturer, another large -manufacturer, and the widow of a third; the attorney for the town’s -principal industrial enterprise, also a large stockholder in the -concern; the town’s principal merchant, its principal lumber and fuel -dealer, and the editor of its interlocking newspaper; a bank president, -a steel manufacturer, a judge, and an ex-governor of the state of -Illinois, a notorious corporation tool. May a professor in such a -college accept any sort of office under a labor administration? Let us -see! - -President Maddox of Rockford College went in for liberalism and the -enlightening of the masses. He had got a very conscientious young -teacher by the name of Seba Eldridge, and gave him a couple of -impressive titles—“Head of the Social Science Department and Professor -of Economics and Sociology.” Professor Eldridge went out and did “social -work,” and presently the labor men of Rockford elected themselves a -mayor, and this mayor appointed a school board. It would seem to have -been of a representative character—a Catholic business woman of -independent mind, a Socialist ex-teacher who was a good Methodist, a -Swedish workingman, self-taught but of particular intelligence, a -building contractor of large practical experience, and finally, as -president of the board, Professor Seba Eldridge of Rockford College. -Professor Eldridge had served on a local school board of New York City, -and is author of two books, including a useful work on social -legislation; the very man for the place, you would have thought. So -thought the president of the college and the chairman of his board of -trustees; and Professor Eldridge accepted the post. - -But the business men of Rockford had still to be heard from! They had -control of the board of aldermen, and they meant to smash this labor -administration, so their aldermen rejected the board of education -proposed by the mayor. Their newspapers fell to denouncing Professor -Eldridge, and the big bankers made it plain that the city of Rockford -could sell no school bonds until the board had a “business man” for its -head. The interlocking trustees came round and interviewed the -president, whereupon that gentleman suddenly changed his position, and -withdrew his approval of Professor Eldridge’s acceptance of the school -board presidency. As the school board position paid no salary, and as -the young professor had a family dependent upon him, he decided to let -the mayor name a school board president who would be confirmed by the -city council! He resigned from the college also and accepted a position -elsewhere. - -Mr. Fay Lewis, who lives in Rockford, has been kind enough to supply me -with a file of newspaper clippings on this incident, which occurred in -1921. Among these clippings I find a curious illustration of the method -by which the “Morning Star” of Rockford serves its interlocking -directorate. There was a discussion before the Rotary Club between the -labor mayor of the town and a former president of the school board, -representing the business men. The newspaper reports this discussion in -full; that is to say, it quotes twenty-nine inches of what the -representative of the plutocracy had to say, and two inches of what the -labor mayor had to say in reply! - -Also, I ought to give you a little glimpse into Williams College, at -Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was originally established as an -institution for poor boys. It has become the most exclusive country club -in the United States, with the possible exception of Princeton. Like -Brown University, it is a place of dry rot; the faculty is devoted to -social life and respectability, and has been rewarded by Mr. “Barney” -Baruch, who has established a summer school of politics for the purpose -of promoting the “Bankers’ International.” The president of the -University is Harry A. Garfield, son of a former president of the United -States; and as I read the proofs of this book he rushes into the -newspapers to set forth his ideas on the subject of a living wage. -Unskilled workers, it appears, should not receive a living wage for -their families, but only for themselves. Should the worker marry, the -wife should help him to earn the household income until he educates -himself out of the unskilled status—presumably by going to college and -having President Garfield show him how! - -Before we conclude this chapter, you might be interested to learn what -the invention of gunpowder has done to higher education; something which -is on demonstration in the state of Delaware. This home of the powder -oligarchy ranked almost at the bottom of the list of states in matters -of education, until Mr. Coleman du Pont, the powder king, took the -matter off the hands of the people, and put up the money for a new -educational system. That was kind of Mr. du Pont, of course, and the -people of Delaware appreciate it; but it means that we have the feudal -system permanently established and officially recognized in an American -state. The powder oligarchy has a university, located at Newark, and -here was a typhoid scandal, exactly as at the University of Oregon, with -the local magnates controlling the situation, and a young instructor -persisting in telling the facts. It was Ibsen’s play, “An Enemy of the -People,” precisely re-enacted. On the day that one student was buried, -this young instructor published a letter, in which he accused of murder -the people who had refused to put in a sewage system. He was threatened -with tarring and feathering, and the president of the college was very -sorry he could not offer this young instructor a raise. But he always -did what the treasurer of the college wanted—and the treasurer was the -man who had blocked the efforts of the board of health to avoid a -typhoid epidemic! A gentleman who was for many years a member of the -faculty of this university writes me, in very temperate language, as -follows: - -“I think the university needs an awakening to the fact that political -and social conditions in the state and nation are proper and necessary -subjects of the freest possible discussion. I also believe that, in -spite of Pierre du Pont’s altruistic attitude, the du Pont wealth stands -at the gates of opportunity in Delaware, and that some who enter -renounce, consciously or unconsciously, their personal freedom of -opinion and action. As to the du Pont control of politics, it should be -fully and forever repudiated by the people of Delaware as an insolent -attempt to enslave the state to a single great interest.” - - - - - CHAPTER LXX - GOD AND MAMMON - - -I have tried in the closing chapters of “The Profits of Religion,” and -also in “The Book of Life,” to make plain that I honor the religious -impulse in its true form. But that does not mean that I owe respect to -human systems which call themselves religious, and which make the -spiritual needs of mankind a basis of enslavement. I can tolerate the -business man who tells me that “money makes the mare go”; I can show him -how, under a cooperative system, money would make the mare go faster. -But I find it hard to tolerate those preachers of “personal -righteousness,” who keep the eyes of the working class uplifted to -heaven, while their pockets are picked on earth; our modern Pharisees, -who take the greatest of the world’s proletarian martyrs, and bind him -anew, and deliver him to be crucified upon a jewelled cross. - -I make this explanation because we are now going to have a glance at -some of our “religious” colleges. Let us begin with Wooster, Ohio, an -institution run by the Presbyterian church. We have seen how at Clark -they are introducing a summer school, to make education pay; and we can -see what that will end in, because the college of Wooster has for many -years been run by its summer school: an absurdly crude, privately-owned, -money-making institution, which draws schoolmarms by offering gold -watches as prizes for those who bring in the greatest number of new -students, and by advertising in terms of dollars and cents the amount of -business done by its free teachers’ agency. In country newspapers it -advertises itself as “a School of Inspiration, Preparation and -Perspiration.” Fifteen hundred schoolmarms come each summer, and the -local papers explain that they are “free with their expense accounts.” -The regular college, having only five hundred students, is relatively -unimportant. - -The active trustees, being local business men, naturally want to boost -the summer school; whereas the faculty of the college have absurd -notions of the dignity of true knowledge. Out of this grew a furious -quarrel, which lasted for several years. The partisans of the summer -school kicked out the excellent president of the college, who had spent -sixteen years building it up from nothing. They brought in to replace -him a shouting Y. M. C. A. evangelist of no college training, an utter -ignoramus, and so many kinds of a liar that it would take the rest of -this book to tell about it. The American Association of University -Professors investigated the affair, and devoted a hundred and thirty-six -pages to it, and the bulletin for May, 1917, is a study of the mental -processes of a religious hypocrite, shouting about the love of Jesus, -while stooping to every kind of vile and cowardly intrigue. - -Also, while we are in Ohio, let us have a look at Muskingum College, at -New Concord. We may see this through the eyes of Professor Arthur S. -White, who was let out of the Department of Political Science and -Sociology this year. The charge against him was that he had created “a -critical attitude” among the students. The vice-president of the college -charged him “with having taught the students to think, and that they -were not thinking the right things.” At the very beginning of his work, -three years ago, he had explained to the students his dislike of “the -compartment method of education,” whereby students are crammed into a -certain tight mold. “I remarked that such methods were destructive of -personality, and must foster decay in our institutions. When I had -finished the whole class applauded. At the end of the hour, some eight -or ten waited to tell me that they were, and had been, victims of such -methods, and that they hoped my work would be different.” As a result of -this, Professor White’s classes in political science increased from -twenty-seven to a hundred and forty-two. - -There was no fault to be found with his character or personal conduct, -nor is he a Socialist or propagandist of any sort. I quote again from -his statement: “My method was to present all the facts on every question -that were available; to analyze ideas, dogmas and institutions in the -light of their original professions and accomplishments. I tried to -respect the personality of my students, by insisting on their being free -to make a conscientious choice of their loyalties.” But, of course, this -did not fit into a college whose dean phrased the duty of the faculty: -“Our attitude toward the president should be that of the soldier to the -general, it should be the attitude that he can do no wrong.” Muskingum -is a Presbyterian institution, and in order to get the financial support -of the church, it advertises itself widely as a “safe” place for parents -to send their children. Everything must be “in accordance with our -tradition of ideals and customs.” So, of course, the professor who -taught his students to think had to move on. - -Let us also move, to Meadville, Pennsylvania, where there is a little -religious toadstool in the heart of the oil country, and with a Standard -Oil board of trustees. On this Allegheny College we have a report of the -American Association of University Professors, in the bulletin for -December, 1917. The president (now president-emeritus) is a product of -Judge Gary’s Northwestern University, a Methodist clergyman, and trustee -of the Carnegie Foundation. An alumnus who got to know him writes me: -“Crawford is a man who has seemingly lost his moral perception, and -throughout his stay at Allegheny was notoriously untruthful and -untrustworthy.” For fourteen years he had a professor of English -literature by the name of Frank C. Lockwood, who was an ardent -Prohibitionist, and came into conflict with the two local grand dukes of -the board of trustees, political bosses and attorneys representing -applicants for liquor licenses in Meadville. Professor Lockwood had the -audacity to run for congress on the Prohibition ticket, with the backing -of the Progressives; and, worse yet, although he himself was a Methodist -minister, his wife joined the Unitarian church. The report does not make -clear what the interlocking trustees expected the Methodist professor to -do about this; they would hardly have been satisfied if he had divorced -his wife for being a Unitarian; maybe they expected him to beat her -until she reformed. Anyhow, the board adopted a resolution forbidding -its professors to take part in politics by becoming candidates for -public office; and, furthermore, it made clear its intention to drop -Professor Lockwood at the end of the next year—so he quit. A college -professor is not a citizen in Pennsylvania, any more than he is in -Illinois! - -Let us have a look at the prairie country, the “free state” of Kansas. -At Washburn College, an institution of the Congregational church at -Topeka, we shall again find the worship of God and Mammon perfectly -blended. All the local plutocracy is represented on this board, and also -a collection of clergymen, headed by the Reverend Charles M. Sheldon, -famous throughout the Middle West as the author of “In His Steps.” The -president of Washburn is the Reverend Parley Paul Womer—I am aware this -sounds like a novel, but it isn’t. Washburn had been in financial need, -and President Womer was called in as a “fund-raiser”; he being the -perfect type of plutocratic piety, with knees calloused from constant -worship before the altar of the Golden Calf. - -His record also is set down in a report of the Association. We find him -requiring one of his professors to promote a certain student, because -his father was “a prominent and well-to-do man,” and “had intimated that -if Washburn would graduate his son he might do something handsome for -the college in a financial way.” We find him continually humiliating -members of the faculty, by warning them not to do this and not to do -that “which might conceivably be displeasing to any persons from whom we -might hope for aid.” We find him refusing all reforms in the way of -faculty control, because “Washburn depends for its financial support on -business men, men of large financial interests who would be quick to -resent any appearance of Bolshevism in the administration of the -college.” We find him summarily discharging professors who opposed his -combination of boot-licking and bullying, and then lying about these -professors, and then asking that the committee of the Association should -consider these lies to be “confidential”! - -Finally, matters came to a head; more than half the faculty either -resigned or were discharged, and the students rose up and began -bombarding the pious president’s house with rotten eggs. But did that -make any difference to President Womer? It did not! The smell of rotten -eggs evaporates quickly, but money endures, and he is the boy who gets -the money. His interlocking trustees stood by him, and one month after -the publication of the damning report of the Association, I find in the -Topeka “Daily Capital” a front-page story about the culmination of -President Womer’s marvelous drive to raise the endowment of Washburn to -eight hundred thousand dollars. He has raised three hundred and -seventy-five thousand outside of Topeka, and three hundred thousand -inside. Fifty thousand of this comes from Mr. Joab Mulvane, the grand -duke of the city, and according to the newspaper, “the walls of the -Chamber of Commerce shivered in the greatest uproar of applause they -ever enclosed.... President Womer received at last night’s meeting a -demonstration of cordial good-will and appreciation such as few public -men hope for in a lifetime.” “One of the greatest days in the history of -Topeka,” was Mr. Mulvane’s own characterization of the event. There are -two columns of this kind of rapture, with the names of all the donors -and the “volunteer workers,” and descriptions of parades, fireworks, -dancing, brass-bands, and the singing of “Washburn pep songs.” - -Also the Catholics have their educational machine, and raise money from -wealthy Catholics for the protection both of Catholicism and of wealth. -In the city of Washington they have a great central institution. An -official of the United States Department of Education writes me: - - I made a study of the American University in Washington not long ago. - There are a number of wealthy men on the board. They are obviously - placed there for the usual purpose. Most of them never went to college - themselves, and they know nothing about higher education in general or - in particular. Now I saw no occasion to doubt their desire to do the - best they know how for the institution. But some things they know - about, from their associations, and others they do not. They simply - cannot appreciate, for example, the fine zeal the founders had for the - establishment of a great graduate university. They can see a - considerable demand for education in law and business, and so they - very naturally let the institution turn in this direction. - Consequently a low grade law school and a lower grade business course - are being established. The trustees can see some use in these courses - and some demand. The need for a great graduate school, so patent to - educators, the trustees are blissfully ignorant of, and I doubt very - much whether on account of their limited educational experience they - will ever be able to appreciate the need for such a graduate - institution in Washington. - -We move South to Durham, North Carolina, home of Trinity College, a -considerable religious institution, founded by Washington Duke, the -tobacco king. A friend of mine who knew the old gentleman tells me how -he furnished his mansion, ordering the books for his library by the size -and color of binding; and now his statue decorates a college grounds. -The present head of the family is James B., locally known as “Buck” -Duke, and it would be a poor pun to describe him as the Grand Duke of -Trinity College. He and his brother, Mr. B. N. Duke, his wife, his son -and his daughter, have all purchased the good will of North Carolina -Methodism by making public gifts to Trinity, amounting to four million -dollars; all three of the male Dukes are therefore on its board of -trustees. James B. has just given a million to the endowment, fifty -thousand towards a new school for religious training, and other sums for -gymnasium and law building. So I note in the Greensboro “Daily News” an -editorial headed: “The Duke Also Has Virtues.” - -Forty years ago “Buck” Duke could not borrow ten thousand dollars in -North Carolina; today he boasts that he is worth four hundred million, -beside what his father and brother have accumulated. Assuming that his -services in providing the world with tobacco were worth a hundred -dollars a week, it would have taken a hundred and fifty-four thousand -years to earn his own share of this money. “Buck” is distinguished among -interlocking trustees in that he has had a decision of the United States -Supreme Court on his money-making methods; the exact words are that he -“persistently and continuously and consciously violated the law.” The -Supreme Court has not yet passed on the fact that a man who is worth -four hundred million dollars pays only eight hundred and twenty-eight -dollars taxes in the state where he lives in a magnificent palace! - -The Methodist church is, as we know, violently opposed to the use of -tobacco, but it applies the ancient saying of one of the Roman emperors, -Pecunia non olet—money has no smell. Mr. Duke completed his purchase of -the church by a so-called donation for the support of its superannuated -ministers, and so his right to run both church and university is -undisputed. He brought in a South Carolina minister of pliant -principles, and made him president of the university, and this president -never lost an occasion to chant the praises of his grand Duke. The grand -Duke had this chief chanter made a director of his Southern railroad, -and wanted to have him made also a bishop of the church, but for three -successive years he failed; then he hired some regular lobbyists and -sent them to the Methodist General Conference—and that was the way to do -it. “Pecunia non olet”; and also, “pecunia parlat”; and also, “pecunia -ambulare equinam fecit!”—if you will let me fix up the Latin. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXI - THE ORANG-OUTANG HUNTERS - - -There is a part of the United States which suffered for a century or two -under the blight of Negro slavery; in consequence, from Virginia to -Texas, the population still lives in the ideas of a hundred years ago. -Here are communities which are not content to use religious dogmas as a -shield for special privilege; they really believe the dogmas, and are -willing to fight about them and to torture one another, as in the old -days. In these states there has sprung up what is called the -“Fundamentalist” movement, made up of seventeenth century Cromwellians -in modern machine-made clothing; the only difference being that whereas -the old Pilgrims wished to “come out from among them,” the idea of these -modern fanatics is to drive out the other fellow. They are carrying on -an enormous campaign in the evangelical churches, seeking to keep out of -the pulpits people who do not believe in the literal inspiration of -Scripture—in Noah’s ark, and Jonah and the whale, and Joshua blowing -down the walls of Jericho; also in the virgin birth, and the six-day -creation of man. They are especially indignant against “evolution,” -which means to them one thing, that man is descended from the -monkey—something it does not mean to any scientist. - -The leader of this new fanaticism is no less a personage than the -Honorable William Jennings Bryan, the Peerless Commoner, who, having -made several hundred thousand dollars out of lecturing, is not so keen -for the breaking of the money power, but gives his time to the -preserving of the ignorance of his forefathers. Mr. Bryan has used his -enormous prestige with the legislatures of the Southern states; he came -within one vote of putting through the Kentucky legislature a bill -providing that no public appropriations should be used for salaries of -employes who teach Evolution or Darwinism. Incredible as it may seem, he -succeeded in putting through such a measure in the states of South -Carolina and Oklahoma, and he expects to make a tour of the legislatures -this winter and try with others. - -These reactionaries are busy in all the Southern colleges, plying their -brooms against the tide of modern thought. They succeeded in driving -Professor Wheeler from the University of Mississippi, and Professor Rice -from the Southern Methodist University at Dallas, Texas. Also they are -strong among the Baptists, and at Waco, Texas, they have got possession -of a large school called Baylor University. This place had a professor -of sociology, G. S. Dow, who devoutly believed in his Baptist faith, and -earnestly protested that he did not teach that “man came from another -species”; but he published a text-book, “Introduction to the Principles -of Sociology,” in which he used some phrases of modern science, and the -howling dervishes of Texas took it up. In Fort Worth is a Baptist -preacher, who publishes a paper called the “Searchlight,” and has grown -rich out of waging war upon modern thought; in what delicate language -his controversies are carried on you may judge from one sentence, -referring to the expulsion of Professor Rice: “While the Methodists have -put their orang-outang out, we are keeping ours in!” - -I really felt sorry for Professor Dow, as I read over a mass of -clippings concerning his trouble; he is such a humble and patient -Christian gentleman! But, you see, in his book he actually made -reference to “primitive man,” and we all know there was no such beast; -says the “Searchlight”: “Those of us who read our Bibles have always -thought that he was made in the image of God.” So Professor Dow was -forced to resign, and he stayed resigned, in spite of indignant protests -of his students. - -The Baptists of Texas appointed a committee, which went about in these -educational institutions, submitting to every instructor a -questionnaire, and forcing the resignation of several who were too -honest in their confessions. They held a “pastors’ and laymen’s -conference,” in which they laid down “uncompromising opposition to the -teachings of Darwinian evolution, and the substitution of social service -for regeneration.” Reading their literature is to a modern man like -having a nightmare; it takes you back three hundred years in human -history, when they burned witches at the stake, and tore men to pieces -on the rack. In Texas now they burn only Negroes; but the wretched, -half-starved, rack-rented tenant-farmers and their wives are victims of -the most degrading sort of terrors. In one issue of the “Searchlight” I -find a portrait of a maniac with a big black moustache, cavorting with -clenched fists on a platform, and advertised as “the man who preaches -sin black, hell hot, life short, death certain, eternity long, and calls -sinners to a blood-bought redemption.” - -In “The Profits of Religion” I have pictured the “Bootstrap-lifters,” -with their eyes uplifted to heaven while the agents of the Wholesale -Pickpockets’ Association are robbing them on earth. Just so it is with -the “Fundamentalists”; while they were getting the professor of -evolution fired from the Southern Methodist University, the public -utility interests of Texas, camouflaged as the “Texas Public Service -Information Bureau,” have been poisoning the minds of the students. They -have contrived a course of lectures, to be given by expert public -utility pickpockets—the general manager of the telephone company, the -president of the power and light company, the general manager of the -traction company—so on through a long list. - -Also these Fundamentalists are active in Tennessee, where they brought -destruction to an old friend of mine, a thoroughly trained scientist and -most humane and charming gentleman, who was director of hygiene and -physician at the state university. They were cordial to him in the first -weeks, until he began attending the Unitarian church; then a pillar of -the rich Baptist church in Knoxville refused to donate to the “Y” work -at the university “so long as they had Unitarians on the faculty.” In -the hope of forcing my friend to withdraw, the president and dean -proceeded to make him unpopular by requiring all freshmen to take a -course of two hours a week in “personal hygiene” with him—and receiving -no credit for the course! Still, the professor made a success of it, and -more students came to him for treatment than he could handle; so last -spring he was unceremoniously dropped. - -At Bethany, West Virginia, is a college of the religious body who call -themselves the “Disciples of Christ,” or “Christians”—to distinguish -themselves from Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and other -kinds of heathen. This institution is described as “a literary, moral -and religious school,” and it now has some five hundred students, and -thirty or forty members of the faculty. They got a young professor by -the name of Croyle, in the “Chair of Hebrew and Old Testament,” and they -kept him less than a year, and then summarily fired him without notice. -The professor put the case in the hands of the American Association of -University Professors, which wrote to the president of the college and -proposed an investigation. The president’s name is Cramblet—again I have -to explain that I do not make these things up. President Cramblet -replied to the effect that he and his college did not want any -interference from professors’ associations. “For the present we are -quite sure that we can make our own rules and conduct our own affairs -better than some people who are not able to take care of their own -business.” - -It is interesting to follow this story and watch the slow process of the -opening up of this religious hard shell. It took the Association about a -year and a half to do the job; they kept boring away—a little publicity -here and a threat of publicity there—until finally President Cramblet -popped open and wrote a long letter, explaining the crimes of Professor -Croyle, and agreeing to meet a committee of the Association and prove -his charges. It appeared that Professor Croyle had come from the Union -Theological Seminary, with his mind full of what in the West Virginia -mountains is known as “destructive criticism.” In one of his classes he -had explained that maybe the story of God’s plan to drown everybody in -the world except Noah and his family was not to be taken quite -literally; that night President Cramblet was called to the girls’ -dormitory, “because a number of them were weeping and well-nigh -hysterical over this experience!” - -It is interesting to note that the Professors’ Association does not -attempt to insist that church colleges shall maintain any standards of -freedom of teaching or of thinking. All it lays down is that “church -colleges should fully and unequivocally inform the public and their -professors of all restrictions that their tenets impose upon academic -freedom.” And it notes that this “Christian” college has now taken out -of its catalogue the statement that “Bethany seeks the latest and best -results of modern scholarship,” and that “the latest results of -archeology are used in an attempt to understand the vitality of the -Prophetic Activity!” - -I close this chapter with the singular adventure of my friend, Harry -Laidler, who went a few years ago to lecture at Emory and Henry College, -one of the oldest institutions in Virginia. Laidler was secretary of the -Intercollegiate Socialist Society, and the students had asked to hear -him, and the president had consented. It chanced, however, that an -itinerant preacher was present that morning, and he strongly disapproved -of a Socialist lecture, and took occasion to save the students from the -consequences of their wayward curiosity. He took the platform, and -lifted his hands in invocation to the Almighty, imploring Him to protect -these young minds from the heresies and false doctrines to which they -were about to be exposed! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXII - THE ACADEMIC POGROM - - -It is natural that in a time of reaction such as the present, every form -of organized cruelty and hatred should lift its ugly head; and so we -have in our colleges not merely campaigns of religious bigotry, but also -of race prejudice. - -We know the ideal American college student. He comes from our best -families, his figure is tall and straight, and his features regular and -blank, according to the Gibson standard. He is perfectly groomed, in the -Arrow collar and the Kuppenheimer clothes and the Brogue boot. He has -always had plenty of servants to wait on him, so he does not know how to -work. He is thoroughly skilled, however, in every form of play, and has -been raised in a system of conventions which constitute “good manners.” -He comes to college to spend the four pleasantest years of his life in -the company of his social equals. His father and big brothers before him -have belonged to the right clubs, and are prominent in the alumni -association. He goes in for athletics, and for the glee club, and gets a -fraternity pin and a big Y, or whatever letter it may be, on his -sweater; he becomes a leader of his class and a social favorite, and -takes the college girls to dances in his big car, and now and then he -takes one of the town girls out into the country on summer evenings, or -to a road-house in winter. He is an expert in smoking tobacco, and -connects up with the best university boot-legger—but all quietly, of -course, and nothing to excess, except on football nights and special -occasions. - -There is only one thing wrong with this four years of paradise, and that -is a lot of fool pedants and bookworms, who think they have something to -do with running the college, and worry a fellow to death stuffing his -head with old Anglo-Saxon roots and mathematical formulas, names and -dates of dead kings and battles, and peculiarities of French and Greek -irregular verbs. The young gentleman in college regards these pedants as -his natural enemies, and the outwitting of them as one of his -entertainments. If you have plenty of money you can hire sharp fellows -to study examination papers and work out the science of “getting by,” -and two weeks before examinations you shut yourself up in your room, -with a wet towel about your head and a pot of strong coffee on your -desk, and you cram your mind with the necessary mass of facts, and so -you pass. You understand the unwritten law of colleges—just as the old -French marquis understood the heavenly system, when he said that God -would think twice before he damned a gentleman like him. Make yourself a -power in athletics and in social life, and pay a certain minimum debt to -the thing called “learning,” and you may be sure that no member of the -faculty will have the insolence to “flunk” you. Such is American college -life today, and when we read in college journals and in the capitalist -press about the preservation of Anglo-Saxon traditions in our -institutions of higher education, that is what we are talking about. - -But now along come a lot of fellows—and worse, a few girls as well—whose -features lack the regular vapidity of the Gibson type, but on the -contrary, have been distorted by suffering and struggle. These people -have for the last two thousand years been an oppressed race, and they -display the painful qualities which oppression causes in human beings. -Sometimes they cringe, and again, when they get power they may become -insolent. For two thousand years they have survived in the world by two -qualities, racial and religious solidarity, and commercial shrewdness. -We in America are full of the raptures of dollar-getting; but here is a -people who can make two dollars while we are making one, and can save -ten dollars while we are squandering a hundred. Being people who have -had to make their own way in the world, they are apt to be pushing and -thick-skinned; they sometimes come where they are not wanted, and do not -always take a hint to leave. - -They try to break into “society”; that is, having acquired wealth, they -assume they are entitled to the perquisites of wealth. But we bar them -from our dinner-parties and our clubs, and sometimes from our hotels. -Naturally their sons and daughters turn their eyes upon our colleges; -and here is an atrocious situation. These institutions have established -no social tests, but have left their doors open for anyone who can pass -an examination. And these people take advantage of us—they actually -expect to break in among our sons and daughters, just by learning more -than our sons and daughters know! That is easy for them, you understand; -not being admitted to fraternities and glee clubs, they have nothing -better to do than to sit in their rooms and read and study. And what -chance do our “Gibson types” stand against such a proposition? They -stand no chance whatever; and so the Jews carry off the honors and the -prizes—actually, if things were allowed to go on, they would become -members of the faculty, and we should be sending our future Anglo-Saxon -conquerors to be taught by Jewish scientists and men of letters! - -Such is the problem faced by our interlocking trustees and their -faculties; it is an embarrassing problem, because, in the first place, -the Jews are enormously wealthy, and they stand together, and have not -merely financial but political power. Also, they take pride in their -culture; they point out that they gave the world its first great -literature, and have given to Anglo-Saxon countries practically -everything in the way of religion which these countries consider divine. -They have contributed their due share of scientists and writers and -statesmen of modern times; also they have given to the world the -religion of the future, through the labor of Marx and Lassalle, Jaurès -and Liebknecht. - -In the light of these varied facts, we cannot come out boldly and say -that we refuse to admit Jews to our universities; we find it easier to -employ those peculiar talents for prevarication which our college heads -have developed. We invent what are called “psychological tests”; we fill -our examination papers with “catch” questions—little details of language -idiom and social observance and historical tradition, with which the -Jews are less apt to be familiar. Or we conduct oral examinations, -concerning which there are no records, and therefore no proofs of -prejudice. By these means, in a couple of years we cut down the -percentage of Jews at Columbia from forty percent to twenty-two percent, -and at New York University we cut it down from fifty percent to fifteen. - -Our really aristocratic university, Princeton, has never “made any -bones” about it. Very few Jews and no Negroes have been able to pass the -“examinations” for admission to Princeton. At Harvard it has always been -possible to get in by passing a much stricter examination; but even by -this method the percentage of Jews keeps creeping up, and when I was in -Harvard last spring they were talking about introducing the -“psychological tests,” as at Columbia. One student reported a -conversation with Richard Cabot, professor of “social ethics,” who said -that he did not object to the exclusion of Jews, but thought it should -be done frankly. His idea prevailed among the overseers, and shortly -afterwards a statement was issued which gives an amusing illustration of -what Harvard regards as frankness. The statement set forth that there -were more applicants for admission than Harvard was able to accommodate, -and the governing body must take some action in the matter. Then: “It is -natural that with a widespread discussion of this sort going on there -should be talk about the proportion of Jews at the college.” In the -course of the “discussion” that followed, we find President Lowell -deploring the growth of anti-Semitic feeling, and suggesting a marvelous -plan to eliminate it from American colleges—let the Jews keep away! - -And then the Negro question. They have a Memorial Hall at Harvard, and -make much of their heroes who died to abolish Negro slavery. I have a -cousin who went to Harvard twenty years ago, and though he is a Southern -man, he was able to live comfortably in a dormitory in which there was a -Negro student. But a year or two ago a student engaged a room in a -freshman dormitory, and went to occupy it, and when they made the -discovery that he was a Negro, they told him that a mistake had been -made, they had no room vacant in that dormitory, or in any other -dormitory. Not until they had been exposed several times in such -evasions, did they come forward and announce that in future no Negroes -would be admitted to freshman dormitories at Harvard. - -We have mentioned New York University. During the controversy over Jews -at Harvard, Chancellor Brown favored the press with the proud -announcement that there was no discrimination against Jews at -Jabbergrab; and a week or two later there was published in the “Nation” -(July 12, 1922) a letter from Mr. Joseph Girdansky, who made a -reputation as an athlete at this place, telling about the experience of -his younger brother, also an athlete, and presumably acceptable to his -fellow students, since he was elected president of the junior class. -When this result was announced, the faculty of Jabbergrab rose up and -called off the election. First, it appeared, the officers elected were -Bolshevists; second, there had been ballot-stuffing; and third, fourth -and fifth, the elections were null and void. Several Jewish boys were -threatened with expulsion for having been elected to class offices! - -Mr. Girdansky went on to tell about his interview with Dean Archibald -Banton of Jabbergrab. This was two or three years ago, and the dean -quite frankly admitted that it was a Jewish question. In the elder -Girdansky’s day, said the dean, the percentage of Jews had been from two -to four, while now it had got to fifty. So the university was -introducing what it called an “Americanization plan.” Mr. Girdansky -threatened to expose this state of affairs—right in the midst of -Chancellor Brown’s advertising campaign for funds! The dean begged him -to wait until the fall, promising that the class elections would be -settled satisfactorily. They were settled by a great number of the -Jewish students leaving, and new class officers being elected, or -appointed by the faculty—all the important ones being non-Jews! - -At Barnard, which is the women’s college of Columbia University, they -have a committee on admissions, which in actual practice means the dean -and the secretary, who decide upon the eligibility of girls who have -passed the examinations. Highly competent graduates of New York high -schools are left out, because they happen to be Jewesses; and in their -place girls are taken from the fashionable “finishing schools,” who are -so poor in scholarship that they have to be conditioned. I was told of -one case of a Russian Jewish girl who had been excluded and went to -Hunter College and made a brilliant record. There was some agitation -about this case, and the dean sent someone to look it up, and the report -was that “keeping her out was a good job.” The teacher who told me this -story was interested in the matter, and went over to Hunter College -herself to find out what was wrong about the girl. There were two things -the matter with her: first, she was a Socialist, and second, she had -expressed her opinion in favor of the recognition of Soviet Russia. - -Also at the University of Pennsylvania the issue has been taken up. The -endowment drive was held up because the leaders wished to engraft upon -it the verbal pledge to anti-Semitic contributors that Jewish enrollment -would be curtailed. One seminary course at the university during the -past year was largely devoted, under cover, to sounding out the views of -the graduate students in economics upon the Jew menace. It was freely -stated in that course that desire to reduce the high percentage of Jews -in the Wharton School was the motive prompting the “intelligence test” -requirement for admission. - -Needless to say, the academic pogrom extends not only to students, but -to professors. You may find this situation effectively set forth in a -vital criticism of America, “Up Stream,” by Ludwig Lewisohn. Mr. -Lewisohn tells how he studied under the aegis of Nicholas Murray Butler, -and made himself a master of English literature and English style. You -do not have to take his word for this; he proves it in his book. Few -indeed are the Anglo-Saxon professors in American universities who can -demonstrate equal attainments! This German-Jew was poor, his family had -made heavy sacrifices to give him an education; but he could get no -teaching position, and for a long time the Columbia professors who had -charge of his career kept from him the dark secret, that Jews are not -employed to teach literature in American universities. Lewisohn was -forced to do newspaper work, and not until years later did he get a -chance to teach at the University of Wisconsin. - -Also you ought to hear the experience of Professor Kornhauser of Denison -University, at Granville, Ohio. He taught zoology, and was admitted to -have one of the best departments in this Baptist institution; he was an -active Y. M. C. A. worker, president of the Faculty Club, and commander -of the American Legion post—it is difficult to see what more a Jew might -do to take the curse off himself! He was offered an important position -at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and as the price of declining this, was -made a full professor at Denison, and spent three years building up his -department. But last April the president of the university asked him to -resign, and stated as his reason that some of the financial supporters -of the university objected to the presence of a Jew on the faculty. The -students protested, and in the effort to silence them the president -threatened that if they published anything about the case he would -refuse to recommend Professor Kornhauser for a job at any other -university. The senior class, by a vote of eighty to six, passed a -resolution asking for the president’s removal. - -Also you should consider the experience of Professor Robert T. Kerlin, a -high-minded and devoted Christian gentleman, who was dismissed from the -Virginia Military Institute for having written a dignified open letter -to the governor of Arkansas, protesting against the execution of some -Negroes for the crime of having defended their lives against a mob. You -may read his letter in the files of the “Nation,” June 15, 1921. - -And then, to return to the Jews, hear the strange experience of Mr. S. -S. Catell, who was an instructor in accounting at the University of -Oklahoma. Mr. Catell happens to be near-sighted, and was turned out upon -the pretext that he was unable to teach properly on this account. He -sent a questionnaire to his students, and out of a total of forty-nine, -thirty said that his work was above the average, while eighteen said it -was average; one was absent and did not reply. But this did not get Mr. -Catell restored, and so he investigated, and discovered that the head of -his department did not like Jews. The way in which the young instructor -made this discovery would seem sufficiently convincing to anyone. He met -the head of his department in the hallway of the latter’s home, and the -department head put to him a question: “Do you know who killed Jesus -Christ?” Mr. Catell, in his letter to me, says that he contented himself -with the answer: “I do not know, since it was so long ago!” - -If I were a cultured Jew in America, I know what I should do. I should -not flatter the race conceit of Anglo-Saxon colleges; I should make it -my task to persuade wealthy Jews to establish an endowment and gather a -faculty of Jewish scientists and scholars—there are enough of them to -make the most wonderful faculty in the world. And then I should open the -doors of this university to seekers of knowledge of all races—save that -I should bar students who had anti-Semitic prejudice! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXIII - THE SEMI-SIMIAN MOB - - -Race prejudice is merely one side of the many-sided snobbery of college -life. The college is the collective prestige of a mob of socially -superior persons, and each and every one of them is interested to -protect that prestige. I asked one of the most eminent of American -scientists, a man who has lived most of his life in universities, what -is the matter with these institutions, and his answer came in an -explosion: “It is the semi-simian mob of the alumni! They have been to -college for the sake of their social position; they have gone out -utterly ignorant, and made what they call a success in the world, and -they come back once a year in a solid phalanx of philistinism, to -dominate the college and bully the trustees and the president.” - -“You don’t think it’s the president’s fault, then?” I asked, and the -answer was: “It is the alumni, that semi-simian mob!” - -The problem of who is to blame, the president or the alumni, is like the -ancient question: “Which comes first, the hen or the egg?” The president -makes the alumni, and the alumni make the president, and the vicious -circle continues ad infinitum. The alumnus who counts is the “successful -son,” and he values in his college those qualities which have enabled -him to succeed. The college is to him a place where he can be sure of -having his son made into the same admirable thing he knows himself to -be. The college is an insurance agency for the business and social -prosperity of his progeny. When he has got the youngsters into Groton, -and then into Harvard, and finally into the Harvard Club, they will have -made so many affiliations that nothing can hurt them; there will always -be “openings,” desirable friendships, quick promotions, favors and -honors: there will be rich girls to choose from, a welcome in homes of -luxury. - -The college is to the alumnus a place in which he has invested four -years of his life, and he wants to keep up the value of that investment. -He welcomes everything which enhances that value—football victories, for -example, which fill the columns of the newspapers, and enable him to -swell out his chest and remember that he is a son of “Old Eli.” On the -other hand, if there are stories in the newspapers that his college has -become a “hot-bed” of some kind, that is a humiliation, that is a -diminution of his prestige; he calls up the president and trustees on -the telephone, and wants to know what the hell does this mean? - -College is the place in which the alumnus spent the happiest years of -his life; it is the center of pleasant memories, about which to grow -sentimental. He goes back to renew old friendships, to sing old songs, -to feel tears in his eyes, delicious emotions stirring his bosom. And -just as a shrewd mother of many daughters employs their charms and -exploits the weaknesses of the male animal, so the college “alma mater” -utilizes the tender emotions of her “old boys” to separate them from -their cash. I have before me a begging circular of Yale University, got -up in the best style of the schools of advertising, attractively printed -in two colors on tinted paper. “Yale’s power lies partly in your hands,” -we are told in red ink; and then in black ink: “An Endowment to Yale: -Yourself. Interest on the Endowment: Whatever you can afford each year.” - -And when the time comes for a “drive,” these herd emotions are whipped -up to frenzy. We learned these tricks in the war days, and immediately -after the war the colleges with one accord started to apply the -technique: class quotas and sectional quotas, “follow-up” letters and -daily “dope” for the press; the members of the faculty shutting their -books and turning into “gladhanders”; “prexy” making speeches to the -Rotarians and the Kiwanis and the Elks, and proving himself a “mixer.” -In 1920 I find Northwestern setting out after twenty-five millions, -Pittsburgh after sixteen, Harvard fifteen, Princeton fourteen, Cornell -ten, followed by Boston University, New York University, Oberlin, Bryn -Mawr, Massachusetts Tech—a total of more than sixty institutions, -demanding over two hundred millions of dollars. I have no objection to -colleges getting money; I am merely pointing out the price of money in a -class civilization—which is conformity to class ideas and ideals. - -One of the most entertaining stories I heard on my tour of the colleges -was told by a young congressman of the modern college type, who was -graduated from one of the “little toadstools” in the Middle West. He is -a handsome fellow, and made a reputation as a quarterback, and was -selected by his alumni association to lead a campaign for funds for a -group of colleges which had combined together—Beloit, Ripon and -Lawrence, all in Wisconsin. It was his duty to travel from city to city -throughout the state; he would summon the “old boys,” and rout out the -football squads, and lecture at the Y. M. C. A.s, and call on the -clergymen of the town for the names of the likely “prospects”; he would -visit the homes of the rich, and make tennis dates with the sons, and -take the daughters driving. All his expenses were paid; he was provided -with the latest sport costumes, and automobiles without limit. He would -be invited to dinner-parties, where he would talk about the institution, -awakening tender memories in the bosom of the “old boy,” and literally -“vamping” him. He was furnished with a supply of fraternity pins, which -he allowed the girls to extract from his necktie; needless to say, he -was many times engaged. Sometimes, he told me, he even stooped to kiss -the babies. He came back in triumph, with a total of three hundred -thousand dollars to his credit. And one of his crowd made an even -greater success—he not merely got engaged, but got married to the -daughter of a multimillionaire wheat speculator; the bride gave real -estate and money to the institution, so the bridegroom’s share of the -loot was not begrudged him. - -You thought perhaps I was exaggerating when I portrayed the childish -pleasure of the oil king in his Gothic buildings, with crenellated -battlements and moated draw-bridge. But that is the precise and -calculated purpose of these trappings; they are part of the vamping -equipment—they create an atmosphere and a glamour, they set the college -apart from wholesale haberdashery, or hardware, or whatever may be the -“line” of the successful son. This is the purpose of the ivy and the -college songs, the sheepskins and gold seals, the gowns and -mortar-boards and solemn processions. I have before me the picture -section of the New York “Times,” showing the installation of the new -president of Yale. It is only a photograph, but if an artist had -composed a picture of college flummery he could not have done better. In -the background are the venerable buildings, with ivy-covered walls, -memorial tablets, and huge iron gates; and here comes a procession, -headed by a solemn young official in a long black night-gown, carrying a -huge drum-major’s baton, covered with filigree like a bridal cake—a mace -of office, no doubt copied from the one used in the House of Commons. -Behind him stride the outgoing president and the incoming president—a -pair who might be labeled, like the patent medicine advertisements, -“Before and After Taking.” “Before Taking” you are a fairly capable and -intelligent looking human male, but “After Taking” you have a large -mouth, with jaw hanging down, and an expression of withered imbecility; -in both cases you wear gorgeous colored robes, and immediately behind -you, in frock-coat and silk hat, walks the grand duke of your board, -grim-faced, solemn, and paunched. Next come half a dozen army officers, -then a long double file of scholars in caps and gowns, the faculty, -carefully ordered according to the amount of their salaries. On each -side stand the rows of graduating students in their black nighties, -their heads respectfully bared, their hands folded across their tummies. - -This kind of monkey-business goes on once or twice a year in every -American college and university. There is no “toadstool” so small that -it does not hasten to get up such a performance, and to contrive itself -a set of “traditions.” There is none big enough or mature enough to put -away childish things, to dispense with the tinsel and gold lace of the -scholastic life. At Harvard they have a solemn commencement day parade, -with the House of Morgan and the House of Lee-Higginson all in top hats -and swallow-tail coats—the only sign of a sense of humor being that they -forbid the taking of photographs! At Columbia, Nicholas Miraculous -appears in a rakish tam-o’-shanter, which is of almost infinite dignity, -because it signifies that he has not been content with a baker’s dozen -of honors from up-start American universities but has received the -supreme academic accolade from Oxford. - -We have heard the statement that “colleges grow by degrees.” There is no -law regulating the distribution of fancy names, and they serve just as -peerages and lesser titles serve in England—to get campaign funds for -the gang in office. Through the pages of “Who’s Who in America” they are -scattered as if with a pepper-box, and a study of them is an amusing -revelation. Pick out the leading old tories in the United States, the -blind leaders of the blind who have almost tumbled our country into the -ditch; you will find everyone of them with a string of academic -dignities tacked to his name. William Howard Taft has nine, Charles E. -Hughes eleven, Woodrow Wilson ten, Leonard Wood nine, Henry Cabot Lodge -nine, William C. Sproul nine, Robert Lansing six, Elihu Root sixteen, -Herbert Hoover twenty-four. On the other hand, think of the men who have -been struggling all their lives to make this country a little bit of a -democracy: take the very truest and bravest of them—how many honorary -degrees have they? How many has Louis D. Brandeis? Not one! How many has -Robert M. LaFollette? Not one! How many have William E. Borah, Samuel -Untermyer, Clarence Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Fremont Older, Frederick -C. Howe, John Haynes Holmes? Not one to divide among them! - -No, the academic honors are reserved exclusively for the darlings of the -plutocracy, the henchmen and retainers of special privilege. You -remember the pious Senator Pepper, trustee of the University of U. G. I. -Six colleges have honored him—including, of course, his own. Three -honored Philander C. Knox before he died, and six honored Thomas Nelson -Page. Four have honored David Jayne Hill, Col. George Harvey, Alton B. -Parker and Frank O. Lowden; three have honored Judge Gary and A. -Mitchell Palmer, two have honored Otto Kahn, four have honored Brander -Matthews—including, of course, Columbia. We saw Columbia conferring a -degree upon Paderewski; they also conferred one upon Miller, editor of -the New York “Times,” of whom Brisbane caustically remarked that the -paper had been sold several times, and he had been sold along with it. -Senator Depew, the aged buffoon, has one, Howard Elliott has one, -Augustus Thomas has one; Owen Wister got one from the University of U. -G. I., and Booth Tarkington one from Princeton—a little wee one, he -being a mere writer of novels. - -It is at the commencement ceremonies that these honors are bestowed; and -always the president makes a speech, telling the great one how great he -is. Sometimes the great one also delivers an address, and furnishes a -copy to the newspapers in advance, and so the university becomes a -center of propaganda for every form of class greed and cruelty. In the -spring of this year, while I was touring the colleges, Judge Gary fed -his pious poison to the graduating class at the University of Heaven. At -the University of the Steel Trust they gave degrees to the president of -Indiana University, and to an Episcopal clergyman, and to the chairman -of the board of directors of the Standard Oil Company—a gentleman we met -as one of the grand dukes of Brown University. “This highest honor of -the university is appropriately bestowed upon Mr. Bedford in recognition -of his activities in the development of the American petroleum -industry,” etc. At the Pennsylvania Military College degrees were -conferred upon Secretary of War Weeks and the pious Senator Pepper. Mr. -Weeks is described by the “Literary Digest” as “a banker and broker of -high standing in private life,” and he takes the occasion to give a -boost to the liquor lobby, and recommend to these budding soldier-boys -the return of Bacchus to America. - -And while I am revising my manuscript for the printer, the college -hordes reassemble, and the college orators remount the rostrum, and the -broadcasting stations go into action. The world is informed by the -president of Dartmouth College that too many students are trying to get -an education in America, there is no use wasting our time on any but -superior minds. And a few days later the new head of Colgate University, -Dr. George Barton Cutten, repeals the Declaration of Independence and -overthrows the political theories of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. -Democracy is a delusion, “founded on a mistaken theory,” and more than -ever we must look to be ruled by aristocracy. “Manhood suffrage has been -our greatest and most popular failure, and now we double it by granting -universal suffrage.” - -With exceptions so few as to be hardly worth mentioning, the rule holds -good that everywhere, in every issue involving a conflict between the -people and special privilege, the universities and colleges are on the -side of special privilege. In the San Francisco graft prosecutions the -University of California was almost unanimous in support of the -grafters, so much so that when Rudolph Spreckles and Francis J. Heney -entered the University Club in San Francisco, every man in the room -would get up and leave. On the other side of the continent the Harvard -alumni machine fought almost to a man against the appointment of -Brandeis to the Supreme Court; and for twenty-nine years this machine -has voiced its political ideals in the United States Senate through -Henry Cabot Lodge. - -At the risk of boring you, I am going to take you to just one of the -meetings of these Harvard alumni. It is a dinner, the fortieth -anniversary of the class of 1881, held in the University Club of Boston, -June 22, 1921. The principal speaker is a distinguished member of that -class, Mr. Howard Elliott, C. E. of Harvard, and LL. D. of Middlebury -College. Mr. Elliott was at this time a Harvard overseer, and chairman -of Harvard’s favorite New Haven system; he is now also chairman of Mr. -Morgan’s Northern Pacific Railroad, and a trustee of Massachusetts Tech. -He is, therefore, the beau ideal of the successful son, and what he says -to his classmates after forty years’ experience in the outside world -represents the very soul of the alumni. Mr. Elliott is naively proud of -his remarks, and has had them printed in a pamphlet, which he sends -about freely. Try to enter into his primitive state of mind for a minute -or two, and read half a dozen paragraphs of his oratory: - - There is a spirit of unrest, of discontent, of extravagance, of - idleness, of expected perfection, and impatience when we should - remember that perfection and success are not immediately within one’s - grasp. - - There has developed out of this a noisy effort by a relatively small - number of people to upset and dislocate the established order of - things and to “Fly to evils that we know not of.” - - What are called Radicalism, Socialism, Sovietism and Bolshevism are - advocated, and too many people who should know better lend a receptive - ear to those foolish, yet dangerous, doctrines, and thus encourage the - ignorant, the thoughtless and the wicked. - - In schools, colleges and even in our beloved Harvard, there is some of - this atmosphere, and it is disturbing many of the best friends of - education and progress in the country. - - In giving young people their physical nourishment, we do not spread - before them every kind of food and say, “Eat what you like whether it - agrees with you or not.” We know that the physical machine can absorb - only a certain amount and that all else is waste and trash, with the - result that bodies are poisoned and weakened. - - In giving mental nourishment, why lay before young and impressionable - men and women un-American doctrines and ideas that take mental time - and energy from the study and consideration of the great fundamentals - and eternal truths, fill the mind with unprofitable mental trash - which, with some, result only in sowing the seeds of discontent and - unrest? And which can result only in absolute life failure, spiritual - and material. - -The first thing we note from the above is, what an extremely low -standard of English composition prevailed at Harvard from 1877 to 1881. -The second is, upon what feeble intellectual equipment it is possible -for a man to have charge of two great American railroads. The third is, -why Mr. Howard Elliott declined an invitation to discuss the railroad -problems of the country on the same platform with Glenn E. Plumb. The -fourth is, why an advocate of special privilege tries so desperately to -avoid giving the young people of the country an opportunity to compare -his mental equipment with that of the radicals. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXIV - THE RAH-RAH BOYS - - -The most conspicuous of the activities of the alumni have, of course, to -do with athletics; this is the part of college life which the students -have made for themselves, and it is what college really means to the -great bulk of them. Now, the sedentary life is one of the many evils -invented by our civilization, and if college athletics meant that all -the students in the institution, both men and women, were getting a -thorough “work-out” three or four times a week, I should be willing to -say that the athletics justified the colleges. But what college -athletics really means is that two per cent of the students, or in small -colleges probably ten per cent, get an excessive amount of exercise, -sometimes to the permanent injury of their vital organs; while the great -bulk of the students are surrendered to the mob-excitements of a series -of gladiatorial combats and sporting events, which provide exercise only -for the vocal cords and the gambling instincts. - -College athletics, under the spur of commercialism, has become a -monstrous cancer, which is rapidly eating out the moral and intellectual -life of our educational institutions. College rivalries have been -erected into the dignity of little wars, enlisting an elaborate cult of -loyalties and heroisms. The securing of prize athletes, the training of -them, the exploiting of them in mass combats, has become an enormous -industry, absorbing the services not merely of students and alumni, but -of a whole class of professional coaches, directors, press agents and -promoters, who are rapidly coming to dominate college life and put the -faculty on the shelf. “Drives” are instigated and funds raised for the -building of “stadiums,” and these, being a source of income, are a -continual stimulus to new activities. So this evil, also, is one which -breeds itself. The athletic alumni bring in new students for athletic -purposes, and these students increase the athletic excitement while they -are undergraduates, and go out from the institution to multiply the -athletic alumni. - -I am only stating what every insider knows perfectly well, that our -college athletics today is almost universally commercialized. All the -big colleges have “alumni committees,” who are out scouting for the best -athletic material; they are watching the athletic life of all the “prep” -schools and other institutions where likely material is to be -found—including steel-mills and lumber camps. They are offering husky -men all sorts of inducements to come to the right college. The offering -of money is supposed to be forbidden, but there are very few colleges -today which do not regularly and systematically violate or evade this -rule. There are many kinds of jobs in connection with the gladiatorial -life which can be made available to the right persons, and which are or -can be made into sinecures. There are tickets to be sold and accounts -kept; there are duties as masseurs and attendants and janitors’ -assistants. I know of one case, of a student who managed the -Intercollegiate track meet not so very long ago, who received eight -hundred dollars for this small service. The athletic budget of Harvard -is considerably over a million dollars a year, and football pays for it. -First-class coaches claim twenty thousand a year and get it, and -graduate managers also receive high salaries. There is a careful -pretense kept up that this gladiatorial industry is managed by students, -but in all the big universities this is a farce; the student managers -are puppets, the real masters of the industry being the alumni—business -men who bring the business point of view into sport. Anything to win! - -Consider, for example, the athletic developments at Stanford University, -which have played their part in the demoralizing of that great -institution. There is a noisy bunch of alumni who have been called upon -to raise money on various occasions, and who have thus come to power, -and know it. They have cast out the honest but unpopular Rugby game, and -brought in the American game of batter and smash. They run the annual -contests with the University of California, working in alliance with the -railroads, the hotels, the restaurants, and the “sporting-houses,” which -of course make millions out of the enormous crowds of free-spending -people. The stadium at Stanford seats sixty thousand, at five dollars -apiece, so you can see how much money there is at stake, and how quickly -there grows up in the university a powerful group of students who are -nothing but sporting promoters, with the point of view and the vices of -the underworld. - -Of course, everything depends upon victory, and to make certain of -victory there are professional coaches—the alumni pay the Stanford coach -ten thousand dollars a year, which is more than any professor has ever -received in the history of Stanford, and twice the salary of the -professor of clinical history. The alumni have raised a “yellow dog” -fund, to bring in professional athletes, and of course these fellows -know what they are there for, and do not waste much of their precious -time upon studies. A Stanford professor assured me that many of them did -not even bother to get text-books. The committee on scholarship was -changed, because some professors had made themselves unpopular by -refusing to lower the standards for these athletic idols. - -Such was the story I was told at Stanford in April; and in July I read -in my paper that Stanford’s Board of Athletic Control is beginning the -construction of a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar men’s -dormitory, to be built out of the receipts from athletic contests. This -news appears on the “sporting” page of my newspaper, and is written by a -“sporting” man, with a “sporting” point of view. Note the haughty tone -in which the academic world is taught its place: - - This would seem to be the correct answer to the row about taking in - gate receipts by certain academic minded professors in the East, who - charged “commercialism.” The stadium cost Stanford approximately two - hundred and five thousand dollars, and approximately one hundred and - ten thousand was realized by Stanford as her share of gate receipts - from the big game alone. A certain sum of money had already been - advanced by the trustees to build the stadium. The crowd at this - year’s contests in the stadium is expected to be even larger. - -And of course, if Stanford has a stadium, the University of California -must have one. Her alumni and athletic boosters set to work to raise a -million dollars, using the methods of intimidation they had learned -during the war-time “drives.” One member of the faculty, full professor -and dean, became especially truculent about the meaning of “California -spirit”—to be proven by putting up money for the stadium. Students were -compelled to subscribe, and in the fall, when some of them found that -they had not been able to earn money to pay their full subscriptions, -they were refused admission to the university; that is, the university -refused to accept their registration fees, until their stadium pledges -had been paid! - -Ex-President Jordan talked to me very emphatically about the athletic -evil at Stanford and at other institutions. There was a famous coach at -Stanford, who was taken to a university of the Middle West many years -ago; he gathered in among his gladiators men who were too ignorant to -speak English correctly, and some one paid them with cash, and with -promises of college promotions, which the faculty duly delivered. Thus a -certain famous football champion published in his home paper in -California the statement that he had been offered fifteen hundred -dollars and an education, to play football at this university. He went -to the Law School, with less than a high school education, and he was -graduated from the Law School the year he would only have entered -Stanford. There was a gathering of college heads in Chicago, to consider -the problem of professional athletics, and President Jordan was invited -by a professor of the university in question to tell about his -experiences with this coach. The result was that the alumni organized to -demand the resignation of this professor. Concerning one of these -gladiators President Jordan writes me: “After leaving college, he used -to stand in a San Francisco saloon where he collected small sums for -letting men feel of his muscles. He is not now living.” It would seem -that one needs more than muscle to secure survival in modern society! - -That was ten or fifteen years ago, and the exploiting of muscle has -grown like all other kinds of American big business. At Princeton, which -is especially notorious for the purchasing of athletes, President Hibben -called a conference with the presidents of Yale and Harvard, to see what -could be done about it; they solemnly passed a series of resolutions to -the effect that the athletic managers must obey the amateur rules—which -they knew all about and laughed at; they laughed none the less after -this conference. I talked with a student at the Massachusetts Institute -of Technology, who saw at first-hand the process whereby Princeton -bought a champion hammer thrower and shot putter from that institution. -It fell to my friend to answer the telephone in the athletic association -office while the Princeton alumni were trying to get this man. The -students at Tech are bitter about the way their athletes are bought or -stolen—they haven’t as much money as Princeton. Another all-around -athlete was not allowed to run by Tech, but this did not worry him very -much—because he had such a handsome offer from Bowdoin! - -To get a famous athlete is the only way these little colleges know to -“put themselves on the map.” They make desperate efforts, and sometimes -the results are comical. For example, in Kentucky is a little religious -institution known as Center College. No one had ever heard of it before, -but a couple of years ago it turned up with a carefully selected -assortment of gladiators, and beat Harvard at football. I happen to know -about one of the leading athletic lights who achieved this triumph; he -was a pool-room hanger-on before he was brought to the college, and now -that his brief day of glory is past, he is a farm-hand! - -Everywhere these mighty men of muscle and money are coming to feel their -power. Speaking at an alumni meeting of the University of Pennsylvania, -a British rowing coach laid down the law to the vice-provost of the -university: - - You, Mr. Vice-provost, as representing the faculty, have told us that - the university has added from eight buildings in ’76 to eighty now; - that the students have grown from one thousand to seven thousand, but - what has made your university? Why, athletics. Athletics are the - biggest advertisement for any university, and athletics have made - Pennsylvania. What has the faculty ever done for athletics? - Nothing.... Get busy and alter it all.... Pressure on the faculty - quick, and you can do it. - -Thorstein Veblen, in his book, “The Higher Learning in America,” gives -an amusing illustration of the methods used to get these professional -gladiators “by” in their classes. The athletic committee, casting around -for “snap” courses, selected Italian as a likely one, and when -examination time came round the gladiators were required to read a -passage in Italian—the passage submitted being the Lord’s Prayer! -Professor Veblen does not name the university at which this happened, -but I have ascertained that it was Mr. Rockefeller’s University of -Chicago. - -A curious illustration of the operation of the athletic system in our -smaller colleges is found in the January, 1922, bulletin of the American -Association of University Professors, dealing with the affairs of -Washington and Jefferson College, a religious institution located at -Washington, Pennsylvania. All these little toadstools are trying to turn -into big mushrooms, and there are two essentials to the procedure; one -is—if you will pardon the mixed metaphor—the harpooning of whales, and -the other is the winning of football victories. At Washington and -Jefferson there was one member of the faculty, a professor of chemistry -by the name of H. E. Wells, who failed to appreciate the supreme -importance of football victories in college life. He had his mind set on -the upholding of academic standards, and he ruthlessly “flunked” some -prominent athletes, who had failed to make good in their class work. - -Naturally, this roused the indignation of the athletic alumni, who were -putting up their good money to pay the tuition and college fees, board -and room rent of members of the football team. (This was proved by a -committee of the trustees appointed to investigate the athletic -situation.) The athletic alumni set out to “get” the cantankerous -professor of chemistry, using for their purpose a man who was listed as -“general secretary” of the college, but had been energetic and -successful as a “field agent,” recruiting students for athletics. This -man, backed by the alumni, caused the publication in their interlocking -newspaper, the Washington “Reporter,” of an article attacking Professor -Wells’ record as a teacher, and presenting statistics as to the number -of students he had “flunked.” These statistics were entirely false, and -Professor Wells sent in a correction—which correction was, as usual, -buried in an obscure part of the paper. The American Association of -University Professors points out the important fact that the college -administration made no move to protect Professor Wells against these -false charges; on the contrary, says the report, “the administration -permitted a professor to be struck below the belt in such a way that his -popularity with students and with alumni was extensively damaged.” After -that, of course, it was easy for a committee of the athletic alumni to -appear before the trustees and charge that Professor Wells was -“unpopular among the students.” So Professor Wells was dropped by the -trustees at three months’ notice, without giving him a hearing, without -giving him a right to face his accusers, in fact without his even -knowing some of the charges against him. - -Still more curious was the case of George Winchester, professor of -physics. He had raised the money for the only first class laboratory at -the college, and he had given more money than the majority of the -trustees; but he committed the offense of putting studies above -football, and for that he was punished. In March, 1918, the board of -trustees granted to Professor Winchester “a leave of absence for the -duration of the war, or so long as he remains in the service of the -allies.” After the armistice the board wrote to Professor Winchester, to -ask him when he would be ready to take up his work again, and Professor -Winchester cabled that he would be ready to resume work on July 1, 1919; -after cabling, he went to Toulon to do work with the French Admiralty. -Meantime, the athletic alumni got busy with the board, and the board -summarily dropped Professor Winchester, and appointed his successor! -Says the committee of the Professors’ Association: - - It would require stronger language than is suitable to this report to - characterize justly the action taken. Regardless of any argument that - might be developed to account for the extraordinary action of the - board, it is sufficient to recount the bare fact that the board, after - having granted a leave of absence, dismissed Professor Winchester in - absentia, while he was in France on active service in the work for - which leave had been granted, without a previous notification, without - a hearing, without any redress whatsoever. It constitutes an act about - which there can be no difference of opinion among right thinking men. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXV - THE SOCIAL TRAITORS - - -The failure of colleges to impart culture is a standard topic of our -time, so I shall not dwell upon it. The theme of this book is something -of far greater importance—the success of colleges in imparting a spirit -of bigotry, intolerance and suspicion toward ideas. Says a teacher in a -Pennsylvania college, who asks me not to use his name: “Our students are -climbers, strangers to idealism, or at best mere dabblers at it.” Or -consider the testimony of Hendrik Willem Van Loon, who taught at -Cornell, and later at Antioch, which is trying a novel experiment in -combining education and everyday work. Van Loon declares that he found -in the students of both colleges a profound and deeply rooted hostility -toward originality, a personal resentment toward anyone who interfered -with their standardized notions. They are taught from textbooks, and -they follow the book, and refuse to think about anything that is not in -the book. - -To the same effect testifies Robert Herrick, after thirty years -experience at the University of Chicago. Our colleges follow the English -monastic tradition, says Professor Herrick; they pretend to watch over -the morals of their students, but with the crowds now thronging in, the -task is impossible, and the pretense is dishonest. No large university -would today dare attempt any real control, nor would the parents support -it; because fathers who send their sons to college with large allowances -and high-powered cars know perfectly well that these young men go on -“bats,” and that they take girls out into the country in their cars. - -What discipline they get, according to Herrick, they get from one -another in their fraternities and clubs. They are uncritical, naive and -barbarous, with herd feelings instead of ideas. The first requirement is -that everyone shall be alike, a part of a mob. They teach the newcomer -the rules; he must wear a freshman cap, and if he has opinions of his -own they tell him he is too “tonguey,” and proceed to knock the nonsense -out of him. The faculty know of this, and think it is fine; they mix -with the men, and join the fraternities, and help in the production of -subservience and conformity. I quoted the above remarks to a professor -in another university, and he threw up his hands. “My God!” he cried. “I -am stupefied! My students accept everything that I say as gospel. If -only I might once discover a crank in my classes!” And he quoted the -phrase of William James, once of Harvard: “Our undisciplinables are our -proudest product.” - -I have before me a letter from a professor in one of the “little -toad-stools,” Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa. The Student Council -passed a rule, which was later approved by the faculty, that all -freshmen were to wear green caps. A hundred and fifty freshmen meekly -submitted; but there was one “conscientious objector.” My informant -writes: - - The upper classmen got together and announced that unless every - freshman got a cap by noon of a certain day he would be subjected to - the gauntlet of the paddling machine. I wish I could have gotten a - picture of that mob of upper classmen on the campus of a “Christian” - college, each provided with a club, as they lined up and forced Ball - through the line of clubs, each taking as hearty a swat as possible—a - fine specimen of the type of civilization we can expect from the - leaders we are training in the Christian colleges today! What a new - social order it will be! Through it all, the president has practically - approved the whole procedure, from the chapel platform. Ball still - refuses, in spite of a boycott by the student body, even his own - fellow freshmen; and I understand a paper is to be read in chapel next - week denouncing him, and calling for a boycott unless he submits. This - is supposed to be the daily Christian religious service—the hour of - devotion for the students! - -Yet another professor compared his students to the crackers which are -packed in tin boxes by the wholesale bakeries; all cut from certain -patterns, and stamped with certain standard designs. We have sheltered -them from realities, and kept them ignorant of the problems they are to -confront. We have taught them a few formulas of morality, utterly -unpractical and impossible to apply—as we prove by not applying them -ourselves. From their social life the students learn what the real world -is—a place of class distinctions based upon property; they learn the -American religion—what William James calls “the worship of the -bitch-goddess Success.” They throw themselves into the social struggle -with ferocious determination to get ahead; and when they go out into the -world, they carry that spirit into the commercial struggle. - -In every profession they find, of course, that the way to get ahead is -to serve the powers that rule, and to betray the general welfare. I -could take you through the professions which are taught in our -universities, one after another, and show you how the prevailing ethical -standards constitute treason to the human race. I could show you in -academic teaching how these same standards are justified, in phrases -only partly veiled. Take, Harvard, for example, and the Massachusetts -Institute of Technology, admitted to have the highest standards of any -engineering school in America; we saw the professors in these -institutions selling themselves to predatory corporations, and laying -down high-sounding “principles,” whose sole effect and purpose is to -enable the Wholesale Pickpockets’ Association to plunder the public. I -have a letter from a high official of the United States Bureau of -Education, who tells me more about these engineering traitors. He says: - - I recall one man, for example, who was called in by a water company - for expert service in connection with the purity of the water, which - was being questioned by the people. He contended with me that it was - “his business” if he could find remunerative employment of that sort, - and that he was under no obligation to give the public the benefit of - his expert knowledge concerning the impurity of the water supply. But - what aroused my ire more than anything else was the fact that he - preached that kind of thing to his technical students as the standard - of “loyalty” they should pursue toward the companies where they might - be employed after graduation. This man was a real scientist. He was so - thoroughly interested in his subject that he was willing to take - considerable personal risks in conducting experiments, but he was - sadly lacking in that social and religious conception which makes us - realize our mutual obligations and duties. - -Or take the work of inventors; they have a man at one of our greatest -universities who is a famous inventor, and he makes great scientific -discoveries, and then he goes to the big corporations and sells -them—what? The right to use his invention and spread it throughout the -world for the benefit of mankind? No; he sells them the right to -suppress the invention, and deprive mankind of the use of it for a -generation or two! You see, a new invention may mean the scrapping of a -great deal of existing machinery; if it falls into the hands of some -independent concern, it may cost the big monopolists enormous losses. So -they pay for the right to suppress it, and a great inventor is turned by -the social system into a kind of scientific blackmailer. - -Or take the lawyers; surely I do not need to prove to you how the -lawyers are betraying mankind. A professor at the University of Chicago -told me of attending a class reunion, where a group of high-up -corporation lawyers got drunk and began gossiping about the tricks they -had played in their profession, and, as the professor said, it made him -physically ill. I also have heard these high-up lawyers talking; the -late James B. Dill, who was paid a million dollars to organize the Steel -Trust, spent many an evening in his home telling me the game as he had -seen it, and it began with bribery of judges, juries and legislators, -and ended with wire-tapping and burglary. The late Francis Lynde -Stetson, one of the highest paid corporation lawyers in New York, went -down to Trenton on the train with Judge Dill to beat some railroad rate -law, and he opened his suit-case playfully, showing that he had fifty -thousand dollars in new bank-notes. “That’s a fine kind of work for a -pillar of the church like you,” said Dill, and the other answered, with -a grin: “How do I know but that I may have to pay for my lunch?” - -Or if you cannot believe Judge Dill, believe Judge Lindsey, who told me -about a young man who came to Denver from the Harvard Law School, full -of the fine phrases of altruism with which his teachers had filled him, -and when he learned what he had to do to practice corporation law in -Denver, he broke down in Lindsey’s office, and buried his head in his -arms and cried like a baby. Afterwards, so Lindsey writes me, “he -capitulated and joined the gang.” - -Or maybe it is medicine the young man has studied. He has heard about -the nobleness of the healing art, but he has to keep an automobile, and -his wife wants to get into society, and competition is keen. There is -one way a physician can make a thousand dollars by a few minutes’ work, -and any physician who is in touch with the leisure class has women on -their knees to him every week, begging him to take their money. Dr. -William J. Robinson estimates that there are a million abortions -performed in the United States every year, so you see that our medical -schools have not steeled all their graduates against this temptation. -Now we have another one added—every physician in the United States is -made by law a dispenser of joviality, the seneschal of the castle, the -keeper of the keys to the wine-cellar! - -Or maybe the graduate becomes a newspaper reporter. One of the oldest -Wall Street reporters in New York talked to me last spring, telling me a -little of the way things are going there. The newspaper reporters also -are keepers of the keys of the wine-cellar; they have police passes, and -some of them are running a bootlegging industry between New York and -Canada! Others have gone into high finance on a large scale—because, of -course, a financial reporter comes on information which is worth -thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands. “Nowadays,” said my friend, -“when a Wall Street reporter gets a tip and rushes to the telephone, you -don’t hear him call his city editor; you hear him call his broker.” I -was told of one newspaper man who had the fortune to be called in when -Mr. Charles Sabin of the Guaranty Trust Company gave out some news of -the German overtures for peace, and this enterprising young man cleared -fifty thousand dollars from the information. - -Or perhaps the young man becomes a college professor; if so, he hides -his convictions and makes himself a tight little snob and reactionary, -to win the favor of the college machine. He hides the truth from his -students, or he “shades” it, which is the same thing, and takes his -pitiful little bribe in the dignity of a full professorship. He turns -out class after class of young men, as ignorant of life and as helpless -against temptation as he himself was once. So reaction rules in our -country, and men who plead for social justice are slandered and -maligned, and turned into criminals in the public eye; all the agencies -of law and justice become mobs, and the Ku Klux Klan meets every night -in lonely places, and lights its fiery cross and prepares for the -wholesale slaughter of the future of mankind. - -Just now the rich are having it all their own way; they can do the -killing and the bludgeoning and the jailing—and it never occurs to them -to think what an example they are setting to the workers, and what it -will mean when the tables are turned, and the disinherited of the earth -have their way for a while! It ought to be the chief function of -educators to point out things like this to the public; but that would be -“meddling in politics,” and we have seen that politics in colleges is a -privilege reserved to presidents and trustees. There are going to be -ferocious attacks made upon this book, and this seems as convenient a -place as any in which to explain what they mean. Faculty members will -rush forward to defend their institutions; in some cases, no doubt, -there will be resolutions of protest, with many signatures. They will -have some ammunition; for, of course no one can write a book of this -size, full of such masses of facts, and not make a few slips of detail. -These will be taken up and magnified into gigantic blunders, and -denunciation of them spread broadcast in the capitalist press. When you -read these things, bear one circumstance in mind: that any young -professor who wants to become a dean in a hurry, who has a vision of -himself selected as president in the course of a few years, will know -that he can find no more certain way to win favor with his overlords -than to find something wrong with this book, and then tell about it -gallantly! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXVI - PREXY - - -I promised early in this book to consider how it happens that so many -college presidents are men who do not always tell the truth. We have now -seen far enough into the inside of colleges to understand the reason. -The president of a college or university is the great reconciler of -irreconcilabilities; he is the chemist who mixes oil and water, the high -priest who makes peace between God and Mammon, the circus-rider who -stands on two horses going in opposite directions; and all these things -not by choice, but ex-officio and of inescapable necessity. The college -president is a man who procures money from the rich, and uses it for the -spreading of knowledge; in fulfilling which two functions he places -himself, not merely in the line of fire of the warring forces of the -class struggle, but between the incompatible elements of human nature -itself—between greed and service, between hate and love, between body -and spirit. - -Consider the rich, how they become so. Either they or their ancestors -before them have taken from others, and that which they have taken, the -others have lost. The very essence of their richness is that there are -many poor. If all were rich, there would be no sense in wealth, no power -in it, for there would be none willing to serve. It is plain to anyone -who can think that richness means possessing material things, and -excluding others from possession thereof. Of such is the kingdom of -Mammon. - -And of what is the kingdom of God? In the region of the mind the -situation is exactly the opposite; the wealth of one is the wealth of -all, and the highest joy of possession is that the thing possessed may -be shared by all and be of benefit to all, with no diminution to anyone. -I am trying here to write a useful book; my pleasure is in communicating -to you what I believe to be truth, and exactly proportionate to my -success in spreading this truth is my own gratification. This applies to -Shakespeare writing a play, it applies to Beethoven composing a -symphony, it applies to Newton discovering a natural law; each gives -something which all mankind may enjoy forever, and no one’s pleasure in -“As You Like It,” or in the “Fifth Symphony,” or in an understanding of -the movements of the planets, is any less because at the same time -millions of other people are having that same pleasure. - -This fact determines the attitude to life of the true scientist, the -scholar and the lover of the arts; it is as different from the attitude -of the trader, the speculator and the exploiter as black is different -from white, or night from day. There can be no greater irreconcilability -conceivable to the human mind. But now comes a new species of superman, -whose function it is to make peace between these two forces, to persuade -the lion of commerce and the lamb of learning to lie down in the same -pasture together! The name of this great American enchanter is PREXY. - -How does he do it? I am moved to be blunt, and say in plain English that -he does it by being the most universal faker and the most variegated -prevaricator that has yet appeared in the civilized world. He does it by -making his entire being a conglomeration of hypocrisies and -stultifications, so that by the time he has been in office a year or two -he has told so many different kinds of falsehoods and made so many -different kinds of pretenses to so many different people, that he has -lost all understanding of what truth is, or how a man could speak it. - -The college needs money. Colleges always need money, because college -students get three times as much as they pay for, and the hope of -getting social prestige, to enable them to live easy lives, brings -constantly increasing crowds each year to the college gates. So “prexy” -seeks out possible donors; “prospects,” as they are called in the slang -of mendication. He cannot go to them directly and ask for money; the man -who tries methods so crude is speedily eliminated from the list of -college presidents. The successful one is the possessor of what is -called “tact”; that is to say, he understands the weaknesses of human -nature, he is an expert in the predatory psychology, a hunter who knows -how to pierce the tough and scaly hides of old commercial monsters who -have spent a lifetime watching people trying to get their money away -from them, and have managed hitherto to resist all threats and -blandishments. - -The college president has to meet these plutocratic monsters socially; -he has to be “human” to them—that is to say, he has to pretend to be -interested in them, to admire them and their ways of life. He has to -flatter their vanities, invite them to meals and find out what they like -to eat, hold their overcoats and escort them to the motorcar, be -gracious to their wives and a bit flirtatious to their daughters. After -he thinks he has sufficiently gained their confidence, he begins a -careful approach, to make these monsters realize the indispensability of -propaganda to every ruling class. There is a battle of ideas going on in -the world, dangerous notions are clamoring for attention, class hatreds -and jealousies are raising their hideous hydra heads. What safety can -there be for vested interests, unless they make it their business to see -that the new generation is taught respect for the property clauses of -the Constitution? There is no department of human thought into which -this struggle with new ideas does not penetrate, there is nothing that -universities do or teach that cannot be related, in the eloquence of -college presidents hunting money, to the cause of law and order and safe -and sane stagnation. - -On that basis the college president does his “vamping”; and having got -the necessary papers signed and witnessed before a notary, he gets a -bath and a shave, and puts on clean clothes, and draws a deep breath, -and expands his chest, and confronts the world with a proclamation of -magnificent devotion to the service of truth and the welfare of mankind. -These millions which he has just collected from the aged oil dinosaur, -or steel megatherium, or beef pterodactyl, or whatever the beast may -be—these millions he is now going to spend in a free and absolutely -disinterested pursuit of understanding, with utter loyalty to scientific -facts wherever they may lead, with complete trust in democracy and the -wisdom of the people, with reverent humility before the God of Truth and -Justice and Love. This that I am pronouncing you will immediately -recognize as a standard commencement oration; delivered in the presence -of a hundred plutocrats in decent frock-coats, and five hundred faculty -members in caps and gowns, and a graduating class of a thousand young -people; published next morning to the extent of four columns in all -local newspapers, and relayed by the Associated Press to the extent of -half a column to thirteen hundred morning newspapers throughout the -United States. In the course of my trip among the colleges I was talking -with a certain eminent scientist, and I spoke of the tragedy and horror -that had befallen mankind through the failure of Woodrow Wilson to mean -any of his golden words. “My God!” said the scientist. “Didn’t you know -what all that was? Haven’t you been hearing that kind of thing for -thirty years? Didn’t you know that those speeches of Woodrow’s were -commencement orations?” - -It makes no difference whether the college president is dealing -personally with the interlocking directorate, as in privately endowed -institutions, or whether he deals with the politicians who run the -government machine for these same plutocrats. As a matter of fact, the -college president who represents the so-called public institutions is in -the more humiliating position of the two; for the free lance man has an -open field, he can get himself invited to dinner-parties, and always has -the hope that some day he may run into a politer plutocrat; but the -president of a state university has no choice, he has to deal with the -“boss” whom he finds in power. He will be snubbed and insulted until the -tears run down his cheeks; and then he will go back to his deans and his -kitchen cabinet and explain what it is that the political machine -demands—the expulsion of this or that professor, the support of the -university for this candidate or that bit of graft; and the president -and his cabinet will work out the proper set of lies to tell to the -discharged professor, or to the plundered public, or to both. - -Thus the college president spends his time running back and forth -between Mammon and God, known in the academic vocabulary as Business and -Learning. He pleads with the business man to make a little more -allowance for the eccentricities of the scholar; explaining the absurd -notion which men of learning have that they owe loyalty to truth and -public welfare. He points out that if the college comes to be known as a -mere tool of special privilege it loses all its dignity and authority; -it is absolutely necessary that it should maintain a pretense of -disinterestedness, it should appear to the public as a shrine of wisdom -and piety. He points out that Professor So-and-So has managed to secure -great prestige throughout the state, and if he is unceremoniously fired -it will make a terrific scandal, and perhaps cause other faculty members -to resign, and other famous scientists to stay away from the -institution. - -The president says this at a dinner-party in the home of his grand duke; -and next morning he hurries off to argue with the recalcitrant -professor. He points out the humiliating need of funds—just now when the -professor’s own salary is so entirely inadequate. He begs the professor -to realize the president’s own position, the crudity of business men who -hold the purse-strings, and have no understanding of academic dignity. -He pleads for just a little discretion, just a little time—just a little -anything that will moderate the clash between greed and service, the -incompatibility of hate and love. - -Either he succeeds in his purpose of persuading the professor to be less -a scientist, a citizen, and a man of honor, or else he decides, in -conference with his kitchen cabinet, that a way must be found to get rid -of this unreasonable marplot. He and his cabinet now start a campaign of -intrigue against the professor; they set going rumors calculated to -damage his prestige; they contrive traps into which to snare him; or -they wait until in the war between greed and service he gives utterance -to some plain human emotion—whereupon they find him guilty of -“indiscretion,” and announce to the public that he has shown himself to -be lacking in that “judicious” attitude of mind which is essential to -those occupying academic positions. Or perhaps they find that they have -too many men in that department; or they decide to combine the -departments of literature and obstetrics. They have a thousand different -devices, scores of which I have shown you in action. Always they tell -the professor—with their right hands upon the Bible they swear it to the -public and to the newspapers—that it is purely “an administrative -matter,” there is no question of academic freedom involved, and everyone -in their institution lives, moves and has his being in the single-minded -love of truth. - -I have on my desk a letter from a Harvard professor, who tells me that -my chapters on that institution are interesting, but he thinks I -attribute too much cunning to the objects of my indignation. “These -conforming preachers and editors and teachers are more of the genus -Babbitt than of the genus Machiavelli.” This is a question of -psychology, which only the Maker of the creatures can decide. In any -case it matters little, because my purpose here is not to apportion -blame, but to point out social peril, and it matters not whether social -traitors know what they are doing—the effect of their action remains -equally destructive to society. I have called the American college and -university a ruling-class munition-factory for the manufacture of high -explosive shells and gas bombs to be used in the service of intrenched -greed and cruelty. The college president is the man who runs this -indispensable institution; and he is not one of the military leaders who -sit in swivel chairs in city offices, he is one who sallies forth in -person at the head of his armies, bravely hurling commencement bombs and -Fourth of July torpedoes. - -The college president is a human radio, a walking broadcasting station, -a combination of encyclopedia and megaphone. He is that man whose -profession it is to know everything; in his one mind is summed up -ex-officio all the knowledge of all the specialties. He tells his -professors what to teach, and how to teach it, and has little birds and -whispering galleries and telepathic mediums to advise him if they obey. -He is a human card-index, an information service bureau concerning the -reputations of professors in all other institutions, and of promising -undergraduates and Ph.D. candidates, and just what they are worth, and -how much less they can be hired for. Or, if he does not possess all this -knowledge, he possesses a perfectly satisfactory substitute—the ability -to look as if he possessed it, and to act as if he possessed it. Such is -the advantage of being an autocrat; criticism does not affect you, and -whether you are right or whether you are wrong is the same thing. - -The college president has acquired enormous prestige in American -capitalist society; he is a priest of the new god of science, and -newspapers and purveyors of “public opinion” unite in exalting him. He -receives the salary of a plutocrat, and arrogates to himself the -prestige and precedence that go with it. He lives on terms of equality -with business emperors and financial dukes, and conveys their will to -mankind, and perpetuates their ideals and prejudices in the coming -generation. It is a new aristocracy which has arisen among us, and they -all stand together, they and their henchmen and courtiers, against -whatever forces may threaten. I have shown how they have invented a new -set of titles of nobility, which they sell for cash, or use to exalt -their patrons and overawe you and me. We shall find it worth while to -turn over the pages of “Who’s Who in America,” and see what these mighty -ones of the earth think of one another, and what they do to flatter one -another’s pride, and to keep their own order in the public eye. - -“I do not give degrees to scientists,” said Wheeler of California. “I -give them to statesmen and college presidents”; which means that these -gentry have a system of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” -Wheeler managed to get scratched no less than twelve times during his -life, Eliot of Harvard eleven times, Shanklin of Wesleyan eleven times, -Smith of Pennsylvania twenty times, Lowell of Harvard twenty times, -Nicholas Miraculous twenty-five times. Descending in the scale of -plutocratic importance we find Angell of Yale with nine honorary -degrees, Faunce of Brown with nine, Schurman of Cornell eight, Judson of -Chicago seven, Day of Syracuse seven, Burton of Michigan six, Goodnow of -Johns Hopkins five. Jordan of Stanford got only four—you remember that -our icthyologist and race-horse expert was tainted with pacifism and -democracy! - -You remember also the mushrooms and toadstools, and the absurdities we -discovered at these places. I look up the present and recent heads of -these institutions, and there is scarcely one who has not been able to -get his back scratched. I find Crawford of Allegheny with seven degrees, -Thompson of Ohio State with five, Mitchell of Delaware with three, -Wishart of Wooster with three, Few of Trinity with three, Garfield of -Williams with five, Conwell of Temple with two, Hixson of Allegheny with -two, Brooks of Baylor with one, Buchtel of Denver with one, Parsons of -Marietta with one, Goodnight of Bethany with one, Montgomery of -Muskingum with one. Also, it is interesting to note, you will find all -these presidents of little toad stools duly recorded in “Who’s Who.” You -may look in that volume for the best minds in our country, the men who -are serving as pioneers of social justice and democracy, and three times -out of four you will not find their names, or, when you do find them, -they are relegated, like the present writer, to a back volume. But all -presidents of colleges, no matter how insignificant or absurd, take rank -with senators and cabinet members and ambassadors and supreme court -judges and admirals and generals, and go into every volume ex officio. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXVII - DAMN THE FACULTY - - -We have seen the successful sons returning to shed their glory upon -their alma mater; and we have seen the successful grandsons enjoying -their four years of play at learning and work at football. Let us now -have a glimpse at the life of the scholar amid all this worldly pomp and -gladiatorial clamor, the thunder of the foot-ball captains and the -shouting of the cheer-leaders. - -There are few more pitiful proletarians in America than the underpaid, -overworked, and contemptuously ignored rank and file college teacher. -Everyone has more than he—trustees and presidents, coaches and trainers, -merchants and tailors, architects and building contractors, sometimes -even masons and carpenters. A young instructor in a great endowed -university, living on a starvation wage, made to me the bitter remark: -“We are the fellows of whom the Bible speaks—we ask for bread and we are -given a stone”—he waved his hand toward a showy new structure rising on -the campus. I have before me a copy of “School and Society,” for -November 6, 1920, giving the result of an investigation: “How Professors -Live.” At the University of Illinois a hundred and sixty-seven men, or -forty per cent of those at the institution, filled out a questionnaire. -I quote a few paragraphs from those of the associate professors, each -paragraph referring to a different man: - - Old clothing is invariably made over for children. Have gardened a lot - and kept chickens. Use butter substitutes. Wear clothing until frayed. - Above expenses do not consider depreciation of furniture and household - equipment. - - Using vacations to earn money. Postponing dental services. Using - inferior grades of clothing and using them when they should be - discarded. Cut down food in quality and quantity. - - We have no help, do our own washing and my wife makes all the - children’s clothes, etc. - - Neglecting necessary repairs; inferior clothing, butter substitutes, - etc. Almost no theatres, entertainments, travel or books. - - Small apartment, clothing below standard of position, entertainment - almost eliminated, etc. - - General retrenchments (food, clothing, medical services, etc.) and the - discontinuing of newspapers, magazines, all amusements, concerts, - etc., that are not free. Am unable to subscribe to worthy causes - (relief funds, etc.). - - No vacation trips. Postponed dental attention. Inferior grades of - clothing. Cannot wear as good clothes as I did when in high school and - college. Have not spent as much on entertainment. - - We use butter substitutes; I run a garden and sole the family’s shoes; - my wife makes all her own clothing. - - Unable to take vacations or trips to relatives who live at distance. - Buy no books, only clothing absolutely necessary. Self-denial in - almost everything imaginable. - -There you have nine little family tragedies, out of ninety I might have -quoted from the article, out of one or two hundred thousand that exist -in our country. So the poor professors and their wives and children -live; and above them is the world of prominence and power into which -they dream of climbing. The way of success is the way of toadying and -boot-licking, of conformity and reverence for the gods established. Do -you wonder that, as Harold Laski says, some men deliberately adopt -reactionary ideas as a means to promotion, while others, whose brains do -not permit them to be reactionary, conceal their real opinions? Do you -wonder that the young instructor comes like the chameleon to take the -color of the environment which surrounds him? However much he may be -absorbed in his books, his wife knows about the world outside, and their -children have to be reared in this world. - -To show you how college professors are tempted, let me tell you an -anecdote, the experience of a teacher of political science at one of our -leading Eastern universities. I will call him Smith; and he was invited -to meet the head of one of the largest universities of the Middle West, -whom I will call Jones. President Jones had suggested that Professor -Smith should come to his institution as head of a big department, and -while Jones was in the East they met to talk it over. Said Smith, -telling me the story: “This was a big chance, and I was disposed to -accept it; but first I wanted to find out what would be my status. Of -course, I could not ask the man directly: ‘Shall I be free?’ I might as -well have asked: ‘Shall I be allowed to commit rape?’ What I did was to -set a trap; I said: ‘You know I teach a ticklish subject, public service -work; the question is, should my teaching be administrative, or should -it be policy-determining? My conception of the matter is that I should -get the data, but not determine policies.’ And you should have seen the -man’s face light up! ‘That’s it exactly!’ he said. ‘I’m so glad to have -you make the distinction! That makes the matter perfectly clear.’ And he -went home and told his faculty that I was the best man they could -possibly get!” While Professor Smith told me this story we were sitting -at dinner in a restaurant, and he added: “It happened right in this -room—at that table over there. I declined the appointment, of course. -But you see how it is; when men face temptations such as that, it breaks -down their characters in the end.” - -How much direct bribery of college professors there may be, I cannot -say. A dean at the University of Wisconsin told me how a wealthy father -had offered him money to “pass” his deficient son; and I suspect that -kind of thing happens more often than it is told. But most of the time -the thing is done through what I call the “dress-suit bribe.” A college -professor is human like the rest of us; he likes a good dinner and a -good cigar; he likes to be invited to “nice” homes—and his wife likes it -still more. I know a professor at a state university who “flunked” the -son of a trustee—and this in spite of all kinds of pressure from those -above him. But the average man can hardly be expected to jeopardize his -career in a case like that. Where such temptations exist, it is a -psychological axiom that many will fall. - -I have heard faculty members—mostly very young ones, or else very old -ones—assert that there is never any favoritism in college examinations; -and I have contented myself with a gentle smile. Imagine such a -situation as we saw at Columbia, when young Marcellus Hartley Dodge, -heir to untold millions, was an undergraduate. He gave to the university -a building while he was still in college, and was prepared to make a -still larger donation upon his graduation, and to become a trustee at -the age of twenty-six. And now, some little whipper-snapper of an -instructor of English composition, or of French syntax, presumes to -“flunk” Marcellus Hartley, and subject that young prince of the -plutocracy to the humiliation of stepping down among despised lower -classmen! Let the whipper-snapper try it, and he would soon find out the -meaning of that Columbia student-song whose chorus runs: “Damn the -faculty!” - -Sydney Smith made the remark that there was no use expecting every -curate to be a St. Paul; and we may say, quite as safely, there is no -use expecting every college instructor to be a Charles A. Beard. Men who -are trained in colleges of snobbery come out snobs, and if at the top of -your educational system you heap all the honors upon wealth and all the -humiliations upon scholarship, you will have at the bottom of your -faculty young men who have learned what the world is, and have set -themselves the task of getting up by the methods established. I assert -that from top to bottom in our colleges and universities today wealth is -replacing knowledge, and worldly-minded and cynical members of the -faculty are catering to the rich among the students, knowing that when -these students come back as “successful sons,” they will be the persons -whose friendship counts. - -The students are organized into exclusive fraternities—perfectly -ridiculous and perfectly banal things, and yet they run the social life -of the colleges, and without exception they run the alumni association, -and speak with the voice of the college in the public press. And do you -think they fail to impress the faculty? Remember, the fraternity men are -the ones with money and good clothes and good manners; they stand -together and make a gang, they do “log rolling” for one another, they -tip one another off to the “snap” courses and the “easy” teachers; they -study the psychology of the various “profs,” and advise one another how -to “work” them. They frequently take faculty members into the -fraternities, and thus get their backing for the system. - -A professor at the University of Wisconsin told me a curious story. A -group of boys had failed to get into any of the fraternities, and they -had a bright idea; why not organize one for themselves? Somebody had -organized every fraternity at some time past, and there were plenty of -Greek letters still not taken up! So they proceeded to devise a new -combination, and a mystic pin, and a set of pass-words and initiation -idiocies; they rented a house, and invited some “goats” in other -colleges to follow their example. - -Now at this university there was a certain young professor whom I call -Black, to distinguish him from my informant, whom I call White. Black -was a country boy, who had worked his way through college, and had -always been a non-fraternity man. Now he came to White, very much -flattered, revealing the fact that he had been invited to join a -fraternity. White asked which one, and was told—it was this one of which -White had witnessed the organizing only a year ago! It seemed just as -good to Black; and in a few years it would seem just as good to -everybody. But imagine the intellectual state of an institution when one -of its professors, a mature man, a scientist and master of an important -specialty, could be naively pleased at being invited to take part in -flummeries got up by a dozen boys not yet out of their teens, and whose -sole aim and ideal was to prove themselves superior to a mass of other -boys! - -You miss the point of this story if you do not understand it as a -symptom of the disease which is poisoning our intellectual life. Every -little “fresh water college” is trying to “make” the big fraternities; -every president of every little toadstool is shaping his policy to such -ends—because that is the way to get the rich students, which is the way -to get the rich alumni, which is the way to get the money. In the big -Eastern universities, which are the fountain-heads of this imbecility, -the social competition amounts to a ravenous and frenzied war, involving -not merely the students, but the very mightiest of our academic -big-wigs. Look them up in “Who’s Who,” and you find them solemnly -recording their phi-beta-babbles and their kappa-gamma-gabbles and their -alpha-apple-pies. - -And when men of science and learning come down from the thrones of -reason and take part in the jostling and the trampling and the climbing -of this silk-hatted mob—then you witness sights that make you despair -for the human race. Not so long ago the greatest thinker of our time -came to America—Albert Einstein, who happens to be a Jew, and still more -terrible to mention, a German. As fate would have it, there came to our -country at the same time another distinguished visitor, the Prince of -Monaco—a mighty potentate, his bosom covered with various ribbons and -jewelled orders. He is owner of the world’s greatest gambling-hell, at -Monte Carlo, and keeps himself out of jail just as do the -gambling-princes of New York—by owning the police. - -Now the institution whose duty it is to welcome visiting scientists is -the American Academy of Science; and this institution prepared to -welcome Einstein and the Prince of Monaco at the same banquet. But, -horror of horrors, his Excellency, the Prince, refused to be received -along with a German! There was terrible excitement in academic circles. -The master of ceremonies was a high-up scientific snob, married to a -member of the Morgan family, and a pet of Nicholas Miraculous. He -decided that the invitation to Einstein must be canceled. But finally a -compromise was arrived at; His Excellency consented to come, provided -Einstein was put away in an obscure place at the foot of the table, and -not asked to speak! - -The greatest thinker of our time is a naive and childlike person, simple -and human, and he apparently had no idea what was happening to him. He -was not used to the world of what calls itself “science” in America, -with its “pushers” and “tuft-hunters,” forcing themselves to the front, -while the real workers stay in their laboratories and do their work, -suffering in silence “the insolence of office and the spurns that -patient merit from the unworthy takes.” - - - - - CHAPTER LXXVIII - SMALL SOULS - - -What every man and every organization of men in America want is to grow -big. If you ask why they want to grow big they are puzzled, because it -has never before happened to them to hear anybody question the moral -axiom that bigness is greatness. An office building which is twelve -stories high is twice as admirable as one which is six stories high; a -city which has a million inhabitants is twice as important as one which -has only half a million. It matters not that the additional population -may be festering in wretched slums; whatever they may be, grafters and -grabbers, drunkards and morons, a greater number of them is a thing to -be boosted for and boasted about. The city grows big in body, but in -soul it remains small. - -And the same thing happens to the college. Every little college wants to -be bigger than its neighbor, and looks forward to being the biggest in -the state, and to that end employs the noisy arts of the real estate -promoter and the circus agent. An article published in “School and -Society,” April 22, 1922, tells about the activities of “field -secretaries” and “field agents” now employed by colleges. “According to -the president of one of Ohio’s state universities, only four or five of -the forty colleges in the state are able to dispense with the services -of one or more of these functionaries. Their use is apparently growing -in favor. The dean of one of Ohio’s strongest colleges confessed -regretfully that the authorities in his institution are about to yield -to the pressure being exerted within the institution to appoint a man to -‘sell the college’ to prospective students.” Crossing the prairies I -stepped from my train to get a breath of fresh air on a station -platform, and found myself confronted by an enormous sign, hailing me in -the breezy Western fashion: “Hello, this is Manhattan, Kansas, a Good -Town, home of the famous Kansas State Agricultural College, 1400 acres, -50 buildings, 433 faculty, 3500 students. Free auto camping grounds.” - -The professor, needless to say, is expected to be a “good sport,” and -contribute his proper share to the “uplift” of his institution. Anything -notable that he does is seized upon and exploited by the college press -agent; and sometimes the efforts of publicity hounds to deal with -unfamiliar sciences and arts produce comical results. Professor Jacques -Loeb began to experiment in the artificial fertilization of the eggs of -sea-urchins, and this was marvelous material for stories, it went all -over the world. Hardly any of it was right, but that made no -difference—not even in academic circles; Professor Loeb’s star ascended, -and so did his salary. He was invited to the University of California to -continue his researches, and there he found the successful sons prepared -to use him as they do the Mission bells and the Bohemian Club “jinks.” -They put a “booster button” on him, and got out picture post-cards of -his laboratory, and a real estate firm started an advertising campaign -to sell lots in his neighborhood. But when they found that Loeb resented -this kind of exploitation, they lost interest in artificial -parthenogenesis, and discovered that the professor was a godless -materialist and a poor hand at teaching freshmen. - -The average faculty member of course never scales the heights of fame, -never sees his portrait on picture post cards. The college grows big in -body and stays small in soul; while the professor is apt to stay small -in both body and soul. His salary does not permit a generous diet, and -his work is confining and tedious. He teaches three or four classes a -day, and corrects compositions and test-papers, and keeps records and -makes out reports, and obeys his superiors and keeps himself within the -limits of his little specialty. He leads a narrow life, withdrawn from -realities. He goes to lunch at the Faculty Club and talks “shop” with -his colleagues, men who live equally empty lives and are equally out of -touch with great events. There is gossip and intrigue and wire-pulling; -a professor at the University of Chicago heard his colleagues talk for -an hour about the fact that someone had got an increase in salary of two -or three hundred dollars. A professor at Johns Hopkins compared his -colleagues to the lotus eaters: “Peaceful, endowed and dull.” - -As I write, Professor Frank C. Hankins, one of the rebels at Clark -University, hands in his resignation and formulates his criticism of the -teaching in our higher institutions: - - The teacher of social science may treat his subject matter in a purely - formal manner, as is done in most high school courses in civics, where - attention is given to the powers and duties of Congress, the number of - justices in the Supreme court, etc. This is a pity; but the high - school teacher and, unfortunately, a large number of college teachers - of the social sciences must reckon with the “man in the street,” who - would feel that “sacred” things were being defiled if civics courses - discussed the origin and development of institutions, the relation of - patriotism to war, or the relative merits of individualism and - collectivism in social life. It is a real tragedy in the life of a - teacher if he must squeeze all the juice out of his subject matter and - give his pupils the dry pulp, in order to hold his job. - -And to the same effect testifies Ludwig Lewisohn, out of many years -experience at Wisconsin and Ohio State. I jotted down his phrases in my -notes: - - It is like teaching from a cook-book. There are certain receipts which - you follow. You try to explain the scientific spirit, but you find - that in college the word “science” means cut and dried experiments - without meaning. You teach the principles of a subject, but you never - apply them. You explain the “Novum Organum,” for example, but you - don’t apply Bacon’s method to the current formulas of capitalist - imperialism. You explain the relativity of morals according to Locke, - but you never test present-day marriage and divorce, property rights - and the duty of obedience to the state. - -And again, a professor now at Wisconsin: “You teach the facts, but you -do not interpret them; and especially you do not deal with remedies. You -teach details, not vision. You accumulate ‘learning,’ in the narrow -sense of that word; raking in the dust-heaps of the past, and producing -carefully documented treatises about absurdities.” I have given a list -of such topics in the chapter on Harvard; I ran into others here and -there—Professor E. A. Ross mentioned two theses which won degrees while -he was at Berlin—“The Linden Tree in German Literature,” and “The Hay -Supply in the Army of Frederick the Great.” Or, if Germany is too far -away, perhaps you would be interested in a Columbia thesis, composed by -a man who is now a professor at Princeton: “Metaphors Concerned with -Nature in the Prose of Aelfric”; or a Columbia thesis, by a professor -who is now at Charleston: “The Dialect Contamination in the Old English -Gospels.” Said Nietzsche: “You beat them, and they give out dust like -meal-sacks. But who could guess that their dust came from corn, and the -golden wonder of the summer fields?” - -Colleges are growing like those prehistoric monsters, the size of a -freight-car, with brains that would fit inside a walnut-shell. And as -they grow, there is more and more “administration,” more and more red -tape and routine; the professor is turned into a bookkeeper and a filing -clerk. Writing in “Science,” President Maclaurin of the Massachusetts -Institute of Technology drew a picture of the adventures of Isaac Newton -in a modern American university: - - The superintendent of buildings and grounds, or other competent - authority, calls upon Mr. Newton. - - Supt.: Your theory of gravitation is hanging fire unduly. The director - insists on a finished report, filed in his office by nine A. M. Monday - next; summarized on one page; typewritten, and the main points - underlined. Also a careful estimate of the cost of the research per - student-hour. - - Newton: But there is one difficulty that has been puzzling me for - fourteen years, and I am not quite ... - - Supt. (with snap and vigor): Guess you had better overcome that - difficulty by Monday morning or quit. - -How can dull men, absorbed in dull routine, hold the attention of large -groups of wide-awake youngsters? The answer is that they do not, and -that is the failure of our colleges. The situation is summed up in a -delightful anecdote, which was solemnly sworn to me by a college -professor who dares not let me use his name. He was doing the customary -“glad-hand” stunts at a reunion of the “old boys,” and one of these -successful sons came up to him, beaming with pleasure, and clasped his -hand in a hearty grip. “Professor Smith! Well, well, Professor Smith, I -sure am glad to see you! You have no idea what a good time I had in that -English class of yours. We read ‘Hamlet,’ you remember, but we only got -halfway through. I often find myself wondering how that play came out.” - -Or, if you cannot believe that story, take the testimony of Professor C. -T. Titus of Whitman College, who tried the experiment of asking college -seniors in what state the city of St. Louis is located. There were -guesses as far apart as Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee! No wonder -that Bertrand Russell remarks that “Education has been one of the chief -obstacles to the development of intelligence.” - - - - - CHAPTER LXXIX - THE WORLD OF “HUSH” - - -Knowing as I do the economics of our plutocratic empire, I had a general -idea of what I should find in my tour of the colleges; but I had little -idea of the details, and went with an open mind, prepared to follow the -facts where they led. After I had visited a dozen colleges, I began to -be struck by a peculiar circumstance; not merely was I encountering -similar incidents—I was hearing the same phrases over and over! Certain -expressions became familiar, and I would wait for them; if they did not -come, I would suggest them, and note the instant response: “Yes, that’s -it exactly!” - -I go over my note-book and cull out these phrases: “It is a slow -strangling.” “It is the wearing away of a stone by drops of water.” “It -is an intangible thing, an atmospheric pressure.” “It is a question of -good taste, of loyalty to the institution, to one’s colleagues.” So ran -the story, over and over, all the way from California to Massachusetts -and back again. I came to realize that the important fact about academic -freedom in America is not the extreme and dramatic cases I have been -narrating; it is the whole system of class prejudice and class -repression, which operates for the most part without its victims being -conscious of it. - -I quote other statements from my note-book: “Our young instructors are -weaklings, selected as such. They seek a comfortable berth, sheltered -from the storms of the world.” “They find that promotion depends upon -conformity, and they conform.” “There is a tremendous absence of -freedom, but the victims don’t realize it; they think they are merely -being polite; before they know what has happened to them they have -become small men.” “No man who thinks can tell just when he will become -a victim, or how he will be tripped up.” “I can count an indefinite -number of friends to whom I would express myself—up to a certain point.” -“You may stay in the place for years, and then some day discover one man -to whom you dare to talk.” “Those who go out have adventures, but pity -those who stay.” “The plow-horse does not feel the rein until he tries -to step out of the furrow.” “Yes, our men are free; they are horses that -stand without hitching.” Such statements, with varying phraseology, were -made by scores of men, in as many different colleges and universities. - -I sat in one group of faculty members discussing this subject, and the -conversation took a humorous turn; they started making a list of the -various offenses for which a man may be fired from an American -university. You may be fired if you don’t like your wife, or if your -wife doesn’t like you. You may be fired if you use the word revolution, -referring to anything since the eighteenth century. You may be fired if -you get into a fight with the janitor. “That happened to a very -distinguished botanist of my acquaintance,” said one professor. You may -be fired if you go to church too little, or you may be fired if you go -to church too much. I asked how the latter could be, and the explanation -was that there are aristocratic universities like Harvard and Princeton -and Pennsylvania, which follow the Episcopal tradition, and an excessive -demonstration of piety would be highly offensive. You may be fired if -you are near-sighted, and also if you are far-sighted. You may be fired -if you are discovered to have Negro blood in your veins—an incident -narrated by Alvin Johnson in the “New Republic,” under a thin veil of -fiction. You may be fired if you undertake to prove that a candidate of -the Republican party for President has Negro blood in his veins—the -singular experience of Professor W. E. Chancellor of Wooster. Of course -you will be fired if you are discovered in any irregular sex -relationship; also you may be fired if you discover the president of -your university, or one of your prominent trustees, committing a similar -offense. In general, you may be fired if you depart in any way from the -beaten track of propriety—and this whether your motives be the lowest or -the highest, whether you are subnormal or supernormal, a crank or a -genius. - -And here is the all-important fact; the decision in this difficult -matter lies not in the hands of your colleagues, who know you, but in -some autocratic individual who is too important to know you, and too -busy. Says Professor George T. Ladd of Yale University, discussing the -position of the college professor: - -“His whole career, and the reputation and influence which he has won by -a life of self-sacrificing labor, may at any moment be in peril through -the caprice, or cowardice, or ill-will of a single man, or of a little -group of men who have influence with that single man.” - -There are many college professors who have learned to adjust themselves -to this situation, and make the best of it. They will call this book -exaggerated and even absurd; but can they deny the statement of -Professor Ladd above quoted? Can they deny that this is the situation in -ninety-five per cent of American colleges and universities? The -professors have no tenure and no security, save the kindness and good -faith of those who hold the purse-strings and rule their lives. Says -Professor Cattell in his book, “University Control”: “In certain -departments of certain universities, instructors and junior professors -are placed in a situation to which no decent domestic servant would -submit.” If you will look up this book in your library you will find in -it overwhelming evidence of the discontent of college professors with -their status. Three hundred leading men were consulted, and out of -these, eighty-five per cent agreed that the present arrangements for the -government of colleges are unsatisfactory. Says James P. Munroe, for -many years a professor at Massachusetts Tech: - - Unless American college teachers can be assured that they are no - longer to be looked upon as mere employes paid to do the bidding of - men who, however courteous or however eminent, have not the faculty’s - professional knowledge of the complicated problems of education, our - universities will suffer increasingly from a dearth of strong men, and - teaching will remain outside the pale of the really learned - professions. The problem is not one of wages; for no university can - become rich enough to buy the independence of any man who is really - worth purchasing. - -Or consider the testimony of Professor E. A. Ross, of the University of -Wisconsin, in the “Publications of the American Sociological Society,” -Vol. IX, 1914, p. 166: - - I agree with Professor Nearing; academic asphyxiation is much more - common than is generally realized. President Pritchett’s paper is, I - think, far too optimistic. The dismissal of professors by no means - gives the clue to the frequency of the gag in academic life. We forget - the many who take their medicine and make no fuss. There, indeed, is - your real tragedy. Don’t waste any pity on the men who, despite - repeated hints and warnings, go ahead until they are dismissed. They - will generally prove to be able to take care of themselves. Pity - rather the men who, without giving sign or creating scandal, bow to - the powers above and cultivate a discreet silence. There are very many - of them. I know it, for many of them have come and told me with - bitterness and rage of the gag that has been placed in their mouths. - - Remember, too, that the source of danger is not endowment, at least if - the donor has kept no strings upon his gift or is dead. It is not what - has been given but what is hoped for that influences most the policy - of university authorities. When a sizable donation is trembling in the - balance, when an institution has been generously remembered in the - will of some conservative gentleman who takes an annoying interest in - the details of its life, how the governing board of the institution - caters to the prejudices of the potential donor and how intolerable - and unpardonable appear untimely professorial utterances or teachings - which put the gift in peril! - -I have before me a letter from Mr. Arthur E. Holder, who is not a -college man, but a labor leader who had four years’ experience with -college men, as representative of labor on the Federal Board for -Vocational Education. Mr. Holder writes: - - My conclusion after several years’ contact with college professors and - public school teachers is that the environment of school and college - life is degenerating to the male species. Outside of a bare half - dozen, these men seem to be afraid to say that their souls are their - own. They apparently admire boldness in others, and they applaud when - another exposes the economic evils surrounding them. They do not - hesitate to whisper as to their experiences; but it almost always is - followed by a caution, “Don’t say I said so,” or “This is on the - square,” or “This is just for yourself alone,” etc. - -My experience in collecting material for this book brought out the -academic situation with startling vividness. To begin with, I had the -idea that if you wanted information on any subject you had merely to -write to the people who had it. I collected from various sources the -names of one or two hundred college professors who were supposed to be -sympathetic towards social progress, and I printed a little circular -outlining my proposed book, and asking them to tell me their experiences -and conclusions. I mailed these circulars, and waited for replies; I -waited two or three months, and the number of replies I received could -be counted upon the fingers of one hand! - -Of course, that might be because all these professors were satisfied -with their position, and had no information to give. But I doubted that, -and decided to travel over the country and talk personally with these -individuals. I laid out a schedule and wrote again to arrange for -interviews. Taught by experience, I explained that everything would be -strictly confidential; but even on this basis I failed to hear from -two-thirds of the men to whom I wrote. In various ways, through friends -or colleagues, I would learn that this one or that one had thought it -best to be able to say that he had never met me! - -Still further insight came to me on the trip. I visited some thirty -institutions, and met men and women who had taught in two or three -hundred. Out of all these I should estimate that ninety-five per cent -accepted my offer to consider what they told me confidential, and some -even accepted my offer not to mention to their colleagues that they had -talked with me. I would not need but one or two fingers to count the -number of men and women now teaching in American colleges and -universities who told me their experiences frankly, and stated that I -might quote them by name. - -Still further evidence: I came home after my seven thousand-mile -journey, and sorted out my notes, and made a list of new names and new -sources of information which had been suggested. There must have been -four hundred such names, and I wrote a letter to each one, again -enclosing my little circular and making careful promises of secrecy. Out -of these four hundred I may have heard from one hundred, and I should -estimate that three-fourths of these told me about the experiences of -other men. There are eight or ten who profess themselves fully satisfied -with the conditions under which they work, but even most of these do not -care to be quoted. A number avail themselves of my offer, not merely to -consider their communications confidential, but to send back their -letters after I have read them! - -Another detail, even more significant: there would be places in my notes -concerning which I was in doubt, some statement for which I wished -additional verification, and I would write to the people I had met. I -recall them now, one after another—men with whom I sat at luncheon or -dinner in a quiet corner in some restaurant, or in their homes; some of -them talked to me for two or three hours, telling me their experiences -and the experiences of their colleagues, some shameful, some grotesque -and absurd. Many of these men promised me additional data, a clipping or -a letter or confirmation of some sort; and I write to remind them of -their promises, or to ask some new questions—and there comes no reply! I -write to some of them two or three times before I realize what is the -matter; these men are dead so far as concerns the mail! As matters now -stand, they can deny that they ever met me—many of them told me that -they would do that! But if they should send me so much as a line of -their handwriting, some day the Black Hand of the plutocracy might raid -my home and steal my papers—and then there would be ruin for them and -their families! - -Can you think of stronger evidence of terrorism than this? Out of not -less than a hundred men who welcomed me with every courtesy, who -expressed cordial interest in my project, and complete agreement with my -view of the academic situation—out of these hundred men I need just the -fingers of my two hands to count the ones who have been willing to write -and answer my questions under the strictest pledge of secrecy! I take -this occasion to send my greetings to the others, and assure them that I -do not blame them too severely. - -While preparing my proofs, still more evidence comes to me. In two -different cases I sent a chapter of my book to university professors for -them to revise, as they had offered to do. They dictated to their -secretaries cold and stern letters, stating that they did not care to -comply with my request; and along with these letters they sent me the -manuscript, carefully and minutely revised! They understand that I will -get the point; they have done what they promised to do, but at the same -time they have protected themselves, and have a letter which they can -display to college authorities, proving that they had nothing to do with -my nefarious book! - -Another case, still more significant: the liberal professors in one -state university in the Middle West banded together and sent me a -message through a former colleague, imploring me not to tell the story -of their experiences in my book! The details of this controversy have -been given full publicity in the press, and are public property; -nevertheless, I am implored not to mention them, because it will stir up -the reactionaries once more! Another professor in a great Eastern -university, who told me how he took a public stand on an issue of -academic freedom, telegraphs forbidding me to mention his name—and this -though the story of his action has been publicly praised in the bulletin -of the American Association of University Professors, and in several of -the liberal magazines! A former professor in one of our largest Middle -Western universities begs me to omit his name in telling his story—and -this although I have newspaper clippings telling every detail! What am I -to do about cases of this sort? Whom shall I consider, the individual -professor or the public welfare? Read the man’s pitiful words: - - I realize the value to you of specific instances, and am well aware of - how much I am asking when I request the omission of my name. But it - means my livelihood! If I am again kicked out of educational work I - shall never be able to accomplish such educational reforms as I have - in mind for the future. Please don’t put me in jeopardy! Sociological - investigation often, of course, sacrifices the individual with perfect - equanimity; but in this instance the individual is perhaps worth - saving. Please let me know that you will spare me. - -And here is another letter from a professor at another great state -university in the Middle West: - - I am greatly interested in the subject of the book which you are - preparing, and I gladly give you my answer to the questions contained - in your circular, with the definite understanding, however, that you - will not mention my name as the source of information, or in any other - way disclose my identity. The mere fact that as a matter of - self-preservation and of protection to my family I feel compelled to - make this proviso—disgusting as otherwise it is to me both as a man - and a scholar—is proof sufficient of the control which special - privilege exercises over educators in this country. - -And here is one more letter, perhaps the most significant of all. The -writer is a young scientist, who got his training at the University of -Wisconsin, where for two years he took part in the activities of the -liberal students. He tells me the effect which these two years have -produced upon all his later career. Read his analysis of “academic -freedom” among scientists; it covers the case completely, and every -fairminded scientific man who reads it will be forced to admit that it -is as exact as it is painful. - - My position was student assistant, a half time instructorship. I - stayed at Dr. P——’s house two years, and my relations with all the - faculty of that department were intimate and cordial always, and still - are. I was known as a rather harmless and intellectualized radical, - and as rather a hard worker, one who spent long hours in his - laboratory and applied himself assiduously: being especially useful - around a scientific department by reason of ingenuity with apparatus. - A sufficiency of all the technical virtues, you see, and the result - was that I was very well thought of. A taste for sociology and radical - discussion was looked upon as an amiable and altruistic weakness, - which might serve to give my biology a humanistic turn.... - - No specific thing has ever happened since which I could lay against - any of my professors at Madison. They have backed me cordially and - enthusiastically whenever the occasion demanded. However, my - reputation as a radical, still re-echoes through my career as a - scientist; almost overshadows it. My chief professor, though he said I - was the best man he had ever turned out, when I wanted a job, said - also privately that he didn’t think I would ever make a scientist, I - was interested in too many other things. Another Wisconsin professor, - when asked about me, questioned whether I would ever “settle down to a - scientific career,” though I had done absolutely nothing else for - three years since I left there. A third expressed doubt, to me - personally, that I would ever “accomplish anything.” My reputation has - followed me through two jobs, so that when considered for the one I - now hold, the question of my radical proclivities was again raised. - All these things, and many others, are hard to get at objectively; but - they sum up to a condition in which an activity incidental to three - years study on a Ph.D thesis appears still to be of more weight in the - eyes of the men who pride themselves on being unbiased and - liberal-minded scientists, than anything scientific that I may have - accomplished. Every one of them would unhesitatingly state that a - man’s radical opinions were of no concern to them “if he did his - work”; and no one of them would admit that any man would be “doing his - work” if they knew he held these opinions. My own reaction is to - pretend that I have lost interest in unconventional affairs, and to - sedulously avoid any appearance of such interest in them in my - professional capacity; in effect, I am one thing as a scientist, and - another as a human being; I have dissociated most of my private - concerns from my official ones; and the barrier between my school - activities and any other intellectual interests is complete. I have - two sets of ideas, two sets of friends, two modes of behavior, a - regular double standard of morality, and I suppose I am only half a - man in either capacity. - - This is something of a tragedy to me personally, though that is not - the interesting thing in general. The aspect of this that has struck - me is, how perverted the whole unconscious thought of the academic - institution is. As I have said, this is not evidence for a book. I - might have trouble in demonstrating that my professors were not right - about me. But one thing is certain; that I could have spent more than - the amount of time and energy I spent on radical activities, on any of - a number of more or less creditable things; on Wine, Women and Song, - on student activities, golf, poker, or just plain idleness, and never - have attracted any discreditable attention scientifically. Those - things my professors and colleagues would disregard, provided I kept - up a reasonable show of professional proficiency. There is only one - realm of relaxation or dissipation which is recognized academically as - a vicious incursion into scientific singlemindedness and assiduity; - and that one is an intellectual interest in social unconventionality. - That one distraction, and that alone, is recognized as an inherent and - incontestible enemy of _scientific_ right thinking. And the amusing - part of it is that the scientists themselves fail to realize their own - bias. For that is what it amounts to, even in the best of them; about - one whole set of data, if they are not positively reactionary, then - they not only have no positive opinions, but they impose upon - themselves and others a negativity of opinion that amounts to a - condition of positive prejudice. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXX - THE FOUNDATIONS OF FRAUD - - -I have taken you about from college to college and shown you the -interlocking trustees, using the institution for the protection of their -money-bags; also the successful sons, guarding the prestige and good -name of their alma mater. To complete the picture I now draw your -attention to the many organizations, national in their scope, which have -been formed for the purpose of keeping our educational system in the -capitalist fetters. - -I begin with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, -which was started seventeen years ago with a gift of ten million -dollars. Its purpose was to provide pensions for superannuated college -professors, and in his letter to the trustees Carnegie announced that -“according to expert calculation” the revenue would be ample “to provide -retiring pensions for the teachers of universities, college and -technical schools in our country, Canada and Newfoundland.” This -statement was speedily shown to be absurd; the total cost of the system -for Columbia University alone would have been twice the income of the -Foundation, and the cost for all the country would have been two hundred -times the income of the Foundation. So very speedily the Foundation was -compelled to limit the institutions included in its list, and it began -laying down rules for colleges, and assuming control of higher -education. It refused pensions to professors in the University of -Illinois unless the university would alter the conduct of its medical -school at Chicago. In like manner the governor of Ohio was informed that -the universities of the state must be “reconstructed” on lines laid down -by the Foundation. Becoming still more embarrassed for lack of funds, -the Foundation discovered that it was bad for teachers “to have the risk -of dependence lifted from them by free gifts,” and it proposed to have -the professors begin paying for their own insurance. - -Now, in the first place, a slight knowledge of economics will enable -anyone to realize that a free gift of life insurance to professors at -certain institutions would not permanently benefit the professors, -because, under the stimulus of competition, this benefit would at once -be taken into account in the salaries paid by the institution. So, what -the Foundation amounts to is an endowment to certain privileged -universities, with a highly autocratic control accompanying the gift. -Under the plan as modified to compel the professor to pay for his -insurance, the plan becomes a method of binding him to the institution -and subjecting him to the administration. A part of the professor’s -salary is held out, to be repaid to him later on as a reward for good -behavior. Says Professor Cattell: “The professor who does not see eye to -eye with Wall Street and Trinity Church may be compelled to sacrifice -either his intellectual integrity or his wife and children. He is under -heavy bonds to keep the peace; but it will be the peace of the desert.” - -If you are interested in this shrewd device for the enslavement of -college professors, you are referred to Professor Cattell’s book, -“Carnegie Pensions,” published in 1919. The new insurance organization -is headed by Elihu Root and Nicholas Murray Butler, a sufficient -guarantee of its character. That the sheep have learned to recognize -these wolves in shepherd’s clothing is shown by the fact that a -questionnaire sent out by “School and Society” to a great number of -college professors, asking for their opinions, brought a vote of -thirteen in favor of the scheme and six hundred and thirty-six against -it! The American Association of University Professors appointed a -committee of twenty-four to study the scheme, and this committee -submitted two elaborate reports condemning it. - -The gentleman who was appointed by Mr. Carnegie to run this Foundation, -and who worked out the scheme, is Dr. Henry Smith Pritchett; I look him -up in “Who’s Who,” and find amusing evidence of what it means to have a -strangle-hold over American institutions of learning. Dr. Pritchett goes -about like an Indian war-chief with scalps at his belt—no fewer than -eighteen honorary degrees from American colleges and universities! What -the professors think of his administration you may guess from the -comments on his last statement made by Joseph Jastrow, professor of -psychology at the University of Wisconsin. “There is the same copious -shuffling of the issues, the same lack of frankness, the same assumption -of benevolence of motive, the same disregard of accepted principle as of -actual opinion, the same aspersions and evasions.” - -The next great benefactor of our educational system was Mr. John D. -Rockefeller, who has given one or two hundred millions of dollars to a -foundation for the purpose of improving our schools and colleges -according to Standard Oil ideals. The General Education Board has -millions to give to those educational institutions which conform, and it -holds over the head of every college and university president a -perpetual bribe to sell out the interests of the people. Great numbers -have accepted, a few have refused, and these have been the object of -continual intrigue. Turn back to the chapter on North Dakota, and read -the statements of Dr. W. J. Spillman of the United States Bureau of -Agricultural Economics, concerning the efforts of these Rockefeller -“educators” to dominate the land grant colleges. And let me call your -attention to a speech delivered by this courageous public servant before -the semi-annual conference of the National Board of Farm Organizations, -February 11, 1919. - -In order that you may understand Dr. Spillman’s charges, I will first -make plain the economics of the situation. After the war there was a -frightful slump in values; the Federal Reserve Board, which controls our -banking system, gave unlimited credit to the Wall Street banks, which -they passed on to the big corporations, to enable them to get by the -crisis without dropping the prices of their products. The farmers were -left to “hold the sack,” and they were ruined by millions—on my trip -through the Northwest I was told of whole counties in which every single -farm was for sale for taxes. The farmers wanted to know why the price of -farm products should drop to nothing, while the price of manufactured -articles was not affected. They wanted to know the cost of producing -farm products, and they looked to the experts of the Department of -Agriculture to get these figures. On the other hand, of course, big -business decreed that the figures should not be got. - -Their agent in carrying out this decree was the Secretary of -Agriculture, David F. Houston, Harvard graduate, ex-president of the -University of Texas, ex-chancellor of Washington University, and holder -of seven honorary degrees; a member of the Southern Education Board, a -subsidiary of the Rockefeller General Education Board; later chairman of -the Federal Reserve and Farm Loan Boards, and now president of the Bell -Telephone Securities Company. Dr. Spillman portrays Dr. Houston as -lying, cheating and intriguing, resorting to every device in order to -keep the facts about farming costs from being collected. Says Dr. -Spillman: - - I cannot give you the full facts about this matter without exposing - honest and honorable men to the fury of this brutal autocrat, under - whom they unfortunately have to serve.... Early in his administration - there was circulated through the department a typewritten sheet said - to have been written by a member of Mr. Rockefeller’s General - Education Board, and which was said to represent Mr. Rockefeller’s - views, in which Secretary Houston concurred. This sheet purported to - outline the duties of the department. It stated that the department - should make no investigations that would reveal the profits made by - farmers, or that would determine the cost of producing farm products. - No representative of the department should ever under any - circumstances even intimate that it is possible to overproduce any - farm product. The entire business of the department was to teach - farmers how to produce more than they now produce. - -The General Education Board, you understand, possesses unlimited funds, -it pays no taxes, and renders no accounting to anyone. Professor Cattell -stated in “Science” that it “keeps for its own private use the -information that it collects, and does not even publish the financial -statements that should be required by law from every corporation, and -first of all from those exempted from taxation.” And these funds are -used in paying fancy salaries to experts in all subjects, especially -intrigue and wire-pulling. Dr. Spillman tells how this board got charge -of the farm demonstration work in the South, and how he kept them from -getting charge of the same work in the Northern and Western states. In -order to hamper Spillman’s work, “Mr. Houston issued orders to -demonstration workers in the department not to co-operate with any -outside agency except Mr. Rockefeller’s General Education Board.” - -Soon after Mr. Houston became secretary he established an office in the -department, known as the Rural Organization Service. The funds for the -initiation of this work were furnished by the General Education Board. -The important work of the Bureau of Markets was placed under this -office, and Professor T. N. Carver of Harvard was invited to become head -of the new bureau. He came to the department with real enthusiasm for -his work, and at once proceeded to outline a series of important -investigations on marketing of farm products, rural credits, and similar -subjects. But when his plans were laid before the General Education -Board by Secretary Houston they turned him down flat, with no -explanation for their action. Professor Carver was much puzzled at this, -and sought an interview with certain members of the board, for the -purpose of finding out, if possible, why they had decided to discontinue -their support; but he could get no information of any kind. He then told -them in very plain language just what he thought of the General -Education Board. Soon after this the newspapers carried a brief notice -to the effect that Professor Carver had not found his work in the -Department of Agriculture entirely congenial and would probably return -to Harvard at the end of the year. He did return to Harvard soon -thereafter. You will appreciate the gay humor of the fact that Professor -T. N. Carver of Harvard University is named by Woodworth Clum, of the -Better America Federation, the Black Hand of California, as one of two -college professors who are heroically battling against Socialism in the -colleges, and are deserving of the ardent support of all patriotic and -liberty-loving Americans! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXI - THE BOLSHEVIK HUNTERS - - -We shall next have a glance at those organizations and foundations which -are frankly propagandist in their purposes, and which conduct -departments of espionage and slander. We have already seen the work of -the Better America Federation of California; there are a number of -similar institutions which are nation-wide in their activities. - -You remember, in the story of the University of Wisconsin, the young -instructor whose career was placed in jeopardy by the National -Association for Constitutional Government. This organization has been -active in our educational centers, and among its publications is a -pamphlet by a prominent corporation lawyer of Washington, advocating the -establishment in all American colleges of a compulsory course in -opposition to Socialism. Nicholas Murray Butler has actually established -such a course at Columbia; it is required of freshmen, and is -camouflaged under the name of “Contemporary History.” The students have -embodied their opinion of it in the phrase, “Contemptible History.” - -Also, the National Association of Manufacturers has been active. It was -this organization which was exposed, in the famous “Mulhall” letters, as -expending many millions in the bribing of Congress in the interest of -big business. This organization has sent out agents to make propaganda -in favor of commercial training in all colleges, and also to turn our -public school system into an institution for the perpetuating of a class -civilization. They call their scheme “vocational training,” and they -wish to educate the children of the poor as workers, and to exclude them -from general culture. - -Also there is the National Security League, a high-up hundred per cent -organization, whose active educational head received a three years’ -leave of absence from Princeton University, to carry on propaganda on -behalf of capitalist nationalism. In the beginning it was Hun-hunting, -but later it turned into a Bolshevik-hunt, with Woodrow Wilson waging a -private war in Siberia and Archangel, and Attorney-General Palmer’s -thugs clubbing the heads of men and women who dared to disbelieve in the -divine right of the plutocracy. Just now this organization is carrying -on a campaign in defense of the Supreme Court’s right to annul acts of -Congress, and defeat the will of the people in the interests of -property. It has what is called a program for “economic education”; it -proposes to have “the Constitution” taught in the public schools—meaning -thereby the inviolability of special privilege. It sends out “dope” to -the press of the country—and in this material I note an amusing -concession to the well-known habit of newspapers to falsify. The “date -line” of this press matter begins with the word “New York,” and then a -blank is left, so that newspapers may pretend to have received a long -telegram from the metropolis! - -There are such organizations as this in every section of our country. -They call themselves merchants’ and manufacturers’ associations, -chambers of commerce, citizens’ alliances, national protective -associations, home defense leagues. They do not deal especially with -education, but when their attention is called to unorthodox teachings, -or to “outside activities” of college professors, they intervene with -authority. From the “National American Council” I have obtained a list -of seventy-nine such organizations, all pledged to keep the American -people in “blinkers.” Recently a number of them—the National Association -for Constitutional Government, the Public Interest League, the League -for Preservation of American Independence, the Constitutional Liberty -League, the Anti-Centralization Club—have formed themselves into one -super-organization known as the “Sentinels of the Republic.” They intend -to enlist a million patriots, their motto being “Every citizen a -sentinel, every home a sentry-box.” The object of this sentineling is to -smash the Socialists, and among the organizers are of course David Jayne -Hill and Nicholas Murray Butler. - -Also, this chapter would not be complete without mention of that -immortal committee of the New York state legislature, which has given to -the English language a new word. The “Luskers” hauled radicals of all -sorts before it, raiding their homes and offices, smashing their -furniture and stealing their papers. It went particularly after the -school-teachers, and we shall meet it again when we come to the schools. -One of its chosen victims was the Rand School of Social Science, which -is really a college, but modestly refrains from calling itself such. It -is an institution in which students are frankly and shamelessly taught -to think for themselves, and the politicians of the state and city of -New York understand that their existence is jeopardized by such a place. -The first steps taken against the Rand School were to raid the place and -throw the typewriters and the teachers down the stairs. As that did not -cause the pupils to stop thinking for themselves, the Lusk committee -recommended, and the New York state legislature passed a bill, requiring -that all institutions which carry on teaching in New York state shall -have a license from the regents of the state education board; the -intention, of course, being that a license shall be issued to all -institutions in the state except the Rand School of Social Science and -the “Modern School,” organized by the followers of Ferrer. - -The Rand School has refused to apply for a license under this law, and -the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, has just ruled against the -school, holding the act constitutional. The next step is to carry the -case to the Court of Appeals, and after that to the United States -Supreme Court. It is manifest that if this Lusk law is upheld, there -will be no use talking any more about academic freedom, so far as -concerns the state of New York. Common sense would suggest that the -provision in the United States Constitution, forbidding the passing of -laws interfering with freedom of speech and of the press, should cover -this case; but when you investigate the subject you find that common -sense and the plain words of the Constitution are not what count in -capitalist law. There is a provision in our Constitution forbidding -interference with “the right of the people to bear arms in time of -peace”; but that right has not prevented the courts of New York state -from upholding a law forbidding a citizen to keep a revolver in his -home! It is pleasant to be able to record that Governor Miller, who -signed these Lusk laws, was defeated for re-election in November, 1922, -by a plurality of four hundred and ten thousand votes, the largest -plurality ever cast in the history of an American state. - -There are many other organizations watching our colleges. The -interlocking newspapers are vigilant, and do not always confine their -activities to their own locality. The Chicago “Tribune” has exposed and -caused the expulsion of more than one college professor. We have seen in -this book such activities on the part of the “Oregonian” of Portland and -the “Missoulian” of Montana, the Seattle “Times” and the Boston “Evening -Transcript,” the Grand Forks, North Dakota, “Herald,” the Rockford, -Illinois, “Star,” the Fort Worth, Texas, “Searchlight.” - -In Rhode Island is the Providence “Journal,” whose publisher we have met -as one of the three leading trustees of Brown University. The editor of -this paper is a super-patriot, Mr. John Revelstoke Rathom, who is -tireless in war upon “radicalism” in the colleges, not merely of his own -state, but throughout New England. I find Mr. Rathom lecturing before -the Liberal Club of Clark University—the same organization which was so -bitterly denounced by the Worcester “Telegram” as Bolshevist! Mr. Rathom -put no restraint upon his contempt for the parlor Socialists; he -denounced them as “unsexed brains,” and declared that he “would not pay -them twenty-five dollars a week” on his newspaper—this being the final -test of excellence in human brains. “Still,” says Mr. Rathom, “they are -permitted to teach our young students all this filth, this infidelity to -country, this bestial doctrine.” He declared that in many places “our -public schools have become hot-beds of anarchy, instead of shrines of -liberty.” - -Mr. Rathom’s title to hundred percent Americanism is secured by his -Australian birth and English education. In the days before America -entered the war, this multiple patriot took up the task of bringing us -in, and published in his paper an elaborate series of exposés of German -intrigue in our country. It read like Sherlock Holmes, and was taken up -by the interlocking press, and created an enormous sensation. Then Mr. -Rathom started a series of articles in the “World’s Work”—tales about -German spies and bomb plots, and how Mr. Rathom with his host of secret -agents had penetrated even into the German embassy at Washington! But -something happened, nobody knew what. Mr. Rathom’s narrative came to a -sudden stop, and the “World’s Work” said no more about it. It was not -until several years later that the truth was revealed; the United States -Secret Service authorities had objected to being represented as a -collection of “boobs,” and had forced Mr. Rathom to a showdown. Not -merely had they made him stop the publication of his articles; they had -made him sign an elaborate document, in which he admitted that a good -part of his material was the product of his own imagination, and the -rest had been furnished him by the Bohemian National Alliance, and the -Croatian and Serbian national societies, and other anti-German and -anti-Austrian groups in America! I quote you just one sentence of this -document, in order that you may observe the nature of a worm when it -wriggles: - - I feel that the general public opinion, which has rather unfortunately - credited us with the actual bringing to justice of German spies and - malefactors, has been misdirected to the extent that our only possible - claim to valuable constructive work in the past three and one-half - years ought in fairness to be restricted to the educational value of - our combined efforts, and the newspaper enterprise which produced a - great number of stories printed in our newspapers. - -And then follow twenty-eight long paragraphs, in which Mr. Rathom admits -in detail the falsehoods in the “stories” he published, and winds up by -agreeing to make no more public addresses during the war! Also, one -ought not deny the honor of mention to Mr. James M. Beck, corporation -lawyer and amateur patriot. Mr. Beck holds three honorary degrees from -American universities, and is described to me by a university professor -as “the most notorious high-brow ass in the country.” He travels about -making commencement orations in our colleges, and clamoring for the -casting out of professors who fail in loyalty to the plutocracy. If you -want to know just how foolish one of these hundred percenters can make -himself in public, read the controversy of Mr. Beck with Professor -Frankfurter of the Harvard Law School concerning the Mooney case, -published in the “New Republic” for January 18, 1922. - -Another hundred percenter who is much concerned with our education is a -leading corporation lawyer of Denver, Mr. Charles R. Brock, one of the -grand dukes of Denver University, where we studied the career of -Chancellor Buchtel. Mr. Brock is attorney for the “Big Four” utility -corporations, which have run the city government of Denver for a -generation; his partner was for a long time chairman of the infinitely -corrupt Democratic party of Colorado. So Mr. Brock is terribly afraid of -Socialists, and last spring I find him delivering a tirade against them -to the young ladies of the most exclusive finishing school in Denver. -Also he published in the Denver “Post” an attack upon President Thomas -of Bryn Mawr, because of her radicalism. We shall have an inside glimpse -at Miss Thomas’s activities before long, and discover the truly comical -cautiousness of her “radicalism.” - -It seems to trouble these corporation gentlemen especially that women -should be venturing to think; they get after the women’s colleges again -and again. Thus, some years ago, the president of Vassar received a -letter from a high-up interlocking trustee, informing her that it had -been discovered that twenty girls in that institution had formed a -Socialist group, and that the trustee proposed to take action unless -this group was broken up. The president of Wellesley received a letter -from a prominent successful son, stating that he had learned that two -members of the faculty had voted for Debs! At Vassar they pretend to -permit freedom of discussion, but they limit the Socialist organization -to two speakers a year, while they place no restriction upon the number -of speakers brought in by the Y. M. C. A. and other groups. A lecture by -Albert Rhys Williams was canceled, upon action of the trustees, after -that friend of the Russian people had given his testimony before the -Overman committee of the United States Senate. A professor at another -woman’s college—she will not permit me to name the place—told me a funny -story of how the president was visited by a hundred percent banker, who -frightened her with the tidings that he had unearthed “radical -activities” among the faculty, and proposed to take action about it -before the trustees. He had the “goods” in his pocket, he said; and -after some persuasion, he consented to produce the “goods”—which proved -to consist of a letter from a parent, reporting one of the professors as -advising a girl to read “those Bolshevist and Anarchist magazines, the -‘Survey’ and the ‘New Republic’!” - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXII - THE HELEN GHOULS - - -I have reserved for a separate chapter our most active anti-socialist -organization, the National Civic Federation, a combination of -class-conscious capitalists such as Elbert H. Gary and Alton B. Parker, -with high-salaried labor leaders who have sold out their class. Once a -year these labor leaders are honored with an elaborate banquet in New -York City, where they listen to patriotic speeches from the wholesale -corrupters of our public life. This National Civic Federation has a -special department, headed by Condé B. Pallen, a Catholic lecturer, the -“Committee for the Study of Revolutionary Movements.” It runs an -elaborate system of espionage, and is perhaps the greatest single agency -for the brow-beating of college professors. - -I had special opportunity to observe the workings of this enterprise, -because I served for ten years on the executive committee of the -Intercollegiate Socialist Society, which used to receive the special -attention of Mr. Ralph M. Easley, secretary of the Federation. This -gentleman subscribed for six copies of our little monthly magazine, and -used to quote extracts from it as a means of terrifying his backers into -parting with their cash. He would list the names of the professors and -students whom we mentioned, and would stir up college presidents and -trustees and local business men and newspaper editors against them. Some -tragedies resulted from this; and often it happened that professors and -students lost interest in our work, and offered no explanation. - -The most prominent of the backers of this Federation has been Mrs. -Finley J. Shepard, née Helen Gould; one of the half dozen children of -Jay Gould, the old-time railroad wrecker and Wall Street gambler. His -other children turned out wasters and wantons, but Helen was a woman of -kind heart, who gave much money to charity, and was the darling of the -New York newspapers in the days of my childhood. She married a -corporation lawyer, an official in the Gould railroads, and now she has -swallowed whole the goblin stories of those who live by scaring rich -people into putting up their money for class propaganda. - -I do not mean to say that there are not men and women among the “reds” -who would be glad to overthrow the American government and abolish the -constitution, but I say that such people can only be met and overcome by -free discussion, based upon an honest resolve to bring social justice -into the world. Also, I say that the peril to our land which these -“reds” represent is not one per cent of that represented by the big -business criminals who run the National Civic Federation. I say -furthermore that the constitution of the United States and the good name -and credit of our country will not suffer as much damage from the -propaganda of Lenin and Trotsky in a hundred years as they have suffered -from the system of corruption and terrorism instituted by Ralph M. -Easley and Condé B. Pallen with the money of Helen Gould Shepard. - -When I was in New York I met a man who declared that he had been present -at a luncheon-party, at which Mrs. Shepard stated that she had pledged -her entire fortune to the stamping out of radicalism from our colleges. -She was maintaining an organization for the carrying on of -“investigations” into the teaching of social questions, and the ousting -of those who taught unsound ideas. Within the last year Mrs. Shepard -herself had caused the ousting of two such men. I did not want to repeat -these statements without giving Mrs. Shepard an opportunity to confirm -or deny them, so I wrote her a polite note, asking for an interview. -This note was not answered, and a couple of months later I wrote a -detailed letter, in which I stated what I had learned from several -sources, and asked her to correct the statements if they were false. I -pointed out that when persons of great wealth spend their money for -propaganda, they enter a field which is of public concern, and the -public has a right to be informed as to what they are doing. This letter -likewise remained unanswered, so I take it as fair to assume that Mrs. -Shepard admits the truth of the statements quoted above. - -In these activities she is earnestly supported by her husband, who is a -trustee of the University of Jabbergrab, and last spring was serving on -a committee appointed by the state superintendent of education to -browbeat the school teachers of the city who were suspected of -unorthodox ideas. The sessions of this committee were secret, so I was -not able to observe Mr. Shepard functioning. I have, however, a pretty -good picture of the Shepard family life, in a letter from a well-known -Methodist clergyman, who was invited to a dinner-party at the home of -Mr. and Mrs. Shepard. Their conversation was devoted almost exclusively -to “the intellectuals,” whom Mrs. Shepard “held responsible for the -present disturbance in the social order.” She gave her guest the Lusk -committee report—six large volumes, in the index of which the author of -“The Goose-step” is listed as “a violent literary Socialist.” Also, she -gave him two books attacking modern ideas in religion—which books are -published and distributed upon her bounty. Said Mr. Shepard: “It is the -business of the preacher to preach salvation and let industry alone. -When men are converted they will apply the gospel to business. My father -was a preacher. What did he know about business?” Mr. Shepard -characterized Judge Gary as “the savior of the country”; and Mrs. -Shepard declared that “the Union Theological Seminary is the greatest -menace to New York City today.” Says the clergyman: “I came away with -the idea well driven home, that the social Gospel is Socialism; that -Socialism is Bolshevism; that Bolshevism is Atheism; and that nothing -but the pure individualistic Gospel can save the nation and the world.” - -You may judge from this that it is not a diverting experience to be -invited to a dinner-party at the home of the Shepards. I have before me -another document, which indicates that it is a still less diverting -experience to be invited to a cemetery with Mr. and Mrs. Shepard. This -document is a four-page leaflet, containing an address signed, “Helen -Gould Shepard,” and headed as follows: - - _At the Graves of John More and Betty Taylor, His Wife_ - The Cemetery, Roxbury, New York - August 31, 1920 - - Cousins of the More Family: - - We are here today to honor the memory of our ancestors, John More and - Betty Taylor, his wife, who came from Scotland in 1722 and settled in - the Catskill Mountains, then a very wild region. - -The little speech goes on for three paragraphs, to tell about the -virtues of the John Mores; after which, for five paragraphs it proceeds -to implore the cousins of the More family not to fall victims to the -evil and insidious modern “isms” which are “threatening to carry us on -to utter catastrophe unless the Christians of the nation awaken.” -Imagine, if you can, this poor, good-hearted, feeble-minded rich lady -reading a memorial oration at the graves of her ancestors, and devoting -one-fourth of her time to reciting the bugaboo-stories sent out in the -begging letters of the National Civic Federation! Hear a sample -paragraph: - - The forces of autocratic barbarism are not confined to the Socialists, - Anarchists and I. W. W.’s, but the cause of Lenine is more actively - furthered either frankly or by indirection by radical, - pseudo-intellectual writers, editors, professors, teachers and - clergymen in our newspapers, magazines, colleges, schools and - churches, and in some of these the enemies of democratic government - are found to hold the very highest positions. - -You will say that this is ridiculous, and you may say that it is -negligible; but I assure you that nothing is negligible in America that -has money. The wage-slaves of the railroads of the United States furnish -millions of dollars every year for Mrs. Shepard to use in circulating -such drivel, and subsidizing professional intriguers and -character-assassins. I presume that Mrs. Shepard is a tender-hearted -woman, who would be incapable of killing a mouse with her own hands. -History reports the same thing of Queen Mary; but that did not keep her -from causing Protestants to be burned at the stake. Moved by religious -terrors and class arrogance Mrs. Shepard considers herself justified in -setting in motion machinery for destroying the careers of men whose only -offense is that they resent social oppression, and venture here and -there to raise a feeble voice against it. - -I have before me a letter from one such man, who has been blacklisted by -the National Civic Federation, and in consequence has been hounded from -college to college throughout the United States; I submit him as an -exhibit of Mrs. Shepard’s achievements, a scalp which she wears at her -belt. Or perhaps I might call him a series of scalps, since the poor man -has lost his job ten times in sixteen years. I refrain from giving his -name, at his request; he says: “I am perfectly capable of accumulating -enough notoriety for myself without any professional assistance.” - -He goes on to tell about his adventures, one after another. He was on -the faculty of the Florida State College for Women, and was very -successful as a teacher, but it began to be noticed that his students -developed Socialist opinions, and the local newspapers took up the case, -and the board of trustees fired him, in spite of the protest of the -students. Then he went to Lenox College in Iowa, a town which had -elected a Socialist mayor. “In the spring the president called me in and -told me that he did not want me to think they had decided to drop me, -but they made no move toward holding me for another year, so I got -another job.” He went to Maryville College in Tennessee, and at the end -of the second year “monied people in the East objected to my writings”; -so he was dropped. Next he was dropped at Clark University, on account -of his opposition to the war. He went to the University of Kentucky, and -after a year of teaching was invited to give a lecture on Russia by the -college Y. M. C. A. “The head of the department said it would be as much -as his job was worth to recommend me for reappointment, and that the -same would be true of the dean and the president; so I was not -reappointed.” That was the summer of 1919, and he went to DePauw, but -before he got started the Chicago “Tribune” got after him, so that he -was “out of a job before entering upon it.” - -The curious thing about all these experiences is how little the -professor himself realized the significance of them. He wrote me: “My -record does not seem to occasion special suspicion!” Again he said: -“There is no organized system of control by privilege over American -education!” As it happens, I was behind the scenes in New York, and -heard some mention of this same professor’s name. Some day we shall have -a government in this country which will indict the heads of the National -Civic Federation for criminal conspiracy, and then we may take a turn at -looking into their papers, and this professor may learn why it was that -the heads of so many colleges suddenly discovered that it would be as -much as their jobs were worth to recommend him for promotion! - -P. S.—It is interesting to note that only three months later this young -professor had grown wiser. He wrote to me again, as follows: - - I have been thinking that I might have to revise my letter to you in - one point. I said I had never encountered anything like a black-list. - Now I am not so sure. I had to hunt another job this year (just why I - am not perfectly sure), but failed in my efforts to land anything - suitable. A certain proportion of the institutions to which I applied - answered in such a way as aroused no suspicion of anything ulterior. A - good many did not answer at all, or else merely returned my material. - I have a notion that some of them have me spotted. In one case where I - was asked to apply in person, the case was closed in a dubious way, - etc. - -We have one supremely successful organization for standardizing the -thoughts and morals of America, the Ku Klux Klan. The reason for its -success is that its members dress themselves in night-gowns and white -hoods, and its leaders call themselves Grand Goblins and Imperial -Kleagles. These symbols and names of terror have proven so effective, -that I wonder the idea is not taken up by the secret agents and -scandal-hounds of the National Civic Federation’s “Committee for Study -of Revolutionary Movements.” I offer the suggestion for what it is -worth; let them name themselves the Helen Ghouls, and let Mr. Condé B. -Pallen be known as the Shepard’s Watch-dog, and Mr. Ralph M. Easley as -the Shepard’s Crook! I must not suggest this latter name without -definite reason, so I set aside the next chapter to show you by what -devious devices Mr. Easley does his work of destroying the reputation of -educators who fail to recognize his plutocratic authority. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXIII - THE SHEPARD’S CROOK - - -There is at Annandale, New York, an Episcopal church institution called -St. Stephen’s College, having as its president the Reverend Bernard -Iddings Bell, who was dean of the cathedral at Fond-du-lac, Wisconsin, -for five years, and chaplain of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station -during the war. President Bell is a former Socialist, who resigned from -the Church Socialist Fellowship at the outbreak of the war, but has not -abandoned his belief that the way to confute error is to understand it -and tell the truth about it, instead of to lie about it and repress it -by force. - -Immediately after the war the National Civic Federation invited Bishop -Burch of the Episcopal diocese of New York to send delegates to a -conference on labor conditions, and President Bell was asked to become -one of the delegates; he declined, and wrote Bishop Burch advising him -not to send any delegates, “since to do so would be to tie up the church -officially with an organization which is suspect among most social -workers of responsibility and reliability.” As a result of this advice, -Bishop Burch sent no delegates. - -Shortly afterwards word of this came to Mr. Ralph M. Easley, and he was -furiously incensed against President Bell. He met President MacCracken -of Vassar College at a dinner-party, and “in a most violent and -unrestrained manner” announced that he was going to “get this man Bell”; -St. Stephen’s College was “full of Bolshevism,” etc. From various other -people word came to President Bell that Mr. Easley was attacking St. -Stephen’s, “in the same violent and unrestrained manner, selecting -especially those persons who were liable to make financial contributions -to the college.” President Bell thereupon wrote Mr. Easley a very -courteous letter, explaining that he was under an entire misapprehension -concerning St. Stephen’s, and inviting him to come there and make an -investigation of the place, and incidentally to explain the Civic -Federation’s work to the students. Mr. Easley replied that he could not -come at once, but would take up the matter later. He never did take it -up, nor did he ever accept the invitation several times repeated by -President Bell during the controversy which followed. - -What Mr. Easley did was to publish in the “National Civic Federation -Review” for January, 1920, what President Bell described as “a -vituperative article, based on false information and illegitimate -deductions.” These words were used by President Bell in a letter to -Judge Alton B. Parker, president of the Civic Federation. Said President -Bell: “I do not believe that the Civic Federation stands by this kind of -thing, and I think it is high time that someone takes your publication -in hand and teaches it the principles of honest journalism.” President -Bell went on to express his confidence in Judge Parker’s belief in -honesty and fair play; but apparently his confidence was misplaced, for -Judge Parker never answered this letter, nor any other letter on the -subject of the misdeeds of Mr. Easley. What Judge Parker did was to show -President Bell’s letter, “with violent indignation,” to the general -counsel of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in the Metropolitan -Club of New York, known as the “Millionaires.” He was surprised to learn -that this gentleman was a trustee of St. Stephen’s, and that he stood by -President Bell. The trustee undertook to obtain from President Bell a -detailed statement of the falsehoods in Mr. Easley’s article. So -President Bell wrote to his trustee, pointing out a series of ten false -statements and inferences in Mr. Easley’s attack upon the college. I -don’t suppose the reader will wish to go into these details; suffice it -to say that the clergyman proved his case thoroughly, and that his bill -of complaint traveled by way of the trustee and Judge Parker to Mr. -Easley, who wrote to President Bell, stating that he was turning the -whole correspondence over “to a committee composed of members of the -Protestant Episcopal Church who are interesting themselves in the -subject of the extent to which the revolutionary forces have permeated -that church.” - -This committee consisted of an obscure lawyer by the name of Townsend, -an Episcopal clergyman by the name of Carstensen, and Mr. Everett P. -Wheeler, a New York lawyer, whose excuse is that he is eighty-two years -of age. Dr. Carstensen was courteous enough to advise President Bell -that he was serving on this committee, and asked that an anti-Bolshevist -army officer should be permitted to address the students of St. -Stephen’s College—which request President Bell cheerfully granted. - -About this time happened one of the those mysterious things which may -always be counted upon to happen when you are dealing with the Helen -Ghouls and the Shepard’s Crooks. Somehow or other the news of the affair -gets to the capitalist press; somehow the capitalist press comes into -possession of the complete documents—of one side of the case! This time -it was the New York “World” which learned that a committee of the -National Civic Federation was preparing a report on Bolshevism at St. -Stephen’s, and the “World” published this report upon its front page. -Dr. Carstensen, who in the meantime had visited St. Stephen’s, wrote to -President Bell that he had refused to sign the report. He added that the -report was about to be issued officially by the National Civic -Federation; to which President Bell replied, expressing doubt that the -report would be officially issued. The publication in the New York -“World” had raised a storm among the supporters of St. Stephen’s; and, -said President Bell, “Easley is not fond of making charges the -responsibility for which he cannot easily disavow, when he discovers -that he has done something unpopular.” - -Sure enough, when one of the trustees of the National Civic Federation -came out in the “World” supporting President Bell, Mr. Easley suddenly -stepped from under! He publicly denied that he had anything to do with -the attack on St. Stephen’s, and declared that the committee had no -connection with the National Civic Federation, but that the members of -the committee alone were responsible for what they had done! Imagine, if -you can, the chagrin of poor Mr. Eighty-two-year-old Everett P. Wheeler! -Mr. Wheeler wrote to President Bell to explain that he had nothing to do -with the publication, that he had protested against it to the New York -“World,” and that he considered it “a shameful abuse by a great -newspaper.” The purpose of the committee, said Mr. Wheeler, had been to -act toward President Bell “as Christian brethren, and to give you every -opportunity to explain your position. We are not without hope that we -may convince you that you have erred.” - -So you can see what has happened; poor Mr. Wheeler blames the New York -“World,” but his aged mind does not go back to the question of who -supplied the “World” with the data of which it made use. Who was it, do -you think? Was it the Shepard’s Crook, employing the name and reputation -of an aged dotard, once a vigorous reformer, as a means to assail a -liberal teacher and clergyman? Telling Mr. Wheeler that he is serving on -a committee of the National Civic Federation, and that the purpose of -this committee is to prepare an appeal to President Bell, in the hope of -convincing him that he has erred; and then secretly permitting this -confidential material to reach the New York “World”; and finally when he -sees that his charges have overshot the mark, disavowing his aged tool, -and leaving him exposed to public contempt! - -I conclude with President Bell’s summary of what this story shows about -Mr. Ralph M. Easley: - - 1. His willingness to attack an institution and a person because of - personal bias, and to involve the National Civic Federation in the - task of pulling his personal chestnuts out of the fire. - - 2. The absurdity of his contention that his society has never attacked - individuals. - - 3. His absolute lack of courtesy in correspondence. - - 4. His willingness to circulate sub rosa information about people whom - he does not like, and when caught at it to deny responsibility in the - name of himself and of his Federation. - - 5. His using of other people for his purposes, telling them only what - he wishes of the controversies in which he seeks to engage their aid. - This is especially plain in his refusal to tell the committee headed - by Mr. Wheeler that this college was welcoming investigation and that - it had invited him to investigate for himself or send others to - investigate. If Mr. Wheeler had known all this it would have thrown an - entirely different emphasis upon the whole situation. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXIV - CITIES OF REFUGE - - -The reader will be ready by this time with the question: are there no -free colleges whatever in America, no institutions of higher learning -where truth is sought and respected? There are a few, and we have now to -give them credit. - -We have heard Mrs. Helen Gould Shepard declaring at her dinner-table -that “the Union Theological Seminary is the greatest menace to New York -City today.” Translated into commonsense, this means that there are -professors at this institution who have come to realize the futility of -basing the moral standards of mankind upon a literal acceptance of fairy -stories, the product of the child-mind of the race; also who have read -the words of Jesus about the impossibility of serving both God and -Mammon. - -Among these revolutionary theologians is Harry F. Ward, secretary of the -Social Service Federation of the Methodist church. Dr. Ward was active -in protest against the crimes of Judge Gary during the recent steel -strike, and as a result fell victim to the Helen Ghouls. A man called -upon him, being obviously not of the idealist type, but representing -himself as a lecturer on Bolshevism, wishing to verify certain facts. -After a brief conversation Dr. Ward gave the man a “calling-down,” -telling him that he was utterly ignorant of the subject with which he -pretended to deal. Not long afterwards Dr. Ward learned of a document, -issued by the National Civic Federation, but bearing no name, and -accompanied by a request for its return after reading. It was being -submitted to open shop employers and propagandists, and used as a means -of money-getting: an alleged interview with Ward, in which he was -represented as having said that Christianity would soon pass away, and -Bolshevism take its place; the full absurdity of which statement you -could not realize unless you had the fortune to know this passionately -earnest Christian clergyman. Ward had mentioned a young Y. M. C. A. man -named Hecker, as one who had first-hand knowledge of the Seattle strike, -and this document named Hecker, and was used to procure his discharge. -It was also used to bar Jerome Davis from Chautauqua platforms. When a -committee of the Inter-church Federation called upon Judge Gary, they -found the document on his desk, and he quoted from it liberally. Also it -was in the hands of Chancellor Buchtel of Denver University when he -barred Harry Ward from speaking. So far extends the reach of the -Shepard’s Crook! - -There are other places in the country in which the revolutionary leaven -of Jesus is working. There is the Berkeley Divinity School at -Middletown, Connecticut, a place of open-mindedness and fine idealism, -presided over by Dean W. P. Ladd. Wild rumors were spread concerning -Bolshevist activities, and the grand duke of the trustees, Mr. -Nettleton, president of the New Haven Gas Company, took up the fight. -One of the charges was that the dean belonged to the Church League for -Industrial Democracy—among whose members are fifteen bishops of the -Episcopal church! The investigating committee of the trustees decided -that it was unwise for the dean and members of the faculty to belong to -this organization. They qualified their statement, “in the present state -of the public mind, and from the standpoint of the citizen of the -world”; to which Dean Ladd makes the pungent comment: “One would have -thought that even a citizen of the world would prefer that a member of -the faculty of a Christian divinity school should regulate his conduct, -not with reference to the world and the prevailing state of the public -mind, but according to the principles of the religion which he -professes.” Also the committee laid down the rule: “We cannot for a -moment permit any action or influence of theirs (the faculty), as -teachers, which would seem to develop Socialism as a political idea.” -And further, the committee laid down the rule: “What the teachings of -the School shall be and how they shall be taught, and under what -influences the students shall live are matters for (the trustees), if -not entirely, at least in co-operation with the dean and the faculty.” - -Dean Ladd issued a counter statement, in which he frankly and completely -differs from this policy, and declares that he will not follow it. He -says: - - I cannot while I remain dean of the School be a party to a policy so - entirely at variance with my own judgment and conviction of what is - right. The Berkeley Divinity School is, of course, desperately in need - of money. And trustees and others have repeatedly said that no money - will be forthcoming so long as our present policy continues. I hope - this is not so. But if the School has to die in a losing fight for a - policy, one feature of which is to try to make justice and love the - controlling motive in all social conditions, I am quite ready to say, - with Bishop Brewster, “Then let it die!” Better so to die than to live - on prosperously in an attitude of subservience and compromise. - -The school still lives; but you may judge the drawing-power of social -idealism in America today by the fact that it has only fifteen students. -It has to exist by gifts, because its trustees invested most of its -funds in the shares of the New Haven Railroad! - -Also at Oberlin, Ohio, is an old college under religious auspices, -struggling hard to preserve the high traditions of its abolitionist -founders. From its beginning in 1833 it admitted women and Negroes, and -its internal affairs have always been controlled by its faculty. -Appointments are made by the faculty and ratified by the trustees, and -so far the trustees have behaved themselves. During the war they tried -to drive out a professor on the ground that he was pro-German, but they -were only able to get one faculty vote for the proposal, and so were -forced to drop it. A professor at Oberlin writes me that the faculty is -conservative, as in all other colleges, and they naturally try to -appoint only those who conform; “but if a mistake is made there is never -a thing said to coerce his freedom in the class or out.” As a -consequence, this professor has ventured to advise his classes to read -“The Brass Check.” When the librarian declared that the library had no -funds with which to subscribe to the New York “Call,” the professor of -Hebrew advised him to take the money from the “Old Testament fund,” -explaining quite correctly that “the Old Testament is a book of -prophecy.” - -Also, in Denver is the Iliff School of Theology of the Methodist church, -where several young professors are following the example of the -dangerous Harry Ward. When Ward was barred from speaking by Chancellor -Buchtel, they brought him across the street and triumphantly listened to -his message. When I came to Denver they welcomed me in a church, and -told me the story of their struggle against the infinite corruption -enthroned in Denver politics, and worshipped in Denver churches. - -And then, I must not overlook the Y. M. C. A. College, located at -Springfield, Massachusetts, which through some freak of chance has -secured a phenomenal president in L. L. Doggett, who brought his old -Oberlin professor, Ballantine, to teach some truth about the Bible, and -thus caused anguish to the orthodox. The war brought President Doggett -to the conclusion that the world cannot be saved by prayer and Indian -clubs, and he went abroad and got into touch with the London School of -Economics, and other European progressives, and came back and founded an -“industrial course,” in the face of bitter opposition from a solemn, -prayerful and gymnastic faculty. The pious morons in the Association are -fighting him tooth and nail, and have, of course, curtailed their gifts -to the college. President Doggett has taken up an endowment campaign of -his own, and I cheerfully give him this “boost,” though I fear it may do -him more harm than good! - -This part of my story would not be complete unless I paid tribute to the -Church League for Industrial Democracy, and to the tireless services of -Richard W. Hogue, an Episcopal clergyman who was kicked out of his -church and his open forum in Baltimore, and now travels over the -country, gathering groups of theological students and Y. M. C. A. -workers, and preaching to them the real gospel of the crucified -proletarian. He tells me that he finds increasing welcome; he tells of -several little colleges throughout the Middle West, whose faculties—and -in one or two cases, the presidents—believe in free discussion, and have -given him a hearing. - -Also, there is one free law school in America—at Harvard. We have seen -Dean Pound and Professors Frankfurter, Sayre and Chafee taking a bold -stand for freedom of speech. These men fearlessly teach the evolution of -law, and suggest to their students the possibility of improvement in -American institutions. Thus, from the last report of Dean Pound I quote -a few scattered sentences, just to give you an idea of the tone: - - A clear body of law has grown up already as the result of the - experience of a generation in the Interstate Commerce Commission, a - body of law is forming under our eyes through the administration of - workmen’s compensation acts by industrial commissions, and the - exigencies of general peace and good order, if nothing else, must lead - before long to a new body of law governing industrial disputes.... - Collective bargaining is likely to compel us to think over again the - whole subject of juristic personality in Anglo-American law. Criminal - law and procedure call for the best efforts of thoroughly trained - common-law lawyers acquainted with the social science of today.... For - much that we have had to study and to teach in the immediate past is - already yielding in importance to these new elements in the legal - system. Much of our nineteenth-century law will presently be as - obsolete as the learning of real actions and of the feudal law of - estates in land which held so large a place in the curriculum of the - Law School a century ago, or the elaborate and involved procedural law - which was so important fifty years later, or the pedantic law of - bailments which has given way to a modern doctrine of the obligations - of public service. - -Needless to say, such utterances as this, from such a source, are the -cause of continually increasing distress to the legal retainers of our -plutocracy! - -Also, there is a New England college of considerable reputation, whose -president has taken a firm stand for open-mindedness, and that is -Amherst. President Meikeljohn was one of the live men who got out of -Brown when it began to die. He is now trying to make one small college -in which young men are taught to think, instead of just to believe in -dogmas. He is in the midst of a fight with reactionary trustees; in 1920 -they asked for his resignation, but he consulted a lawyer and told them -they had no authority in the premises. He is still in office, for how -long I do not know. - -Also, there is Swarthmore, in Pennsylvania, in which some professors are -making a brave struggle. This is an old co-educational institution -established by the Quakers, a sect which had more than its share of -persecution, and took pains to provide for freedom of opinion. But now -the Quakers have become rich, and there is a new kind of persecution in -the world, and shall they permit freedom of opinion about special -privilege? That Swarthmore has not been entirely liberal, you may judge -from the fact that its most conspicuous graduates are Governor Sproul of -Pennsylvania, who smashed the steel strike with his Cossacks, and -Attorney-General Palmer, who killed and buried the constitution of the -United States. The thousands of alleged radicals and helpless foreigners -who had their heads cracked by Mr. Palmer’s thugs will appreciate the -gay humor of the fact that this gentleman is a devout and active Quaker! - -Governor Sproul gave to Swarthmore an astronomical observatory; the -stars are a long way off, and the governor is not afraid of anything -that might be discovered there. But Professor Robert C. Brooks of -Swarthmore put his sociological telescope upon Delaware County, in which -the college is located, and drew a diagram of the “jury wheel system,” -whereby the big political crooks managed to keep themselves out of jail. -Certain men of wealth came to the president of Swarthmore, saying: “Here -we have given five millions, and we can’t do it with a man like Brooks -running round and stirring up trouble”; so the president had a “frank -talk” with Professor Brooks. - -Nevertheless, some professors are holding on both to their convictions -and their jobs, and so the place is regarded as a “hot-bed.” There is a -professor of philosophy, who is using modern literature as a door to -Plato, and tells the students to read “Man and Superman” and “The Spoon -River Anthology.” He got from this experiment a lively response; some of -the boys and girls were shocked, but they asked questions, and presently -began to think for themselves, and discovered that thinking is a -thrilling experience. I am told that the librarian of the college stays -shocked. Never before had he heard of students in college being taught -from a book like “The Spoon River Anthology.” - -There is also one state institution which deserves mention—the -University of North Carolina, sometimes called the “Wisconsin of the -South.” Richard Hogue tells me that he was permitted to explain the -meaning of industrial democracy to the students of this institution. I -wrote one of the professors and received from him a letter, assuring me -that here was a place, having some twenty-five hundred students, which -was both free and democratic. I thought I would test the matter a -little, so I asked him whether a professor who was an avowed Socialist -would be tolerated, and whether the modern Socialist movement was -adequately explained to the students. My correspondent replied that he -himself was a “Christian Socialist,” but that he did not mean “as Bouck -White sees it, or even as Ward sees it.” He adds: “My experience is that -the destructive radical is a chap with a screw loose somewhere—with a -twist in his intelligence or with an excess of inflammable emotion. -Oftimes he has intellect and courage, but is emotionally unbalanced, -like Scott Nearing, for instance. Or he is intelligent and deliberately -destructive like Foster.” In comment on the above I will merely state my -own opinion; first, that Scott Nearing is the ablest economist in the -United States today; and second, that William Z. Foster is a very -constructive force in the American labor movement. - -I have letters from several other professors, who are sure that their -institutions are free, and I tested them also with these questions. You -will be amused to know that one of them was a professor at the -University of Pennsylvania! He stated that professors known to be -Socialists would be permitted to teach “as scientific scholars. I -suppose if they devoted their time to propaganda they would properly be -eliminated.” Of course no mention is made of the many professors at the -University of Pennsylvania who devote their time to capitalist -propaganda—such as for example, Meade, Conway, Hess, Johnson and -Huebner. - -Some of the professors who seceded from Columbia University, including -James Harvey Robinson, Charles A. Beard and Thorstein Veblen, organized -a free institution known as the New School for Social Research; it was -to cater to students who really wished to study, and to dispense with -all the flummeries, including examinations and degrees. The enterprise -has not proved a financial success, for a peculiar reason. The -capitalist system does not permit people to study for the luxury of -possessing knowledge; the purpose of study is to earn a living, and to -that end you have to have a certificate that you have studied. In other -words, you must go to an institution which fits as a cog in the -educational machine. The New School for Social Research has on its -teaching staff half a dozen of the best minds in America, and its -purpose is really to teach people to think; therefore I give it a free -“boost,” and advise you that its address is 465 West 23rd Street, New -York. - -There was another free college in America; it didn’t last long, but I -mention it because it was a gallant effort, and offers a model for the -future. It was known as Wire City College, and had a beautiful location -in a big house high up on the banks of the Missouri River at -Leavenworth, Kansas. Its professors, and likewise its students, were -military prisoners of the United States government, and they proceeded -to organize themselves, forming a really free college, governed by its -students and faculty. All the teachers were elected by the students, and -ran the class until they were deposed; all the papers were voluntary, -there were no examinations, and—most vital this difference from other -colleges—all the students studied. - -There was a secret library of three hundred radical books, in addition -to the prison library of seven thousand respectable books. The library -reading room was the lavatory. There were lectures every evening from -seven to eight; on Monday English was taught by H. Austin Simons, a -former reporter for the Hearst newspapers; on Tuesday logic was taught -by Carl Haessler, now managing editor of the Federated Press; on -Wednesday economics was taught by Carlton Rodolf, secretary of the Marx -Institute of New York. (His students decided that he was too technical, -so they fired him.) There was also Clark Getts, later connected with the -Federated Press. On Thursday biology was taught by George Schmieder, -former high school teacher and graduate of the University of -Pennsylvania; on Friday philosophy was taught by Haessler; and on -Saturday there were discussions. - -The college published a paper, the “Wire City Weekly,” also a bulletin, -clandestinely made on prison typewriters; the time-schedules were -printed by a conscientious objector in the prison printery. The -institution was conducted for several months, until finally the -authorities found out about it, and almost the entire faculty was -kidnapped and carried off to Alcatraz Island, and almost the entire -student body to Fort Douglas, Utah. So far as I know, this is the only -college in America which has thus been dealt with; but no doubt the -interlocking directorate has made note of the plan, and if free colleges -should continue to spring up, we shall get used to the wholesale -disappearance of college faculties and students. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXV - THE ACADEMIC RABBITS - - -There are, of course, a large number of individual professors in -institutions of higher learning who take their stand for what they -believe to be the truth, and risk their jobs and chances of promotion. I -have mentioned the existence of eight “renommir professoren.” At -Wellesley is Vida Scudder, who “gets by” because she is a devout -Episcopalian; also Professor Ellen Hayes, who “gets by” because she is -old, and because she teaches astronomy. These reasons are not my -guesses, but were the statements of the president of the college, when -she was asked at a women’s club in Denver why she kept a notorious -Socialist and labor agitator on her faculty. - -Professor Hayes got this reputation by running for office on the -Socialist party ticket; I visited her on my trip, and heard some funny -stories. Here is one of the sweetest and most lovable old ladies you -ever met, who is not mealy-mouthed about her belief in the right and -destiny of the workers to control the world’s industry for their own -benefit. She deliberately lives in a working-class neighborhood—with -rather comical results. Her neighbors are in awe of her, because she is -a college professor, and a little afraid of her, because of her bad -reputation; the one way she might get to know them, through the church, -is not available, because Professor Hayes is a scientist. - -On the other side of the continent is Guido Marx of Stanford, who -shamelessly avows his sympathy with the co-operative movement, and -likewise with faculty control of universities. Professor Marx, it is -amusing to notice, teaches mechanical engineering, a subject almost as -safe as the stars. If there is a single professor in the United States -who teaches political economy and admits himself a Socialist, that -professor is a needle which I have been unable to find in our academic -hay-stack. - -Of course there are many radicals who conceal their views, and -judiciously try to open the minds of their students without putting any -label upon themselves. I have told in “The Profits of Religion” about -Jowett at Oxford, who got by with the Apostles’ Creed whenever he had to -recite it in public, by inserting the words “used to” between the words -“I believe,” saying the inserted words under his breath, thus: “I _used -to_ believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” I encountered -several college professors who have equally ingenious devices for -salving their consciences in their unhappy situation. I might terrify -the plutocratic world by stating that I know two presidents of small -colleges in the United States, who in their own homes and among their -trusted friends are real “reds.” One of them, a young man recently -appointed, was asked by his assembled trustees: “What are your views on -property questions?” He answered, with an easy smile: “I fear I am far -too conservative for a man of thirty-seven”—and he got by with that! The -other one is head of a woman’s college, and was asked by her trustees: -“Are you a Socialist?” She said to me: “I could answer no with a -perfectly good conscience, for I had just made up my mind that I am a -convert to the Soviet form of political and industrial organization!” - -Of course, it is perfectly possible to teach modern ideas without the -labels, and to open the minds of your students by seeing that they hear -both sides of every case. If you avoid the extremely crucial questions, -such as the I. W. W. and Russia, you can get by with this in the -majority of institutions, especially if you eschew outside activities -and never get into the newspapers. Many professors are doing this, -others have tried and slipped up, and have sacrificed promotion and -security. Many professors are rovers in the academic world, staying in -one place for two or three years, and when they are not able to stand it -any more, moving on. There is an infinite variety of degrees and -shadings in such cases; conditions differ with institutions, and with -subjects taught, and with individual teachers. Some “get away” with what -others dare not attempt. Some spoil their chances by bad manners or bad -judgment; and, of course, many others are accused of doing this. You -will seldom find a fight over a question of academic freedom where there -are not other factors present or alleged, personal weaknesses or -eccentricities. It is always easy to find defects in the characters and -temperaments of persons whose ideas are offensive to us. - -Likewise, of course, it is easy to find excuses for seeking the safest -way, and holding on to our jobs. The psychoanalysts have a useful word -for mental processes of this sort—they are “rationalizations”; and the -masters of our educational system have provided an elaborate set of -“rationalizations” for college professors who wish to avoid the painful -duty of being heroes. They will be loyal to the institution and to their -colleagues. They will be scholars and not propagandists. They will be -judicious, instead of being “emotionally unbalanced, like Scott -Nearing.” They will argue that their specialty is one of unusual -importance, and they are privileged beings, set apart to work at that. -Or they will plead that social evolution takes a long time, and that -every man’s first duty is to look out for his wife and children. These, -too, are phrases which I heard over and over again, and they reveal the -psychology of the academic rabbits. You will perhaps be interested to -meet one of these rabbits, so here is part of a letter written by a -professor in a large college in New York City: - - I do not believe that there is a single group of “special privilege.” - The human race is made up of people who are looking after their own - interests first—some with energy and ability, some with weakness and - folly, but not with less singleness of purpose. All such groups, in so - far as they have ability enough, want to control education and all - other group activities in their interest. This is perfectly - natural.... Of course the big book corporations work for the promotion - of their friends just as you and I do. If they put bad people into the - schools and colleges it is the fault of the employing agencies. - -Before I conclude this chapter I ought to mention one hopeful incident -which happened at Lafayette College, a religious institution located at -Easton, Pennsylvania. The president of this institution, MacCracken, is -a product of the University of Jabbergrab; he was professor of politics -there for twelve years, and has five honorary degrees. He has as the -grand duke of his trustees the president of the Hazleton National Bank -and the Hazleton Iron Works; and as first assistant he has Mr. Fred -Morgan Kirby, president of the Woolworth stores, also of a bank and a -railroad; a high-up interlocking director in railroads, lumber, -insurance, gas and electricity. Mr. Kirby decided that he did not like -modern ideas, so he gave a hundred thousand dollars to Lafayette, to -furnish a salary of seven thousand a year for the teaching of “civil -rights”; very carefully laying down his definition—“those absolute -rights of persons, such as ... the right to acquire and enjoy property -as regulated and protected by law.” Also he declared his purpose: - - That the fallacies of Socialism and kindred theories and practises - which tend to hamper and discourage and throttle individual effort, - and individual energy, may be exposed and avoided ... with a firm - belief that the protection of the civil rights of individuals has - contributed greatly to the advancement of the nation and that the - encroachments, and threatened encroachments on these rights will - imperil the country, and destroy the prosperity and happiness of our - people, I, Fred Morgan Kirby, give to Lafayette College, etc. - -These are high-sounding legal phrases, and we shall understand the -situation better if we put them into plain business English, as follows: - - I, Fred Morgan Kirby, having become owner of a chain of hundreds of - stores throughout the United States, and wishing to have my - descendants own these stores forever, seek to provide that the - wage-slaves who work in these stores shall never organize, but shall - come to be hired as individuals under the competitive-wage system. To - this end I wish to hire a man to teach in a college that any - proposition to have the Woolworth stores owned by the public, or - democratically run by the people who work in the stores, will imperil - the country and destroy the prosperity and happiness of America. - -Mr. Kirby thought that seven thousand a year ought to buy a real high-up -professor of political science, and his college president invited a -young professor of a leading university, who asks me to omit his name in -telling the story. This professor boldly asked for an opportunity to -discuss the question with Mr. Kirby himself, so they sat down to -luncheon, the grand duke and his university president and this young -supposed-to-be rabbit. The supposed-to-be rabbit suggested that it might -not be quite fair to lay down to a man of science exactly what he should -teach forever after; which surprised Mr. Kirby, and rather hurt his -feelings. He said that when he hired a salesman, he told him what to say -and how to say it. Mr. Kirby is a nice, amiable old business gentleman, -and he asked, plaintively: “Why can’t I employ a college professor to -sell my opinions?” The professor, who is a lawyer, said that he should -be very glad to become Mr. Kirby’s attorney if invited. He would give up -teaching work and advocate Mr. Kirby’s ideas—only the fee which Mr. -Kirby offered was insufficient for a lawyer, and he would regard that -merely as a retaining fee. Then the professor turned to President -MacCracken, asking him if he did not think that possibly the terms of -the bequest might have a tendency to control the opinions of the -professor who accepted the chair. President MacCracken answered naively -that he had never thought of that. Such a dear, innocent college -president—he had given an honorary degree to A. Mitchell Palmer only a -year before this! - -The deal with this professor did not go through, and—here is the -significant part of the story—President MacCracken asked one university -after another to recommend a man for that chair, and not one would do -it; not one economist of standing could be found who would accept seven -thousand dollars a year to become the salesman of Mr. Kirby’s ideas! In -the end they had to take an obscure lawyer from Washington, whom no one -had ever heard of before, or has ever heard of since. That is -encouraging—except for the poor students at Lafayette, who are -innocently swallowing Mr. Kirby’s poison! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXVI - WORKERS’ EDUCATION - - -We come now to one of the most important aspects of American education, -the movement of the workers to take charge of their own minds. We have -surveyed the field, and seen that our great universities and small -colleges, with negligibly few exceptions, represent education of the -people by the plutocracy for the plutocracy. As the class struggle -intensifies, it naturally occurs to the exploited classes to have an -educational system of their own, to be run by them for their own -benefit. This is the movement known as Workers’ Education. - -I have been protesting in this book against class control of thinking. -So the average American reader will be moved to say: “You object to -capitalist class education, but now you are going to favor working class -education!” There are a few words to be said on this subject before we -enter the workers’ colleges. - -Let us assume for a moment that, human nature being what it is, and the -forces of capitalism being what they are, we have to have some kind of -class control of education. Which would be preferable, capitalist class -education or working class education? The first point in reply is that -the workers outnumber the capitalists in our society by a hundred to -one; education for the benefit of the workers would be, therefore, -education for the benefit of a hundred times as many people. The next -point is that the workers extend to all capitalists a cordial invitation -to become workers; whereas the capitalists extend no such invitation to -the workers. They may, of course, do it in Fourth of July speeches and -political campaign platforms, but in everyday life they do everything -possible to keep the workers from becoming capitalists, and compel them -to remain workers. If the capitalists were to accept the invitation of -the workers and become workers, we should have classes abolished in our -society, and our workers’ education would be education for the benefit -of all. - -For this reason the program of the workers is generous and free, whereas -that of the capitalists is selfish and repressive. The worker is able to -face the truth, while the capitalist dares not face it. The worker has -everything to gain by the truth, while the capitalist has everything to -lose. So it happens that if you compare workers’ colleges with -capitalist colleges, you invariably find this difference: the workers’ -college believes in free discussion, and will hear anybody argue about -any question; whereas the capitalist college fears free discussion, and -invents a hundred pretexts to keep the other side from being heard. I -have shown you everywhere throughout the country representatives of the -working class being denied an opportunity to present their point of view -to the students in capitalist colleges. I have never heard of a -capitalist being denied an opportunity to explain his point of view to -the students of workers’ colleges; on the contrary, I have known of many -cases of capitalists, or representatives of capitalism, being invited to -debate, and finding some excuse to decline the invitation. - -In the above discussion I am using the word “workers” in the -intelligent, revolutionary sense. I do not mean the men who dig ditches -or who run machines; I mean workers of hand or brain, all those men and -women who do the useful and necessary work of the world, whether it be -digging ditches or surveying them, tending machines or inventing them, -sweeping out the buildings of a college, or teaching in its class-rooms, -or determining its policies. I am using the term workers in -contradistinction to the owners, those who live by monopolizing the -means whereby other men live, and exacting from the others a tribute for -the right to work. Also, I should explain that when I speak of labor, I -do not mean the old-style labor unions which hold the field today. I -perfectly well understand that they are products of capitalism, animated -by the greeds and jealousies of the profit system. Little by little, -however, these labor unions are forced to widen their boundaries, to -combine and take in larger groups of the workers; and at the same time -they broaden their ideals, and approach the revolutionary point of view, -which understands by social justice the right of all workers to access -to the sources of wealth, and understands by freedom the right of all -men to agitate, educate and organize for a society in which no man -exploits his fellows. - -In college after college we have seen the brains of the working class -stolen away from them; we have seen young men and women who come from -the working class, and who should fight for their class and save it, -being seduced by the dress-suit bribe, the flummeries and snobberies of -academic life, and becoming traitors to their class, betrayers and even -murderers of their class. So come the organized workers to save their -own; to teach their sons and daughters, first, class loyalty, and -through that, loyalty to truth and social justice. Such is the meaning -of Workers’ Education. - -We have seen the capitalist college reveal its true colors on many -occasions; but never does it reveal it more plainly than when the -workers proceed to organize their own educational system. I have shown -you Professor Egbert, Director of University Extension and Director of -the School of Business of Columbia University, displaying himself to the -extent of three columns in the New York “Times,” announcing that -“workers’ education has virtually broken down in America.” But the -interlocking professors do not content themselves with lying about labor -education in the capitalist press; they and their masters intrigue -against it, they boycott it, they turn loose their slander factories, -their Helen Ghouls and “hundred percent” mobs against it. We have seen -the typewriters and the teachers of the Rand School of Social Science -being thrown down the stairs. We shall see professors of capitalist -colleges being, figuratively speaking, thrown down the stairs for -venturing to help in labor education. - -Let us take, for example, the experience of the Workers’ College of -Minneapolis, narrated in an affidavit by E. H. H. Holman, chairman of -the education committee of some of the labor unions. The Workers’ -College of Minneapolis laid down a very moderate program: - - It is hereby proposed to organize an educational program for the - workers of Minneapolis, under their own control, through which such - educational work will be undertaken as will better fit them to serve - society through a wider comprehension of social problems, through an - understanding of the technique of industrial production, and through a - better knowledge of the labor problem in general, thus to be in - position to act effectively in the solution of pressing problems that - grip the world today. - -Not such a bad statement, you may concede. This statement was adopted in -December, 1920, and classes were organized, among them a class in public -speaking. Professor T. P. Beyer of Hamline University was asked to take -charge of this class, and he did so. There were protests in the -newspapers of the Twin Cities, and several of the interlocking regents -of Hamline gave newspaper interviews registering their indignation. It -had been stated in the contract with Professor Beyer that he was not -expected “to advocate any theories or further any propaganda.” -Nevertheless, the grand dukes of Hamline spoke, and Professor Beyer -withdrew. Shortly afterwards Mr. Holman happened to meet President -Kerfoot of Hamline University, a Methodist clergyman holding three -honorary degrees; and this gentleman said that “it would never do” to -have one of his professors linked up with radicals. “Those who -contribute the money to support Hamline would never stand for it.” - -Again in Topeka, Kansas, the labor men were conducting an open forum, -and considering the project for a labor college. Some of the professors -from Washburn College took to attending this forum, and meeting these -labor leaders. The interlocking newspapers made a scandal out of it, the -intrigue being conducted by the secretary of the Merchants and -Manufacturers’ Association, who was maintaining a black-list against -union men. One of the professors at Washburn College received a -threatening letter; it was supposed to have come from the labor group, -but manifestly it came from this “M & M” agent, or some of his spies. -Anyway, the Washburn College professors were compelled to cease -attending the open forum. - -In Denver the president of the newly organized labor college applied for -the use of some of the high school buildings, in the evening. The -request was turned down, on the ground that the college was too radical; -if the authorities allowed working-class people to meet in the schools, -they must also allow the capitalists to meet. In Denver, you see, they -have never opened the schools for free discussion, or for teaching the -people anything except what the politicians approve. In this case the -school authorities said that they would allow the use of the rooms, -provided they were allowed to appoint the instructors! - -Johns Hopkins University moved out to its magnificent new site at -Homewood, which it had obtained by the selling of its soul. The old -buildings were left in Baltimore, and the Reverend Richard Hogue, -secretary of the Church League for Industrial Democracy, applied for the -use of one of the buildings. They had actually begun meeting, under the -direction of one of the professors, but the university put them out by -order of the trustees. The “hundred percenters” who superintend -education in Baltimore call themselves the George Washington Society, -and they bitterly attacked one Johns Hopkins professor for taking part -in a labor college, and demanded that he be forced out of Johns Hopkins. - -You may be interested to know how it comes about that a young professor -in one of our most prosperous and important universities happened to be -espousing the cause of self-education by the workers. This young -professor at the outbreak of the war was a reporter for the Richmond -“News-Leader,” and a strike was threatened in the Richmond plant of the -American Locomotive Company. The basis of the strike was the refusal of -the company officials to comply with the regulations of the War Labor -Board; and the young reporter wrote the facts, and his newspaper -published them, to the great indignation of the interlocking -directorate. In the midst of the controversy a stranger turned up—we -will call him Brown—producing credentials from the New York “World.” He -pretended to be sympathetic to the union men, and diligently sought -information concerning them. The “News-Leader” became suspicious, and -telegraphed to the New York “World,” and the answer came, “Brown is all -right.” - -So Brown continued his operations for a few days longer. He suggested to -the young reporter a wonderful plan to get the facts about what the -company was doing; he and the reporter were to bribe the book-keeper, -and break into the company offices at night! Such temptations arise now -and then in the lives of newspapermen, and if it is information against -labor unions you are seeking, you may employ such methods. But this -reporter knew that you cannot commit burglaries against big business, -and his paper investigated further, and discovered that Brown was a -secret agent of the American Locomotive Company, operating under the -protection of the New York “World”! The young professor suggested that -this story would fit in “The Brass Check”; but it seems to me that it -does very well in this place—showing how a college professor who leaves -the shelter of the cloister is forced to revise his formulas concerning -large scale capitalist industry! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXVII - THE SPIDER AND THE FLY - - -We have noted Professor Egbert of the University of J. P. Morgan & -Company, advising the workers to avail themselves of the existing -college system—in other words, to let the capitalists do their educating -for them. “Won’t you walk into my parlor? said the spider to the fly.” -Just what labor education turns into when it is superintended by the -existing educational authorities was amusingly demonstrated at Bryn -Mawr, a very aristocratic college for women located near Philadelphia, -and having the president of an insurance company for its treasurer, and -for its grand duke the president of a steel company and a trust company, -vice-president of a national bank and director of a sugar company. - -We have seen President Thomas of Bryn Mawr branded in the Denver “Post” -as a dangerous radical, and we now discover the basis of the charge; she -started a movement to educate working girls! The idea was that the -brightest and most promising members of labor unions should come to Bryn -Mawr in the summer and be taught by professors from various colleges. -This, of course, was a step in the right direction, and I have no desire -to belittle it; though I should have liked to see the further provision -that at the same time the young ladies of Bryn Mawr should take the -places of the working girls in the factories. - -I have no doubt whatever that this experiment was well meant; but in its -working out it revealed the impossibility of honesty under our present -class system. In raising money it was set forth that the purpose of the -plan was to bring the working girls into touch with the cultured classes -and break down the spirit of class consciousness. Then, after the money -was got, it was necessary to get the girls; and so the unions were told -that the purpose of the plan was to make the girls into more efficient -and capable leaders of unions. - -Bryn Mawr has received a heavy endowment from John D. Rockefeller; a -hall is named for him, and also a gateway. The organizers of the summer -school were getting up a prospectus telling of the plan, and they put on -the cover a photograph, with the name “Rockefeller Gateway.” But at the -last moment it occurred to someone that this might not look well to the -unions, so the label “Rockefeller” was left off, and the photograph went -out with the caption, “A Gateway.” - -I met three different professors who were invited to come to Bryn Mawr -and teach at this summer session; one of them, Professor H. W. L. Dana, -whom we saw turned out of Columbia University as a scapegoat for the -pacifism of Nicholas Miraculous. Professor Dana had an interview with -President Thomas, in which the terms of the engagement were laid down to -him. There were to be no social relationships with the working girls, no -tennis dates, no activities outside the classes. His subject was to be -literature, and he was to avoid dangerous writers, such as Morris, -Whitman and Ruskin; he was to teach literature as art, and not as part -of the labor movement. - -On the train going home, Professor Dana decided that his academic -dignity had been infringed upon; therefore he sent a telegram to -President Thomas, saying that he was unable to agree to the terms. He -sent a copy of this telegram to Rose Schneiderman, one of the working -class leaders, who had been charged with selecting the girls: the effect -of which procedure was instant collapse on the part of President Thomas. -She wrote saying that Professor Dana had entirely misunderstood her, she -had not intended anything of the sort. Dana had asked that there should -be student representation on the board controlling the experiment, and -President Thomas now said that she had had that idea in mind all along. -So they provided a system of student representation, with an open vote, -and the balance of power in the hands of Bryn Mawr graduates, who were -helping at the summer school with the title of “tutors.” A harmless -working girl, not a trades unionist, was selected as representative of -the girls. - -The union girls, of course, understood perfectly what was being done to -them; they would smile to Professor Dana and say: “You must remember, -they aren’t used to democracy. You must be gentle with them. You see, -they haven’t suffered.” (Stop and think about that beautiful phrase!). -The “tutors” would gossip among themselves, telling about funny mistakes -which the working girls had made, such as not knowing to what century -Shakespeare belonged. They would correct the table manners of the -girls—and without ever thinking that the girls also had secret laughter -over the mistakes of the “tutors.” Thus, some tutor had asked: “What do -the letters A. F. of L. stand for?”—which seemed to the working girls -quite as important a matter as the date of Shakespeare’s birth. One of -the tutors asked: “Is the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union -the same as the Third International?”—and that seemed the funniest thing -in the world to these union girls. - -More serious matters arose quickly; for you see, these girls have -convictions, and take them just as seriously as Bryn Mawr girls take -their table manners. The first thing they did was to go to the -chambermaids and discover that these women there were working twelve and -fourteen hours a day. They proceeded to organize the women, and the -college authorities were confronted with a demand for an eight-hour -day—which they granted! They granted a number of other things before -they got through. Teaching economics and social science to union girls -was quite a different matter from teaching it to the daughters of the -leisure class. In the winter time Bryn Mawr professors can get by with -formulas, but in these summer months they had to come down to brass -tacks; for to these girls an economic theory meant some particular -place, some particular set of circumstances: “When I was in such and -such a shop,” or, “When I was on strike in New York!” This made an -entirely new thing out of the subject of economics. - -Also, it made a new thing out of literature. Professor Dana was selected -to read poetry to the girls at chapel, and poetry, as we know, is an -important source of culture. Dana read one or two poems on Russia, at -which the dean in charge seemed shocked. She asked him to read poems at -least a hundred years old. Dana thought it over, and answered that he -would do so, and next morning he read in chapel two poems which were -exactly a hundred years old—Shelley’s “Mask of Anarchy,” and his - - Men of England, wherefore plow - For the lords who lay ye low? - -This Bryn Mawr experiment was repeated last summer, with much hurrah in -the newspapers; but needless to say, Harry Dana was not one of the -teachers, and neither was a woman professor who proved too sympathetic -to the working girls. Also a Bryn Mawr teacher, who “got the vision” -from the girls, and prepared to teach some of them in the winter time, -was omitted this year. Nevertheless, the leaven works, and two of the -“tutors,” Bryn Mawr students, were arrested during the summer school -term while picketing a clothing shop in Philadelphia, during a strike by -the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Once let the rich girls realize what -the poor girls suffer, and some of the rich girls will protest! - -I had a pleasant experience in Cambridge. I was guest in a home which is -the shrine of pilgrims from all over the United States—that of New -England’s favorite poet and Cambridge’s most eminent citizen, Henry -Wadsworth Longfellow. Here lives the poet’s grandson, who is also a -grandson of Richard Henry Dana, a born teacher, and incidentally a -warm-hearted and most lovable man. Nicholas Murray Butler has not -invited him back to Columbia; nor has it occurred to President Lowell to -invite him to step around the corner from his home and lecture on the -literature of social protest to Harvard students. Nevertheless, Harry -Dana has found some teaching to do; he travels over to the Boston Labor -College, and teaches workingmen. One Sunday morning I attended a -committee meeting of this institution—several college professors and -several labor leaders, conspiring in the home of the poet Longfellow to -overturn academic authority in the United States! - -Then I traveled across the continent to my home in Pasadena, and found -that Professor John Scott had been kicked out of the Pasadena High -School in the interests of one hundred percent reaction, and with the -help of progressive labor leaders had started a workers’ college in Los -Angeles. So it goes, in one city after another; any time a group of -labor men want to save the brains of their young people, they can find a -kicked-out professor; and any time a kicked-out professor is willing to -cultivate his self-respect on a little oatmeal, he can manage to get -together a group of class-conscious labor men, and can greatly increase -his influence and effectiveness. When Dana was fired from Columbia, he -lectured to classes of six and eight hundred people at the Rand School; -while Scott Nearing assures me that continuously during the eight years -since he parted from the University of Pennsylvania, he has had not -merely larger audiences, but more serious and more interesting -audiences. - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXVIII - THE WORKERS’ COLLEGES - - -I begin this chapter by telling you about a very pleasant enterprise, -the resident college which has just been started by the labor education -movement, the Brookwood School at Katonah, New York. Brookwood is a -co-educational college, with a two years’ course and a year of -post-graduate work. Its aims are set forth as follows: - - Brookwood aims to train economists, statisticians, journalists, - writers and teachers, organizers, workers and speakers, for the labor - and farmer movements in order that these movements may have people - coming from their own ranks, with their own point of view, who are - fully capable by training and knowledge of exercising a genuine - statesmanship. - -Brookwood was organized by Toscan Bennett, a reformed corporation -lawyer, and his wife, a reformed suffragette. They purchased a farm, -with a beautiful old colonial building, and this summer, while I am -writing a book, they are working on new dormitories—and I wish I might -be there! If you want to find in this ugly and greedy world a place -where the true spirit of comradeship prevails, where men and women, -middle-aged and young, consecrate themselves with fervor, and also with -fun, to the service of freedom and social justice, take my advice and -pay a visit to Brookwood. - -The clothing workers’ unions in New York and the coal miners in -Pennsylvania furnish most of the pupils, and pay a part of their -expenses. They are taught by the customary outfit of kicked-out college -professors and school teachers. There is Josephine Colby, who organized -the teachers of Fresno, California, and was separated from her position -by a superintendent who stated in the newspapers that he didn’t believe -in using arguments in dealing with union school teachers, the thing to -use was a baseball bat. Also there is David Saposs, who was in a student -revolt at the University of Wisconsin, when the working students -organized and got the business manager of the university fired; as a -result, Saposs was told that it would do him no good to get a degree, as -he would not be recommended for a teaching position! - -Also there is A. J. Muste, a reformed Quaker clergyman, who has received -a quite unique training for his career as labor educator. I first heard -of him as a theological student, through a little mimeographed circular, -“Towards a New Preaching Order.” He and a group of three or four young -men proposed to go out into the world in the old apostolic fashion, -without scrip or purse, and bring capitalism to its knees by moral -fervor. It was a most eloquent piece of writing, and I marked this young -clergyman for a career. Next I heard of him in the Lawrence textile -strike of 1919; his “preaching order” was trying its eloquence upon the -president of the Woolen Trust, who came within an ace of going to -prison, upon the charge of having had dynamite planted in the homes of -non-union workers, as a means of discrediting the strikers. Mr. Wood did -not yield to young Muste’s apostolic fervor; on the contrary, he had his -Cossacks ride the young clergyman down on the sidewalk, and pound him -over the head with their clubs and finally throw him into jail. So Mr. -Muste preached to the strikers, and following the best apostolic -precedents, started a soup kitchen for them, performing the miracle of -the loaves and fishes with the help of checks from a few good angels -scattered over the country. After he had got through with that strike, -he was a trained labor scholar and ready to teach literature in a -workers’ college! - -Four years ago there were only two or three labor colleges in the United -States, all of them in New York City; now there are six in the state of -Pennsylvania alone. A bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor, -published in June, 1921, “Education of Adult Working Classes,” lists -twenty-four such institutions, in places as widely scattered as -Washington, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Paul, -Minneapolis, Duluth and Seattle. The auspices under which these schools -are organized are: central labor unions, five; local unions, five; -international unions, five; State federations, seven; Socialist and -radical groups, one; the Women’s Trade-Union League, one. - -Mr. Paul Blanshard, secretary of the Rochester Labor College, gives me -an interesting account of one such institution, and the vicissitudes -of a would-be teacher. Mr. Blanshard got his training in -class-consciousness during the textile strike at Utica several years -ago; he tried to start some classes for foreigners in English, and the -interlocking newspapers took him up, and all Utica read that he was -starting “a school in Bolshevism”! The Lusk committee went after -him—on the testimony of a police captain who was later released from -the force under grave suspicion; also of a detective in the employ of -the Helen Ghouls. Mr. Blanshard, of course, was not given a hearing, -and the scare headlines in the newspapers frightened away all his -pupils. - -But the Amalgamated Clothing Workers are powerful in Rochester, and are -not so easily frightened; they joined with thirteen other unions to make -a college for Mr. Blanshard to run. They make a contribution of one cent -per month for each member, a total income of seven hundred dollars a -year—which no doubt looks extremely small to Professor Egbert of -Columbia University, which has seven millions a year. Nevertheless, on -this income the college has weekly educational mass meetings, addressed -by the livest men in the country, and attended by some fifteen hundred -workers; it publishes a four-page educational bulletin every week, and -has classes in unionism and public speaking, in English, in current -events, in economics, and in labor problems. - -That is a glimpse at one city; and you will find the same thing -happening in all the others. In Portland, Oregon, the college meets in -the Labor Temple, and the Central Labor Council assesses one-twelfth of -its total revenue to save its brains for its own uses. In New York City -two of the greatest unions, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers -and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, have established educational -departments, and are carrying out elaborate programs for the benefit of -their members. The I. L. G. W. U. has eight “unity centers” in New York -public schools, with classes in English, the teachers assigned by the -Board of Education. It arranges independent courses in the labor -movement, economics, psychology, literature, music, health, etc. Its -“Workers’ University” meets in the Washington Irving High School, with -courses in about twenty subjects, and a registration of three hundred -students. Also there is an extension department, which arranges for -lectures, concerts, and classes of all sorts at the headquarters of the -various local unions. There are branches of this enterprise in Cleveland -and Philadelphia, and the whole thing is the growth of only four years. - -In order to realize the deliberate dishonesty of Professor Egbert’s -statement that “labor education has virtually broken down in America,” -you should have attended a conference called by the Workers’ Education -Bureau of America, organized in connection with the New School for -Social Research in New York City, for the purpose of co-ordinating these -labor colleges, and furnishing them with literature and text-books. This -conference was held April 22 and 23, 1922, just one month before -Professor Egbert’s three columns of treachery were featured in the New -York “Times.” Here were eager delegates, teachers and students, -addressed by speakers as wide apart in their views as Samuel Gompers, -James Maurer, Charles A. Beard and Benjamin Schlesinger. I will list the -subjects discussed at one of the sessions, dealing with “Teaching -Methods in Workers’ Education”—this just to give you an idea of the -breadth of view and practical grip of the movement: “The Forum,” “The -Debate,” “School-room Methods,” “Discussion Methods,” “Health -Education,” “Methods of Health Education,” “The Teaching of Economics,” -“Journalism,” “Mass Education,” “Educational Aspects of Work,” -“Correspondence Education,” “Text Books,” “Public Discussion,” “Trade -Union Meetings,” “Problems of Adult Instruction.” - -Also this Workers’ Education Bureau is publishing a series of volumes, -entitled “The Workers’ Bookshelf,” to serve as text-books in the labor -colleges. They are the kind of books I believe in, for they cost only -fifty cents a volume. In the “Labor Age,” New York, you will find much -news about these movements. Also you should know something about the -work in England, where it is twenty years old, and has grown to be the -brains and fighting spirit of the British labor movement. The story is -told in “An Adventure in Working Class Education,” by Albert Mansbridge, -founder and general secretary of the Workers’ Educational Association of -Great Britain. The radicals who are making over the mind of British -labor have a magazine, the “Plebs,” which American students ought to -see. - -Teaching at these workers’ colleges is a very different matter from -being an old-line college professor. Here you have students who really -want to study. You are back in the twelfth century when five thousand -men thronged to Paris and sat on the hillside to listen to Abelard and -dispute with him. You are back in the old days in America, when a -college was “a student sitting one end of a log and Mark Hopkins on the -other end.” You are dealing with students who, while they may be -painfully deficient in book learning, have acquired much knowledge of -life, and are accustomed to assert their point of view. It does not -occur to them to defer to authority; they only defer to facts, and you -have to produce the facts and convince them. Many times the teacher will -find that he himself has become a student, and all college professors -who have tried the adventure agreed in testifying how exhilarating they -find this. - -Labor education offers to the college professor a semi-respectable way -to get into contact with the real world. So I plead with professors who -read this book to avail themselves of the opportunities existing—or if -there are none in their neighborhood, to get busy and make some. I am -told of one professor in Pennsylvania who used to travel about from town -to town teaching labor groups, a class each night in a different town. -That is real adventure, and it lies right at the gates of all our -institutions of higher learning. Try it for a year or two, and you may -find that you have built up a clientele, and no longer have to shiver in -your boots when you hear a rumor that one of your trustees has asked -whether it is true that you are a Bolshevik! - - - - - CHAPTER LXXXIX - THE PROFESSORS’ UNION - - -The labor movement at its present stage can, of course, not support all -the college professors who would like to be free, so it becomes -necessary to seek another remedy. This remedy is obvious; the college -professor must do what the labor men are doing—agitate, educate, -organize. The formula, “In union there is strength,” applies to brain -workers precisely as to hand workers. You would think the brain workers -ought to have the brains to realize this, but they do not, for the -reason that their class prejudices stand in the way, the anarchist -attitude which goes with the intellectual life. So it comes about that -college professors are only two or three percent organized, while coal -miners are sixty or seventy percent organized, and garment workers and -railway men from ninety to a hundred percent organized. - -The union of our higher educators is known as the American Association -of University Professors, and we have seen it at work in a number of -institutions. It has a total membership of five thousand, among a -possible membership of some two hundred thousand. Thus two or three -percent of higher educators pay the cost and bear the burden of -representing the whole group. They publish a quarterly bulletin from -their headquarters at 222 Charles River Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts, -and investigate cases of infringement of academic freedom, and work out -constructive programs of faculty control. I have quoted extracts from -their reports, the accuracy and honesty of which have never been -successfully challenged. So far as this work goes it is excellent, but -it represents only a feeble start upon the way. - -What spoils the usefulness of the professors’ association is precisely -that feeling of class superiority, which makes them as fat rabbits to -the plutocracy. The first aim of the association has apparently been to -distinguish itself from labor unions, whereas the fact is that it is a -labor union, an organization of intellectual proletarians, who have -nothing but their brain-power to sell. Instructors at the University of -California begin on a salary of a hundred and fifty dollars a month, at -the University of Chicago on a hundred and thirty-three dollars a month, -at the University of Illinois the same, at Yale and Michigan on a -hundred and twenty-five, and at Harvard for salaries as low as fifty and -one hundred a month—this for the glory of a Harvard record! Men who have -to keep their families, and dress as gentlemen, and purchase the tools -of a highly specialized trade upon such pay are proletarians, and the -bulk of them will remain proletarians all their lives, and the quicker -they realize it the better for them. Even though their salaries be -raised, and they be put in position to acquire a home and a few -investments, they remain dependent for the things they value most upon -an exploiting class, which dominates the industry of the country, and -therefore inevitably dominates its thought. - -This being the case, the college professor’s freedom is bound up with -the freedom of the working class. He may protest to the end of time, but -his status will remain the same, until the plutocratic empire is -overthrown and industrial democracy takes its place. After that, the -status of the professor, as of all intellectual workers, will rest in -the hands of labor—and this is something which is coming, regardless of -anything the professor can do. Such being the case, it would seem -sensible for him to study the labor movement and take his place in -it—not merely in his own interest, but in the interest of the -intellectual life. I have shown you in the labor colleges working-class -leaders co-operating with college professors; and the significance of -this is not merely that educational men are helping the industrial -revolution; it is that the new forces which are preparing to take -control of society are coming to understand what the intellectual life -means, and learning to trust those who live that life. This is something -the importance of which no one can exaggerate; and so I point out to -those college professors who shut themselves up in their shell of -academic snobbery, that the time is coming, and coming soon, when they -will have cause to wish that they had not been quite so haughtily -indifferent to the heartbreak of the poor. - -I have on my desk an interesting letter from a Stanford professor, -discussing a problem in etiquette which I submitted to him: the story of -a young Columbia instructor who refused to obey the casual command of -Nicholas Miraculous and escort old Pierpont Morgan to his car. Says the -Stanford professor: - - As I view it, the essence of wage-slavery lies in the acceptance (on - both sides) of the assumption that the man who happens to “pay” the - wages for work done thereby attains a right to dictate in the fields - of all other thoughts and acts of the employe. This is passively so - generally accepted that I have always refused to consider myself in - the light of an employe of the president and board, but rather as a - co-worker in a mutual administration of a trust in which they have - their part and I have mine—and this despite the fact that they have - the undoubted legal power to “dismiss” me and I have not that to - dismiss them, this being merely one of the differentiations of - function in the administration of the trust. Authority is an insidious - thing. Few can possess it without being ruined, and I never heard that - Butler was among the exceptions. - -This, you will admit, is the dignified attitude of a scholar; and I have -no doubt that many college professors seek to maintain that attitude. -All I can do is to tell them how they seem to me—as men swimming against -a powerful current, and it is only a question of time before their -energy gives out and they move the way everything else is moving. An -individual may hold out, his prestige enabling him to be regarded as a -harmless eccentric; but the young man who tries to take such an attitude -will go out and write life insurance or make wash-boards. - -The effect of economic inferiority is inescapable and automatic; it -produces a psychology of submission, it produces a set of customs and -manners based upon that, and Mrs. Partington, who tried to sweep back -the sea with her broom, was no more foolish than the college professor -who imagines that he can have an institution with wealthy trustees -dominating its financial existence, and preserve in that institution a -real respect for the intellectual life, or a real democratic -relationship between the trustees and their hired servants. - -If this be true, then the dignity of the intellectual worker depends -upon the establishment of industrial democracy; freedom for the college -professor awaits the overthrow of the plutocratic empire. And since the -only force in our society which can achieve that overthrow is labor, it -follows that the college professor’s hopes are bound up with the -movement of the workers for freedom. A college professor who imagines -that he can work for faculty control and academic independence, while at -the same time remaining a conservative in his political and economic -ideas, is simply a man with water-tight compartments in his brain. - -The forces of industrialism compel the worker to organize in larger and -larger units, and to take into solidarity a wider and wider proportion -of the population. Exactly the same forces are compelling the college -professor, first to realize himself as a class, and second, to study the -movements of other workers for freedom, to become more sympathetic -toward them, and more identified with them in interest and action. -College professors must join their own union; they must set before -themselves the same goal as miners and railwaymen—to organize one -hundred per cent of their trade, and develop a spirit of class loyalty -and class discipline. I have shown you the indignities endured by -college professors, and how pitifully they submit and hold on to their -jobs; I have shown you individuals and groups unceremoniously kicked -out, and obediently going out and seeking for new jobs. Perhaps it never -occurred to you to notice what was lacking—I have not been able to tell -about a single strike of college professors in America! There have been -several cases of student strikes—the young are impulsive, so that it has -been possible for them to act like human beings; but if there has ever -been a group of college professors in the United States who have banded -themselves together and said: “If one of us goes, all of us go,” I have -not been able to learn of that instance. - -No, college professors are like actors; they have their individual -idiosyncrasies, their jealousies and personal superiorities. They do not -think of themselves as a class; each one thinks of himself as something -impossible to duplicate. An official of a school-teacher’s union -remarked to me that the price of a teacher is fifty dollars—meaning -thereby that an increase of that amount in salaries would cause a group -of teachers to foreswear their union and place themselves at the mercy -of a school-board. Just what is the price of a college professor I do -not know, but I could cite thousands of cases of men who should have -stood by a colleague in some flagrant case of oppression, but who stayed -on and got rewarded for loyalty to their masters. - -The all-important fact in the situation is this; any time the college -professors of America get ready to take control of their own destinies, -and of the intellectual life of their institutions, they can do it. -There is not a college or university in the United States today which -could resists the demands of its faculty a hundred percent organized and -meaning business. Even Nicholas Murray Butler would bow his haughty head -if the faculty of Columbia should rise up and demand for that -plutocratic empire a system of constitutional government. Chancellor Day -may pound on the table and tell his faculty that he could replace them -in an hour and a half, but he would find that he could not replace them -in a century and a half—especially if they took another leaf out of the -notebook of labor, and set pickets at the gates of Heaven! When the -college professors of America get ready to go on strike, they will have -their reasons and their program; they will put these before the -student-body and before their colleagues in other institutions; nor will -they be so easy to intimidate with policemen’s clubs and court -injunctions as are the wage-slaves of factories and mines! - -A humble beginning has been made. The American Federation of Teachers, -which is a labor union, affiliated with the American Federation of -Labor, has a local, No. 120, at the University of Montana. This union -was a result of the Levine case, and it comprises practically the entire -faculty. There is a similar local at the University of North Dakota, a -consequence of the class struggle there. And in New York City is the -Teachers’ Union of New York No. 5, which includes a number of social -minded college men, including Dewey of Columbia, Ward of the Union -Theological Seminary, and Overstreet and Stairs of the College of the -City of New York. The president of the American Federation of Teachers -writes me: - - We have had a few other collegiate and university locals but they did - not prove very long-lived, and it was very difficult for us to get - detailed reasons for their decline. I presume fear would account for - most of them. - - - - - CHAPTER XC - THE PROFESSORS’ STRIKE - - -The final purpose of this book, you will now realize, is to bring about -a strike of college professors. The next question to be considered is, -what are the principles upon which this strike shall be based? - -First and foremost, the question of tenure; which is exactly the same -thing as the claim of the worker to security in his job. The college -professor must not forfeit his standing except for cause, and upon due -and reasonable notice. He must have the right which every criminal -possesses, of knowing what are the charges against him, and of having a -hearing in which he is confronted by his accusers, and given the right -to cross-question them, and to answer their charges and prove them false -if he can. The decision in his case must rest, not with his masters and -exploiters, but with his fellow-workers; in other words, the ancient -right embodied in Magna Carta, to be tried by a jury of his peers. These -rights are elemental; there can be no freedom, no dignity or -self-respect for any man who does not possess them. They are possessed -by scholars in all other civilized countries; it is only in our sweet -land of liberty that scholars are slaves. Says James McKeen Cattell: - - That a professor’s salary should depend on the favor of a president, - or that he should be dismissed without a hearing by a president with - the consent of an absentee board of trustees, is a state of affairs - not conceivable in an English or a German university. - -The reason for this anomaly is that the American college has not been -organized on the principles of American government, but on those of -American business; the college is not a state, but a factory. I have -compared Columbia and Minnesota to department-stores and Clark and Johns -Hopkins to Ford factories; and in so doing I was not merely calling -names, but making a diagnosis. They are organized upon that basis, and -run upon that basis, and the problem of changing them is simply one of -the problems of Americanization. The college must become a democratic -republic, run by its citizens and workers. - -That brings us to the second demand of the college professor; not merely -must he have security in his job, he must have collective control of -that job, he must say how the college shall be conducted, and what -higher education shall be. That means that he must take from the -trustees, and from their hired man, the president, the greater part of -their present functions. - -I say democracy in education, and you have a vision of a great -university turned into a debating society, all the time which should be -spent in “getting things done” being devoted to squabbling and bickering -among various factions and cliques of the faculty. That will happen -sometimes, inevitably; it is one of the incidentals of all beginnings of -democracy to function. But we have been trying out democracy in this -country for three centuries, and we do not have to begin all over again -with the blunders of our childhood. We know today what a constitution -is; we understand the differences among the three functions of -government, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial; we -understand how an executive can be democratically chosen, and given -authority for a reasonable period of time, and loyally obeyed for that -time. We understand how it is possible to have a thorough and free -democratic discussion of policy, and to decide by majority vote, and -then to carry out the will of the majority. If we do not know how to do -these things, the students will teach us, for they are accustomed every -year to organize a football team, and to thresh out its policies, and -elect a captain, and then do what he says. On the football field they do -not stop to argue about signals; they play the game. - -The question of a constitution for universities is one of detail; you -will find a very thorough exposition of it in Professor Cattell’s book, -“University Control.” Professor J. E. Kirkpatrick of the University of -Michigan has worked out practical suggestions. Also the matter is being -frequently discussed in “School and Society,” and in the bulletins of -the professors’ association. We have not the space in this book for -anything but a brief statement. It is a problem of reconciling the -rights of many different groups, which perform many different functions. -The largest single group upon the board of a college should obviously be -the faculty, who know most about the institution, and have its interests -most at heart. The alumni should be represented, for their interest is -real, and their services will became more valuable as colleges become -democratic, and as the spirit of class is broken in our society. -Likewise the students are entitled to representation, especially the -upper classes, which have come to know the institution. If the purpose -of the college is to train men to live and serve in a democracy, then -manifestly there should be democracy in their training; they should be -given encouragement to discuss their own needs and purposes, to arrive -at collective agreements, and to make their will effective. - -So long as we have a system of private ownership of natural resources, -we shall of course have to have trustees who represent money interests. -But we should endeavor to pare down the powers of this special privilege -group as much as possible; and especially all faculty members should set -their face against the idea of any interference with teaching, or with -the opinions or outside activities of the faculty, by monied men who -represent ownership and not service in the institution. - -You have followed me from college to college, listing the grand dukes -and the interlocking directors, and you have thought perhaps that I -condemn these men because they are rich, and consider that people who -have money are ipso facto unfit to have anything to do with education. -All I can answer is that I number among my friends some rich people, who -are ardently striving to abolish special privilege from the world; and -if any rich man wants to come into a college and work for faculty -control and academic freedom, for the right of service and true -scholarship to guide our education, I will bid that man welcome, and -will promise to make no complaint because he happens to be president of -six national banks, director of eight railroads, ten steel companies and -a dozen pickle factories and sausage mills. The world for which I am -working is a world of freedom and fair play; my kingdom of heaven is -open to all, and any man may do his part to make it real on earth. All -that I insist is that the rich man shall renounce his class and his -class interests; he shall turn traitor to that predatory group which now -controls our country and its thinking. - -I do not expect many of the interlocking trustees to accept this -invitation. I do expect, however, that developments in our public -affairs will force a constantly increasing number of college professors -to realize the intolerable nature of their present position, and to take -up the work of educating their colleagues and the general public. These -men will come to realize the broad nature of their task; how the roots -of our academic problem go down into the very deeps of our political and -economic life. The need of the college professor is one with the need of -the citizen and the worker; and so, when you agitate for academic -democracy and freedom of teaching, you are educating the community and -taking your part in that class struggle which is the dominant fact of -our time. - -You will find that the struggle calls for its heroes and its martyrs, in -universities as in factories and mines. To college professors who read -this book—and especially the young ones—I say: what is life without a -little adventure? You will not starve; no educated man need starve in -America, if he keeps command of his inner forces, and uses but a small -quantity of that shrewdness with which his enemies are so well provided. -And surely it is not too much to ask that among the two hundred thousand -instructors in American colleges there should arise just a few who are -capable of combining intelligence and self-sacrifice! - -What are you? You teach history, perhaps; you handle the bones of dead -heroes, the ashes of martyrs are the stuff with which you work. Or you -teach literature; the spirits of thousands of idealists come to your -study, and cry out to you in your dreams. Or perhaps you are a -scientist; if so, remind yourself how Socrates drank the hemlock cup -with dignity, in order that men might be free to use their reason; how -Galileo was tortured in a dungeon, in order that modern science might be -born. Is it then too much to ask that you should risk your monthly pay -check, to save the minds of the young men and women of our time? Think -of these things, the next time you are summoned by your dean for a -scolding, and tell him that a college professor remains an American -citizen, and that he does not sell all his brains for two or three -hundred dollars a month! - -I ask for a little personal boldness, also a little for your -institution. What if the new endowment does not come, and you cannot get -the new buildings you had hoped for? The best work of men’s brains has -been done in garrets, and not in marble halls. Remember the glorious -example of Johns Hopkins and Clark in the old days! It is really -possible for a university to remain small, and for everybody in it to -starve along and serve the unfolding spirit of man. You do not know the -possibilities of sacrifice that lie in a group of scholars and thinkers -until you try; even your students would be willing to work and earn -money for their institution, if it were put up to them as a new crusade. -Yes, and you would find here and there an alumnus who would understand -and help. I do not urge that you should refuse money when it is offered -on honest terms; all I mean is that you should make plain your policy, -that money has no voice in the control of the institution, which knows -but one loyalty—to the truth—and but one instrument—the open mind—and -but one method—investigation and free discussion. Say to your would-be -benefactors: we are educators; we know what the pursuit of knowledge is, -and we teach it; if you wish to help in that, well and good; otherwise -we go our way alone. I conclude this chapter with three stanzas written -by Ralph Chaplin, one of America’s greatest poets, whom the United -States government has held in prison for the last five years, and plans -to hold for fifteen years longer, on account of his political opinions. - - Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie— - Dust unto dust— - The calm, sweet earth that mothers all who die - As all men must. - - Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwell— - Too strong to strive— - Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell, - Buried alive. - - But rather mourn the apathetic throng— - The cowed and meek— - Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong - And dare not speak! - - - - - CHAPTER XCI - EDUCATING THE EDUCATORS - - -There is another group in the colleges which must help to reform them, -and that is the students. I have already shown that the student-body -alone cannot dominate a college for any length of time; but in the -student body is always a little group of thinking men, and these -constitute a leaven which can work mighty changes in a great mass of -solid dough. - -The first organized effort of college students to educate themselves, -and incidentally to educate their educators, was the Intercollegiate -Socialist Society, which was founded by the writer some eighteen years -ago. That was after I had come out from nine years of college and -university life without knowing that the modern Socialist movement -existed; I resolved to do what I could to make it less easy for the -plutocracy to accomplish that feat in future. Some twenty or thirty -people got together in New York City, and elected Jack London as -president, and he delivered his famous address, “Revolution,” within the -shuddering walls of the Universities of California, Chicago, Harvard and -Yale. We were careful to specify our purpose: “to promote an intelligent -interest in the study of Socialism”; but even with that moderate -statement, only a few institutions would let us in under our own evil -name, and we had to disguise ourselves as liberal societies, and open -forums, and social science clubs. - -The name Socialism became so unpopular during the recent flood-tide of -patriotism, that the organization has now called itself the League for -Industrial Democracy. It has as its directors the Reverend Norman -Thomas, editor of “The World Tomorrow,” and Harry Laidler, author of an -excellent text-book, which ought to be used in every college, “Socialism -in Thought and Action.” The purpose of the league is declared to be -“education for a new social order, based on production for use and not -for profit.” It undertakes “research work, the development of pamphlet -literature, and the thinking through of concrete problems of social -ownership.” The president is Professor Robert Morss Lovett of the -University of Chicago, and the vice-presidents are Charles P. Steinmetz, -Evans Clark, Florence Kelley and Arthur Gleason. The league holds a -winter convention in New York and a summer conference lasting a week, at -Camp Tamiment, belonging to the Rand School. The address of the league -is 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. - -Recently another student organization has entered the field, the -National Student Forum, product of the labors of a group of young -Harvard liberals, with John Rothschild as secretary. They publish a -fortnightly paper, “The New Student,” at 2929 Broadway, New York; they -have drawn up a “preamble,” which is so much to the point that I quote -it in full: - -“Realizing that these are times of rapid social change, the liberal -spirited students of America are building this organization as an -instrument of orderly progress. - -“It is apparent to them that if the social changes now in process are to -proceed sanely, those whose education is fitting them for positions of -leadership must be better informed than hitherto regarding the -contemporary affairs of the world in which they live. The students who -founded The National Student Forum are aware that already in almost -every institution of learning there is a group of students whose -interest in social problems has brought them together into some local -organization. It is their belief that to be of influence in the student -life of America the scattered groups must effect an association through -which they may learn from one another’s experience, and publicly share -the search for new light. - -“With this in mind they have founded and now maintain The National -Student Forum. They dedicate this organization to the cultivation of the -scientifically inquiring mind; they declare it unbiased in any -particular controversy, yet permitting within itself the expression of -every bias; they declare its one principle to be freedom of expression, -for they realize that without intellectual liberty the students of -America cannot attain the completeness of vision and the social -understanding which will enable them to be effective in the progress of -the community.” - -As an illustration of the activities of this group I mention that the -Harvard Liberal Club, during the year 1922, had sixty luncheon speakers -in five months, including such radicals as Clark Getts, Lincoln -Steffens, Florence Kelley, Raymond Robins, Frank Tannenbaum, Roger -Baldwin, Percy Mackaye, Clare Sheridan, Norman Angell, and W. E. B. -Dubois; properly balanced by a group of respectable people, including -Admiral Sims, Hamilton Holt, President Eliot, and a nephew of Lord -Bryce. What it means to the students of one of our universities to have -such a corrective to the provincialism of its curriculum is something -which only the students themselves can tell you, after they have had a -chance to notice the difference. They come with bright eyes and eager -faces, they listen and applaud, and they stay for hours to ask -questions. They go away, knowing at least this much: that there are -ideas in the world which are not tedious and dusty, and that the free -use of the intellectual faculties can be as interesting as fraternity -gossip and waving flags at gladiatorial combats. - -So to the little group who come from free-thinking homes, or from the -working classes, and do not mean to sell out their own people, I say: -face the gales of ridicule and scolding, and see to it that while you -are in college the students become acquainted with modern ideas. Get -together a little group, and invite in speakers of all shades of -opinion, and if the radical ones are barred, make an issue of it, and -agitate for freedom of discussion. Join with those members of the -faculty who are sympathetic to your point of view, extend their -influence among the student-body, and back them up in controversies with -the administration. Constitute yourself a ferment and leaven the -dough-heads! I do not mean by this that you should be “fresh,” or should -go out of your way to seek trouble. Take the time to study, and know -what you are talking about, so that when you take a position you will -not be easily put down. When you have really studied and thought, then -do not be afraid of being laughed at; for you will surely never do -anything new or worthwhile in your life without being laughed at by -fools and idlers. - -Choose the big issues, and choose men and women who really have -something to bring to the student-body. You will find them nearly always -willing to come—all except the conservatives; but invite these also, and -keep after them, and advertise the fact that you have done it. You have -nothing to fear from their arguments, however masterful may be their -air; we can handle them, I promise you—I have been through the whole -question from A to Z, I have read the best that the opposition has to -produce, and they cannot refute the claims of the workers for freedom, -for social justice, and for light. If I had only one message to give to -college students, it would be this: there exists in the modern -revolutionary movement a vast treasure of idealism and inspiration, -which your elders seek by every means in their power to keep from you. -This treasure is your birthright, and to make it yours is your life’s -great success. - -That they cannot answer the arguments of the social rebels, is something -which the League of the Old Men knows perfectly well, and that is why -they are afraid of us. In the literature of the Better America -Federation of California it is again and again admitted that the -immature minds of the young cannot be trusted to resist the temptations -of idealism; if they meet these beautiful-sounding ideas they adopt -them—and so they must be kept from knowing that the ideas exist! The -soundness of this fear has been proven, wherever free discussion has -been tried out. For example, in the state of Colorado, one of the great -centers of metal mining and corruption in our country, the various -colleges organized a State League for Debating, and they held a debate -on the “open shop,” and one of the teachers reported to me the results. -There were eleven members of the “team,” and they came from the homes of -the employing classes, and everyone of them believed in the “American -plan.” At the end of the debate two were in doubt and nine opposed to -the plan! Another team consisted of four women, and three of these were -converted. - -There is another interesting college movement, which has taken its rise -in the West, under the leadership of B. M. Cherrington, a young Y. M. C. -A. worker of the new type, who has seen the light and is preaching the -social gospel. This organization is taking college students out into -industry in the summer-time, not merely to earn money, but to learn the -facts about labor conditions, and to understand them. The students are -required to read books on the subject, and to prepare papers on what -they have found. There was a street railway strike, in which more than -sixty persons were shot. The students attended the conferences over this -strike, and heard both sides presented. At the end of the summer’s work -they held a convention and drew up a statement, as follows: - -“Having been associated, under the leadership of men of high ideals and -Christian motives, for the purpose of intensive study of the human -factor in industry, and having, as a result, come to a realization of -the present seriousness and possible disastrous results of the turmoil -and unrest which is now gripping the industrial world; and further -realizing that those who are to become the business, professional and -political leaders of tomorrow, the present college men, are, through -lack of knowledge of and interest in these conditions, not only -neglecting a vital part of their education, but are actually committing -an injustice against humanity in failing to prepare themselves to meet -the inevitable crisis, we, the members of the Denver Summer Study Group -of 1920, undertake to expand that organization under the name “The -Collegiate Industrial Research Movement.” - -The same thing is being done by the Young Women’s Christian Association. -There was a movement of this kind under the direction of Miss Caroline -Goforth, and I heard an interesting story about one of the girls, who -was running an elevator, and had her foot caught and injured. She was -dressed like a “lady,” and looked like one, and the surgeon took her for -a passenger, and was courteous and helpful—until he discovered that she -was an employe, when he became abrupt and negligent. Our interlocking -newspapers profess to wonder at the existence of “parlor Bolshevists” -and “pink tea Socialists,” and may be interested to know how such -creatures are made. Here was one made in a few minutes, by sharing the -actual bitter experience of the workers! - -I have narrated how the working class students at Bryn Mawr proceeded to -unionize the “help” at that college. This is another work which liberal -students may undertake with profit at many American colleges and -universities. I have already referred to the experience of a group of -students who set out ten years ago to reform conditions of labor at the -University of Wisconsin. They organized an industrial union of all -working students; the university authorities tried to break it up, and -threatened to expel a group of forty active students from their jobs—and -therefore from the university. They locked out a hundred and fifty from -the University Commons. But the students succeeded in getting publicity; -they brought in labor organizers, who surveyed the working conditions, -and showed up the graft in the running of the university dining-rooms, -the purchasing of milk and other supplies. They showed that two carloads -of potatoes had been allowed to rot, that a car of apples had been -allowed to freeze; also that the university was working girls in -violation of the state industrial law. - -The interlocking regents were called in, and also the board of visitors, -and there was great excitement. One of the students reminded President -Van Hise that the Milwaukee Trades and Labor Assembly controlled a -hundred and fifty thousand votes; which apparently produced the effect -intended, for the business manager of the university retired. The -interlocking trustees showed their appreciation of his fidelity to the -principles of exploitation by immediately calling him to become -president of Tufts College! Tufts gave him an honorary degree, and Brown -and Clark followed suit, and now he is chairman of the Massachusetts -Security League! - - - - - CHAPTER XCII - THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH - - -I have ventured to suggest student representation on boards controlling -our colleges; and perhaps you thought I was showing too much confidence -in student wisdom. Fortunately I can show you a few places where -students are beginning to take up the problems of their own educating, -and to find fault with the courses served out to them by the -interlocking directorate. For example, Mt. Holyoke, a woman’s college -with a thousand students, located at South Hadley, Massachusetts; they -have organized the “Mt. Holyoke College Community,” governed entirely by -committees of students and faculty. I note that they are fully aware of -the various functions of government, and how to make a democracy work. -They have arranged “an executive body consisting of the acting President -of the College Community (a student) and the presidents of various -student and faculty organizations; a legislative body consisting of one -member for every fifteen students and one for every five members of the -faculty; and a judicial body consisting of five students and two members -of the faculty.” Also these students have organized a committee on the -curriculum, and three hundred and forty of them have reported “a strong -demand for the elimination of required Latin and mathematics, and for -the requirement of physiology and economics; also for modern government -and hygiene.” - -More significant yet, the students of Barnard have got busy, right under -the nose of Nicholas Miraculous! They organized a committee on their own -initiative, and have constructed an “ideal” curriculum. Listen to what -these progressive young ladies purpose requiring of freshmen: a course -on the history of mankind, counting ten points, “a synthetic survey -course designed to bring out the chief aspects of man’s relation to his -environment by tracing present conditions and tendencies to historic -processes; the physical nature of the universe ... man as a product of -evolution ... the early history of man ... the concept of culture ... -the historical processes leading to present cultural conditions ... -modern problems, political, economic and social.” Next they want a -course, counting six points, in human biology and psychology, “giving an -outline of human development and distribution on earth, man in relation -to his nearest kin, a survey of human powers and functions, an -introduction to general biology, the structure of the human body, -outlines of embryology, functions of the body and their -inter-relationships”—and laboratory work on all these problems. -Also—imagine young ladies actually putting such things on paper!—they -ask for: - - “Specific human development of the sex-reproductive-child bearing - function. - - a. “The facts of structure, functions, development and hygiene of - the sex and reproductive apparatus of the male and female. - b. “The outstanding facts of maternity and paternity. - c. “Effects of sex on individual human development from - fertilization to maturity. - d. “The nature and power of the sex impulse. - e. “The gradually developed sex controls imposed on the individual - by society. - f. “The pathological effects of perverse and unsocial uses of sex in - society. - g. “The facts underlying a satisfactory adjustment in marriage and - homemaking.” - -Also they want a course in “general mathematical analysis,” counting six -points; “the technique of expression,” counting two points; and -“Engliliterature,” counting six points, with the aim “to present -literature as an aspect of life; the emphasis throughout is therefore on -subject matter rather than on technical or historical problems.” - -Yes; and also these young ladies of Barnard have taken up the problem of -having Nicholas Miraculous tell them whom they may listen to. It was -declared to them that the good repute of the college must be preserved, -and after an argument they submitted to that imposition; but one thing -they laid down very emphatically—they want the college authorities to -give up the idea of protecting their tender young minds! As they put it: - -“Resolved, that it is the feeling of the Student Council: - -“That there is nothing gained in shielding students during four years -from problems and ideas they must face during the rest of their life, -and - -“That if they are considered incapable of rational judgment upon -theories presented to them, the solution lies in further training in -scientific method rather than in quarantine from ideas, and - -“That a reputation for fearless open-mindedness is more to be desired -for an academic institution than material prosperity.” - -Also the Harvard students are waking up, under the influence of the -Liberal Club. They have been discussing the subject of education, -calling in various professors and deans to address them, and last spring -the members of the corporation and the board of overseers were the -guests of the club, to consider inaugurating the English tutorial system -at Harvard. Also Harvard has a cooperative society, with three students -upon its board of directors, and the Barnard students are planning a -cooperative book-store, to be run entirely by themselves. - -Such things as this have a way of spreading; they are spreading rapidly -in Germany, where there is a movement of insurgent youth, taking steps -to form a “World League of Youth,” to make over the thinking and the -social life of mankind. You will no doubt admit that the youth of -Germany have justification for being discontented with the management of -their Fatherland. Let me quote from their manifesto: - -“Comrades! We are united in the hatred of the institutions of our social -life and of our time. We ask ourselves: Whose fault are these -institutions, this civilization? On whose conscience rest these -political systems, these schools, these churches, these politics, these -newspapers and so much else? The ‘adult’ people....” - -Again, here is a statement from one of the leaders of this new and -vitally important movement: - -“The unifying characteristic, indeed the only sense of the youth -movement is this: we no longer want to obey laws, coercions, customs -that come to us from the outside and that have aims without a living, -inner meaning to ourselves. We want to form our lives in accordance with -laws that are within us, laws toward which alone we feel a -responsibility.” - -Our own country has been more fortunate than Germany; we have still a -great measure of prosperity, we are not yet in the pit of hell with -Central Europe. But we are sliding, and sliding fast, and those who run -our country do not know how to stop the process. I have shown you the -League of the Old Men, suppressing thought and wrecking the world; and -now here is the answer—the League of Youth! The Old Men were raised in -the old order, their thinking is bound by its limitations. But we, the -youth of the world, live in a new age, and have new problems to deal -with. We cannot well do worse than our elders have done; we may very -easily do better. Since we have longer to live in this world than our -elders, we have surely the right to save it if we can! - - - CHAPTER XCIII - THE OPEN FORUM - - -I am writing in a time of reaction, but already the streaks of dawn are -beginning to show. We are soon to witness the social revolution in -Western Europe, and it will not be possible to keep these ideas from -stirring the minds of young America. Our politics will change, and with -that change will come freedom in our state universities, and the -privately endowed institutions will be forced to come along. Just what -will happen in the great centers of snobbery, such as Columbia and -Princeton and Pennsylvania, I do not attempt to predict; perhaps their -faculties will wake up and take control of their own destinies, or -perhaps we shall see in our political life some violent revolutionary -change, which will sweep the plutocratic endowments out of existence all -at once. I am not advocating such a procedure, but I see our ruling -classes doing everything in their power to force it, and if their -efforts should succeed, we may see very quick reforms in American higher -education. - -What is it that I want? What should I do if I had my own unhampered way? -Should I kick out all the reactionary professors, and turn Columbia and -Princeton and Pennsylvania into Socialist propaganda clubs? If I could -have my way, I should not commit a single violation of the principles of -academic freedom for which I have pleaded in this book. The trustees and -the presidents should of course be laid on the shelf, for these are -administrative officials, and properly removable when a change of policy -is desired. This would apply equally to the deans as administrators; but -so far as the teachers are concerned, I would do them the honor to set -them free, and plead with them to open their eyes to the new dawn of -social justice. Just as there are thousands of members of the clergy who -would jump up with a shout if they knew they could cease preaching fairy -tales without losing their jobs, so there are thousands of college -professors who would consider the truth if it were presented to them, -and would teach it if they were encouraged. - -As for the aged-minded ones—what I should do with them is to compete -them out of business. I really believe in truth, and in the power of -truth to confute error; I take my stand on the sentence of Wendell -Phillips: “If anything cannot stand the truth, let it crack.” What I ask -is free discussion; what I want in the colleges is that both faculty and -students should have opportunity to hear all sides of all questions, and -especially those questions which lie at the heart of the great class -struggle of our time. What I should do to the college would be to -introduce a few live young professors who know modern ideas, and would -lecture on modern books and modern political movements, explaining the -revolutionary spirit which is vitalizing history, philosophy, religion -and art. You would see in a year or two how the students thronged to -these live men, and how the old men would have to wake up and fight for -their prestige. - -This is the plan of the open forum, and I urge groups of young -professors and students everywhere to take their stand on that. We -desperately need men to lift their voices in this cause just now, for in -the last eight bitter years the American people have shown that they -have no idea what free speech means—no trace of such an idea! We sent -one or two thousand men to jail for the crime of expressing unpopular -opinion; as I write, four years after the armistice, we are still -holding seventy-six such men in torment, and the great mass of authority -which controls our politics, our press and our pulpits shows that it has -no conception whatever of the right of a man to advocate an unpopular -belief, or of the danger to society involved in the crushing of minority -opinion. - -It is not too much to say that in America today it is a general and -firmly held conviction that to believe and teach certain ideas is a -crime. And from where shall we expect opposition to this survival of -savagery among us, if not from our universities, which are supposed to -be dedicated to the search for truth? It is the shame of our time that -our colleges and universities have been silent while freedom of opinion -has been strangled in America. Right here is the crucial issue, here is -where the call for academic heroes and martyrs goes out. The few of us -who believe in the truth have an organization, which will back you and -furnish you with ammunition in this fight; if you do not know its -literature, write to the American Civil Liberties Union, New York City. - -I have heard the arguments of the reactionaries, their cries of horror -at the idea that the sensitive minds of the young should be exposed to -the corruption of vicious and incendiary ideas. To this the answer is -plain: if any parent wants to keep his child from thinking, there is no -law to deny him this power, but he should keep that child at home, and -not send it to an institution which exists for the purpose of training -young men and women to use the faculties of the mind. Colleges and -universities are places, or should be places, for those who wish to -think; and for any institution making such a pretense there can be but -one rule of procedure, which is that all ideas are given a hearing and -tried out in the furnace of controversy. - -I am aware, of course, that there are lunatics in the world, and an -infinite variety of cranks and bores—my mail is burdened with their -writings, and they keep my door bell buzzing. I do not mean to say that -college platforms should be turned over to such people; what I do say -is, that whenever any considerable group of thinking people claim to -have important new ideas to teach the world, they should be given a -hearing in colleges, and if their ideas are unsound, let it be the -business of the college to produce some one on the same platform to -expose that unsoundness. The one thing that should never be heard inside -college walls, or in connection with college policy, is that ideas -should be suppressed because they are “dangerous”—because, in other -words, they might win converts if they were given a hearing! - -I met on my journey a horrified university trustee, who exclaimed: -“What! You would permit anarchists and I. W. W.’s to speak at our -institution?” - -My answer was a counter-question: “Do you think that anarchism is right, -or that it is wrong?” - -The answer was: “Wrong!” - -“Then,” I said, “why are you afraid to hear it?” - -“I am not afraid for myself, but when you are dealing with young -minds”—and there you are; we must protect the minds of the young! It is -hard for the old to realize that the young may have older minds, having -grown up in a world with better means of thinking and of spreading -ideas. - -We deported Emma Goldman, and thought we had thereby prevented the -spread of anarchism; which shows that whatever else our colleges and -universities have done, they have not taught us the psychology of -martyrdom. I agree with the university trustee in thinking that -anarchism is wrong—at least for a hundred years or so; but my way of -handling Emma Goldman would have been to run her on a lecture tour in -every American college and university, in a debate with some thoroughly -trained expert in the history of social evolution. I would have let all -the students hear her, and keep her until midnight answering questions; -so, if there was truth in her views it would have spread, and if there -was error the students would have been inoculated against it for life. - -Some years ago I wrote that I should like to send every clergyman in the -United States to jail for a week; this not out of any ill will for the -church, but as a step toward prison reform. In the same way I should -like to see our college students go to jail; or barring that, I should -like to have the prisoners come to the colleges, to tell the students -how men become criminals, and what society could do about it. Some of -the most interesting men I ever met were criminals, and others were -tramps, and others were social revolutionists. I should like to see all -college students go to work in factories, and I should like to see the -leaders of labor, both conservatives and radicals, brought to the -colleges to tell the students about industrial problems. Let the -employers come also—both sides would be more careful of their facts if -they knew they had to present them before a jury of wide-awake students -and highly trained faculty members. What a service the college might -perform, in toning down the bitterness of the class struggle, if the -faculty made it their business to invite both sides in every labor -dispute to come and justify themselves; if the faculty would keep at it, -and accept no refusal, but “smoke out” the arrogant ones, who take, -either publicly or privately, the old-style attitude of “the public be -damned!” - -That is my program for colleges—to discuss the vital ideas, the subjects -that men are arguing and fighting over, the problems that must be solved -if our society is not to be rent by civil war. Everybody is interested -in these questions, old and young, rich and poor, high and low, and if -you deal with them you solve several vexing problems at once. You solve -the problem of getting students to study, and also the problem of -student morals; you turn your college from a country club to which -elegant young gentlemen come to wear good clothes and play games, and -more or less in secret to drink and carouse—you turn it from that into a -place where ideas are taken seriously, and the young learn the use of -the most wonderful tool that the human race has so far developed, that -of experimental science. - -When you understand this weapon and its powers, you are no longer afraid -of the specters and the goblins, the dragons and devils and other -monsters which haunted the imagination of our racial childhood. You -know; you know precisely, and you know certainly, and so you are free -from fear; you go out into life as a young warrior with an enchanted -sword, all powerful against all enemies. To forge that sword and train -you in the care of it and the use of it—that is the true task of our -institutions of higher education. To that end the call goes out to all -men and women, who have learned to believe in reason, and wish to have -it vindicated and used in the world. Our educational system today is in -the hands of its last organized enemy, which is class greed and -selfishness based upon economic privilege. To slay that monster is to -set free all the future. If this book helps to make clear the issue, and -to bring fresh recruits to the army of emancipation, its purpose will be -served and its author will be content. - -It was my original intention to write a book dealing with our whole -educational system; but as you have seen, the mass of material dealing -with colleges alone proved sufficient to make a full-sized book. It is -my purpose to follow this with a second volume, dealing with the public -schools, and entitled “The Goslings.” - - - - - INDEX - -Roman numerals refer to chapters, Arabic numerals to pages. Names of -colleges and universities are in italics. - - Abelard, 454 - - Abortions, 381 - - “Abrams case,” 75 - - “Acres of Diamonds,” 332 - - Advertising, 315 - - _Allegheny_, 347 - - Allen, F. J., 89 - - Alumni, LXXIII - - Amal. Clothing Workers, 452 - - “A Man’s World,” 295 - - _American_, 349 - - Amer. Ass’n of University Profs., 181, 186, 192, 195, 346–7, 354, 375, - 409, 455 - - Amer. Book Co., 289 - - Amer. Civil Lib. Union, 475 - - Amer. Fed. of Teachers, 459 - - _Amherst_, 432 - - Ammons, 193 - - Anaconda, 179 - - Anderson, F. B., 158, 166 - - Anderson, Judge, 72 - - Angell, J. R., 115, 389 - - Angell, N., 117 - - Ann Arbor, 264 - - _Antioch_, 377 - - Archbold, 277, 286 - - Ardzrooni, 56 - - Armour, 258 - - Associated Press, 34, 223, 225, 263, 325 - - Athletics, LXXIV - - Atwood, W. W., LX-LXI - - “Auctioneer,” 40 - - Aughinbaugh, LXIV - - Automobiles, LV - - Ayres, 183 - - Babcock, Mayor, 272–4 - - Bacon, J., 208 - - Baker, G. F., 19, 306 - - Baker, N. D., 304 - - Baker, S., 26 - - Ballantine, 431 - - Bangs, 206 - - Bangs, F. S., 48 - - Banton, 360 - - _Barnard_, 56, 168, 360, 470–1 - - Barnes, A. V., 264 - - Barnes, B., 35, 46 - - Barrows, XXVII-XXXI, 161 - - Barnum, 332 - - Bartlett, 161 - - Baruch, 344 - - _Baylor_, 352 - - Beal, 264–9 - - Beals, 140 - - Beard, 47–9, 56, 120, 393, 434, 453 - - “Beast,” 189 - - Beck, J. M., 416 - - Bedford, 368 - - Bell, 103 - - Bell, B. I., LXXXIII - - _Beloit_, 339–65 - - Bemis, 95, 244–5 - - Bentley, F. W., 215, 450 - - Berkeley, 135, 140 - - _Berkeley Divinity_, 429 - - _Bethany_, 354 - - Better Amer. Fed., 129, 130, 143, 468 - - Beyer, 443 - - Birge, XLVI - - Birth Control, 146 - - Bismarck, 52 - - B. “Tribune,” 208 - - Black Hand, 131, 149, 150, 169 - - Blanshard, P., 451 - - Blethen, 174–7 - - Bohn, W. E., 267 - - Bolley, 200–4 - - Bolshevism, 60, 86, 138, 160, 182 - - “Book of Life,” 311, 345 - - “Bootstrap-lifters,” 353 - - Borglum, 58 - - Borah, 138, 367 - - _Boston_, 320 - - B. “Eve. Transcript,” 85 - - B. “Herald,” 283 - - _Boston Labor_, 449 - - Bowman, 273, 275 - - Bowne, 277 - - Boyesen, 53, 61 - - Brackett, 277 - - Brandeis, L. D., 20, 62, 73, 85, 367 - - Brannon, 182, 340 - - “Brass Check,” LXVI, 47, 64, 85, 223-4-31-63, 300–15-40, 430 - - Brewster, 192 - - Brisbane, 367 - - Brock, 417 - - Brooks, R. C., 433 - - _Brookwood_, 450 - - _Brown_, LXIII - - Brown, Chancellor, LXIV, 359 - - Bryan, E. A., 183 - - Bryan, W. J., 352 - - Bryant, L., 59 - - Buchtel, 190, 389, 429, 430 - - Bulkley, 266 - - Bullock, A. G., 289, 295 - - Burch, 27 - - Burns, 74 - - Burton, M. L., 217, 218, 221, 264, 270, 389 - - Busey, 261–2 - - Butler, H. J., 223, 228–9 - - Butler, N. M., VII-XIII, 12, 115, 134, 163, 278, 366, 409, 412, 414, - 456, 458 - - Butler, P., XLIX - - Bynner, 143, 145, 148, 151 - - Cabot, 69, 359 - - _California_, XXVII-XXXI, 320–368, 372, 396, 455 - - “Capital-Times,” 223 - - “Cardinal,” 237 - - Carlton, 26, 196 - - Carnegie, 45, 46, 54 - - C. Foundation, 408 - - “C. Pensions,” 409 - - _Carnegie Tech._, 276 - - Carpenter, G. R., 9 - - Carstensen, 426 - - Carver, 411 - - Catholic, 7, 177, 349 - - Catell, S. S., 362 - - Cattell, J. McK., 31, 40, 54, 55, 56, 248, 401, 408, 411, 460, 461 - - _Center_, 374 - - Central Pacific, 153 - - Chafee, 75, 76 - - Chaflin, 320 - - Chancellor, W. E., 401 - - Chandler, 129 - - Chanslor, 150, 151 - - “Chanticleer,” 247 - - Chaplin, R., 464 - - Chapman, J. J., 301 - - “Charter Day,” 132 - - Chase, John, 194 - - Chaucer, 8 - - Chemistry, 7 - - Cherrington, 468 - - _Chicago_, L-LII, 321, 375, 377, 380, 397, 455 - - Chi. “Inter-Ocean,” 341 - - Chi. “Tribune,” 415 - - Chinese, 149, 159 - - Choate, 75 - - Church League for Industrial Democ., 429, 431, 444 - - Citizen’s Alliance, 215 - - _City College, N. Y._, II, 329 - - _Cincinnati_, 331 - - _Clark_, LIX-LXI, 422 - - Clark, E., 28, 115, 117, 465 - - Clark, Senator, 179 - - Classics, 141 - - Clum, 131, 169, 412 - - Cody, 264 - - Coe, 27 - - Coffman, 218 - - Cohan, 296 - - Colby, J., 450 - - Cole, L. W., 194 - - _Colgate_, 368 - - _Colorado College_, 194 - - _Col. School of Mines_, 196 - - _Col. Univ._, 192 - - _Columbia_, III, IV, VI-XIII, 320, 359, 366, 443, 458 - - Comings, 232 - - Commons, 279 - - “Comrade Yetta,” 295 - - _Conn. C. for Women_, 165 - - Conway, 100 - - Conwell, 332, 389 - - Cooke, M. L., 77, 79, 267 - - Cooley, 267 - - Coolidge, 84, 194 - - Cooper, T., 203, 204 - - _Cornell_, LXIII, 377 - - Coudert, 26, 48, 127 - - Cramblet, 354 - - Crane, M., 83, 84 - - Crawford, 347, 389 - - “Crimes of Times,” 327 - - “Criminal Syndicalism,” 131 - - “Crimson,” 74 - - Crocker, 127, 129, 136, 153 - - Crothers, 163, 166 - - Croyle, 355 - - Cutten, 368 - - “Damaged Goods,” 341 - - Dana, H. W. L., 56, 446–9 - - “Daily Californian,” 151 - - Darrow, 367 - - _Dartmouth_, 368 - - Darwinism, 352 - - Davis, J., 429 - - Dawes, 341 - - Day Brothers, 182 - - Day, J. R., LVII-III, 389, 459 - - Debs, 145, 284, 417 - - Deering, 256 - - Degrees, 366, 388–9 - - Delano, 63 - - _Delaware_, 344 - - Democracy, 460 - - _Denison_, 361 - - _Denver_, XXXIX, 417 - - Denver, 444 - - D. “Post,” 189, 417, 446 - - _DePauw_, 422 - - Depew, 367 - - Detroit “Free Press,” 270 - - Detroit “News,” 265 - - Dewey, F. H., 289, 291 - - Dewey, 51, 78, 459 - - de Young, 130 - - Dill, 380 - - Dietrichson, 213 - - Dirba, 215 - - Dix, 27 - - Dobson, A., 8 - - Dodge, M. H., 25, 45, 392 - - Doggett, 431 - - Doheny, 333 - - Doherty, H. L., 268 - - Dollar Line, 143 - - Dow, 352 - - Drexel, 92 - - “Dugout”, 130 - - Duke, 350 - - du Pont, 64, 344 - - Earl, 128, 129, 148 - - Easley, LXXXII-LXXXIII - - Eastman, 64, 165 - - Eaton, A., 171–173 - - Eaton, G. D., 270 - - Edison Electric, 71, 77 - - “Editor & Publisher”, 225 - - Edwards, A., 295 - - Egbert, 60, 442, 445, 453 - - Einstein, 394 - - Eldridge, 343 - - Eliot, C. W., 68, 103, 389 - - Elks, 31 - - Elliott, E. C., 179 - - Elliott, H., 62, 64, 367, 369 - - Emerson, 68 - - _Emory & Henry_, 355 - - Engineers, 267, 379 - - English, 4, 9 - - Erskine, 13 - - Evans, W. G., 189–90 - - Evanston Conference, 258 - - Evolution, 352 - - Farmer-Labor Party, 222 - - Farrand, 193 - - Faunce, 389 - - Fed. Res. Board, 410 - - Fed. Press, 232 - - Few, 389 - - Fichte, 18 - - Fisher, A., 181 - - Fisher, W. C., 311–2 - - Flaccus, 277 - - Fleishhacker, 127, 128, 129 - - _Florida State_, 422 - - Foerster, 174 - - “Foes of Democracy”, 183 - - Follansbee, 275 - - “Foolscap”, 218 - - Foster, W. T., 169 - - Foster, W. Z., 434 - - Fox, A. G., 73, 75, 76 - - Frankfurter, 75, 78 - - Franklin, B., 102 - - Fraser, L., 45-7-9 - - Frasier, L., 206 - - Fraternities, 122, 393 - - French, 10 - - French, Dean, 282 - - French, E. L., 277, 280 - - Freud, 288 - - Frick, 113 - - Frye-Atwood, 292–7 - - “Fundamentalists”, 236, 351–3 - - Gardner, G., 198 - - Garfield, 344, 389 - - Garland (Mayor), 276 - - Garrett, 113 - - Garrison, W. L., 67 - - Gary, LIII, 191, 271, 285, 332, 367, 368, 418, 420 - - Gen. Educ. Board, 198, 409 - - Geo. Wash. Society, 444 - - German, 6, 11, 18, 160 - - Getts, 435 - - “Gibson Standard”, 356 - - Gillette, 207 - - Gilman, D. C., 302–3 - - Gilman, E., 305 - - Ginn & Co., 283, 292–5 - - Girdansky, 360 - - Gleason, 465 - - Goforth, 469 - - Goldman, 476 - - Gompers, 103, 453 - - Goodnight, 389 - - Goodnow, 52, 303, 389 - - Goose-step, 18 - - Gorki, 150 - - Gosling, I, 478 - - Gothic, 241, 365 - - Grand Duchess, LIV - - Grand Forks “Herald”, 208 - - Graves, 139 - - Gray, J. H., 212, 255 - - Greater Iowa Ass’n, 131 - - Greek, 6 - - Greer, 27 - - Gregory, T. T. C., 158 - - Grundy, 100, 106 - - Guggenheim, 189–191 - - Gundelfinger, 276 - - Guthrie, 53 - - Haessler, 435 - - Haldeman, 129, 130 - - Hall, G. S., LIX-LXI - - _Hamline_, 443 - - Hankins, 397 - - Hanna, 204 - - Harding, 222 - - Harper, 241–7 - - Hart, 170, 176–7 - - _Harvard_, XIV-XIX, 28, 39, 263, 320, 359, 366, 369, 371, 374, 455 - - _Harvard Law_, 73, 431 - - Harvard Liberal Club, 70, 72, 73, 466 - - Harvey, Geo., 367 - - Harvey, H. A., 283 - - Hayes, E., 436 - - Hearst, 76, 134 - - Heaven, LVII-III - - Hecker, 428 - - Hedges, 339 - - Heinz, 272–4 - - Helen Ghouls, LXXXII-III, 453 - - Helicon Hall, 122 - - Heney, 162, 369 - - “Herald”, 77 - - Herrick, R., 248, 262, 377 - - Hibben, 114, 116, 117, 119, 374 - - Higginson, 62 - - Hill, D. J., 233–4, 367, 414 - - Hill, J. J., 203, 206 - - Hill, L., 208 - - Hinman, 341 - - History, 5 - - Hixson, 389 - - Hogue, 304, 433, 444 - - Holmes, 330, 367 - - Holman, E. H. H., 443 - - “Holy Trinity”, 154 - - Holder, 402 - - Hoover, 158–9, 367 - - Hopkins, 153, 158, 160, 162 - - Horlick, 222 - - Houston, D. F., 410–1 - - Howard, 156 - - Howbert, 195 - - Howe, F. C., 207, 367 - - Howerth, 147, 148 - - Hoxie, 78 - - Hughes, 108, 309, 367 - - Humphries, 70, 74 - - _Hunter_, 329, 360 - - Huntington, 153 - - Huyler, 277 - - Hyde, 161, 324 - - Hydro-electric, 161 - - Hyslop, 13 - - _Idaho_, XXXVII - - _Iliff_, 430 - - “Illini”, 260 - - _Illinois_, LIV, 320, 390, 455 - - I. V. A., 207 - - “Industrial Republic”, 37 - - I. W. W., 57, 476 - - Interchurch Fed., 258, 273 - - Interchurch World Movement, 191, 275 - - Intercoll. Socialist Soc., 355 - - Interlocking Directorates, V - - Internat. Harvester Co., 319 - - Internat. Ladies’ Garment Workers, 452 - - Inventors, 379 - - _Iowa_, 336 - - “Iron City”, 339 - - Irvine, 122 - - Jabbergrab, LXIV-VI - - Jackson, D. C., 80 - - James, E. J., 95 - - James, Wm., 378 - - Jastrow, 409 - - Jaurès, 358 - - Jesus, 27, 256, 276, 282 - - Jews, LXXII, 4, 52, 75, 83, 329 - - Joffre, 142 - - _Johns Hopkins_, LXII, 53, 397, 444 - - Johnson, H., 160 - - Jones, J. L., 105 - - Jordan, 117, 152, 153, 156, 159, 160, 163, 373, 389 - - Journalism, LXVI - - Jowett, 436 - - “Judge”, 324 - - Judson, 250, 389 - - Jung, 288 - - “Jungle”, 224 - - Kahlenberg, 232 - - Kahn, 64, 367 - - Kaiser, 33, 37, 38, 39, 46 - - Kane, 175–6, 207 - - _Kansas State_, 396 - - Kant, 12 - - Keller, 124 - - Kelley, F., 465 - - Kennedy, J. C., 246 - - Kennedy, J. S., 27 - - Kent, Dean, 282 - - Kerfoot, 443 - - Kerlin, 362 - - Kerr, 170 - - Key Route, 135 - - Keyser, 303 - - Kiang, 148, 149, 150 - - Kidder-Peabody, 84 - - King, 96 - - Kingsley, 314 - - Kinley, 261, 321 - - Kirby, F. M., 438 - - Kirchwey, F., 118 - - _Knox_, 259 - - Knox, P. C., 367 - - Kolchak, 138 - - Kornhauser, 361 - - Ku Klux Klan, 336, 381, 423 - - “Labor Age”, 453 - - Labor Party, 279 - - Ladd, A. J., 207 - - Ladd, E. F., 199–204 - - Ladd, G. T., 401 - - Ladd, W. P., 429 - - _Lafayette_, 438 - - LaFollette, 32, 33, 222, 232, 367 - - Laidler, 296, 355, 465 - - Lake, 125 - - “Lampoon”, 85 - - Land Grant Colleges, 199 - - Lansing, 367 - - Laski, XVIII-XIX, 299, 391 - - Lassalle, 17, 358 - - Latin, 6 - - Latter Day Saints, XXXVIII, 145, 150 - - _Lawrence_, 365 - - Lawrence, 73, 150 - - Lawrence strike, 451 - - Lawyers, 380 - - League for Ind. Democ., 465 - - “League of Old Men”, 331, 467, 473 - - League of Youth, 473 - - Leavenworth, 435 - - Lee, E., 64 - - Lee, I., 323 - - Lee, J. M., LXVI - - Lee-Higginson, XIV-XIX, 263, 366 - - Leland, F. B., 263 - - Leland, H., 266 - - Lenin, 86 - - “Leslie’s”, 324 - - Levine, XXXVII, 303 - - Lewis, F., 343 - - Lewis, S., 122, 217 - - Lewis, Wm. D., 96 - - Lewinsohn, 206 - - Lewisohn, 337, 361, 397 - - Libby, O. G., 208 - - Liberal, 74 - - Liebknecht, 358 - - Lindsay, S. McC., 59 - - Lindsey, 189, 380 - - Lingelbach, 102 - - Linville, 26 - - Lippmann, 115 - - “Literary Digest”, 35 - - Literature, 7 - - Lockwood, 347 - - Lockwood Comm., 59 - - Lodge, 63, 367, 369 - - Loeb, 396 - - London, J., 122, 331, 465 - - Los Angeles “Express”, 128 - - L. A. “Times”, 129 - - Lovejoy, 156, 157 - - Lovett, R. M., 246, 465 - - Lovett, R. S., 26 - - Lowden, 367 - - Lowell, A. L., XV-XIX, 115, 359, 389 - - Lumber Trust, 177 - - “Luskers”, 414 - - MacCracken, 424, 438, 440 - - MacDonald, 310 - - MacDowell, 14 - - Maclaurin, 398 - - Maddox, 342 - - “Man and Superman”, 433 - - Manning, W. T., 26 - - Mansbridge, 453 - - Marburg, 304 - - _Marietta_, 341 - - “Maroon”, 253 - - Marshall, L., 277 - - Marx, G., 436 - - Marx, K., 17, 211, 358 - - _Maryville_, 422 - - _Mass. Tech._, 64, 71, 374 - - Mather, 118 - - Matson Line, 143 - - Matthews, B., 11, 163–166, 261–281, 290, 367 - - Maurer, 103, 453 - - Mayo, 214 - - McAdoo, 96 - - McClellan, 120 - - McClelland, Rev., 259 - - McClenahan, 119 - - McConnell, 258 - - McCormick, 113 - - McCormick, Rev., 273 - - McElroy, 119, 120 - - McVey, 206 - - Meadville (Pa.), 347 - - Meeker, 258 - - Meikeljohn, 432 - - Mellon, LVI - - Mencken, 303–4 - - “Metropolis”, 327 - - Mexico, 117 - - Meyling, 142 - - _Michigan_, LV, 455 - - “Michigan Daily”, 270 - - Middletown, 311 - - “Mile High Club”, 218 - - Miller, Chas., 367 - - Mills, A. L., 169–170 - - Mills, D. O., 35 - - Mills, W. W., 341 - - _Minnesota_, XLIV-V, 320 - - _Mississippi_, 352 - - “Missoulian”, 181 - - Mitchell, Pres., 389 - - _Modern School_, 414 - - Moffat, W. D., 328 - - Monaco, 394 - - Money Trust, 19, 199 - - Montague, 52 - - _Montana_, XXXVII, 459 - - Montgomery, 389 - - Morgan, J. P., V, VI, 45, 62, 179, 366, 456 - - Morgan, R., 101 - - Mormons, 185 - - Morris, E. B., 101 - - Morrow, 139 - - Morse, 342 - - Moser, 169 - - _Mt. Holyoke_, 470 - - Muensterberg, 39 - - _Muhlenberg_, 97 - - Mulvane, 349 - - _Munich_, 174 - - Munroe, 402 - - Murfin, 264 - - Murlin, 296 - - Murray, Bishop, 304 - - “Mushrooms”, LXVIII - - _Muskingum_, 346 - - Mussey, 56, 117 - - Muste, 450 - - Myers, 115 - - “My Neighbor the Workingman”, 278 - - “Nation”, 280, 301 - - Nat’l Ass’n for Constitutional Govt., 233 - - Nat’l Ass’n Mfrs., 412 - - Nat’l Civic Fed., LXXXII, 255 - - Nat’l Educ. Ass’n, 59 - - Nat’l Security League, 413 - - Nat’l Student Forum, 465 - - Nearing, XXI-II, LXI, 28 - - _Nebraska_, 320, 334 - - Negroes, 353, 359, 401 - - Nestos, 208 - - Nettleton, 429 - - Newark (Del.), 344 - - Newberry, 264 - - Newhall, 158, 167 - - New Haven, 73, 85 - - “New Northwest”, 181 - - “New Republic”, 280, 301, 418 - - _New School for Social Research_, 434, 453 - - “New Student”, 465 - - Newton, 398 - - N. Y. “Call”, 430 - - N. Y. “Eve. Post”, 63, 64, 225 - - N. Y. “Eve. Sun”, 326 - - N. Y. “Globe”, LXVI - - N. Y. “Times”, 38, 44, 60, 163, 327, 442, 453 - - _N. Y. Univ._, LXIV-VI, 359 - - N. Y. “World”, 426, 445 - - Nickel, 158, 167 - - Nonpartisan League, 199, 202, 221 - - _North Carolina_, 433 - - North Dakota, 60 - - _N. Dakota Agric._, XLI-II, 203 - - _N. Dakota Univ._, XLIII, 459 - - Northrop, 216 - - _Northwestern_, LIII, 125, 144, 321 - - _Oberlin_, 430 - - “Octopus”, 238 - - O’Hare, 232 - - _Ohio State_, 337 - - _Oklahoma_, 336, 362 - - Older, 130, 367 - - Olney, 75 - - Open Forum, XCIII - - _Oregon_, XXXV, 199 - - “Oregonian”, 170 - - Ore Trust, XLIV-V - - Otto, 236 - - “Our World”, 295 - - Overstreet, 459 - - Owens, 342 - - Pacific Improvement Co., 165 - - Paderewski, 58, 367 - - Page, T. N., 367 - - Paine, 102 - - Pallen, 418 - - Palmer, 72, 274, 367, 413, 432, 440 - - Palo Alto, 161, 462 - - Parker, A. B., 367, 418, 425 - - Parks, C. C., 194 - - Parlor Bolshevists, 469 - - _Parsons_, 378 - - Parsons, W. B., 25 - - _Pasadena High_, 449 - - Pattee, 280 - - Patten, 254, 255 - - Patton, H. B., 196 - - Peck, Dean, 287 - - Peck, H. T., 12, 42 - - _Pennsylvania_, XX-XXIII, 374, 434 - - Penn. Mil., 368 - - Penrose, 93 - - People’s Council, 173 - - Pepper, G. W., 93, 104, 105, 367, 368 - - Philadelphia, 92 - - Phila. “No. Amer.”, 104 - - Phillips, W., 67, 474 - - Phipps, 191 - - Physicians, 381 - - Pierson, 100 - - Pilate, 103 - - Pillsbury, J. S., 210 - - _Pittsburgh_, LVI - - “Plebs”, 453 - - Plumb, 330, 370 - - “Poison Ivy”, 323 - - Porter, W. W., 281 - - Portland, 452 - - Potter, 27 - - Powder Trust, 64 - - Pound, 75, 431 - - President, LXXVI - - Prexy, LXXVI - - _Princeton_, XXIV-VI, 358, 374 - - Pritchett, 409 - - Procter, 36, 113 - - Professors’ Union, LXXXIX - - “Profits of Religion”, 345 - - Providence “Journal”, 415 - - Pulitzer, 323 - - Pujo Committee, 19 - - Purdue, 182 - - Pyne, 112 - - Quakers, 432 - - Rabbits, LXXXV - - _Radcliffe_, 28 - - _Rand School_, 414, 443 - - Rathom, 415 - - “Rationalizations”, 438 - - “Reds”, 419 - - _Reed_, XXXV, 199 - - Reed, A. A., 194 - - Reed, J., 90 - - Renommir, 52 - - Reporters, 381 - - Research, 144 - - Reynolds, G. M., 19, 20 - - Rice, Prof., 352 - - Rich, I., 320 - - Richmond “News-Leader”, 444 - - _Ripon_, 365 - - Rives, 30 - - Robins, R., 142, 252 - - Robinson, J. H., 14, 56, 434 - - Robinson, Wm. J., 381 - - _Rochester_, 165 - - _Rochester Labor_, 451 - - Rockefeller, 194, 198, 323, 409, 446 - - R. Foundation, 217 - - Rockefeller, W., 19, 26 - - _Rockford_, 342 - - R. “Morning Star”, 343 - - Rodolf, 435 - - Rogers, A. R., 203–6 - - Rolland, 132 - - Roosevelt, 32, 35, 78, 102, 110 - - Root, 35, 46, 367, 409 - - Ross, E. A., 155, 402, 456 - - Rothschild, 465 - - Rowe, 95, 96 - - Rugg, 290, 291 - - Russell, B., 174, 399 - - Sabin, 381 - - Sack, A. J., 294 - - Sage, Mrs., 277 - - Saposs, 450 - - Sartori, 128 - - Satterlee, 26 - - Sayre, 75 - - Schlesinger, 453 - - Schmieder, 435 - - Schmitz, 162 - - Schneiderman, 447 - - “School & Society”, 390, 461 - - Schurman, 307, 389 - - Schwab, 307 - - Scientists, 133 - - Scott, J., 449 - - Scudder, 436 - - Seaman, Dr., 223, 228 - - Seaman, Major, 307 - - “Searchlight”, 352 - - Seattle, 174 - - S. “Post-Intelligencer”, 176 - - S. “Times”, 174 - - “Seekers”, 211 - - Seligman, 44, 56 - - Semenoff, 109, 138, 139, 150 - - “Sentimental Tommy”, 17 - - “Sentinels of Republic”, 414 - - Shanklin, 312, 389 - - Shaw, B., 266 - - Sheldon, 348 - - Shelley, 8, 10, 112 - - Shepard, 419 - - Shepard’s Crook, LXXXIII - - Shepherd (Miss), 262 - - Sherman, S. P., 321 - - Shiels, 59 - - Sims, 74 - - Sinclair, 249–254, 300 - - Sisson, 180 - - “Skull and Bones”, 122 - - Smith, Captain, 196 - - Smith, E., XXI, 97, 389 - - Smith, Jos., 187 - - Smith, H., 283 - - Smith, L. C., 277 - - Smithfield, LV - - “Snapping Cords”, 79, 267 - - Snobbery, 363 - - Snyder, F. B., 210, 218 - - Socialism, 17, 37, 52, 135, 140 - - Sou. Methodist, 352 - - Soviet Government, 59 - - _S. California_, 320, 333 - - Speyer, 154 - - Spillman, 198, 410 - - Spingarn, 41–43, 125 - - “Spoon River Anthology”, 433 - - Spreckles, 136, 162, 369 - - Sproul, 367, 432 - - Stairs, 459 - - _Stanford_, XXXII-IV, 372, 373 - - Stanford, L., 152, 162 - - Stanford, Mrs., XXXII-III, 160 - - Standard Oil, L-LII, 24, 42 - - State Street, 63, 72, 77 - - Steel Trust, LVI - - Steffens, 94, 210, 367 - - Steiner, 115 - - Steinmetz, 465 - - Stetson, 380 - - Stewart, P. B., 195 - - Stockyards, 246 - - Stokes, A. P., 125 - - Stone, M. E., 225 - - Stotesbury, 92, 93 - - Strayer, 60 - - _St. Stephen’s_, LXXXIII - - Submarines, 125 - - Summer Schools, 292 - - Sumner, C., 67 - - Sumner, W. G., 123, 124 - - Sunday, Wm. A., XXII - - “Survey”, 418 - - Swain, 79 - - _Swarthmore_, 432 - - Sykes, F., 165 - - _Syracuse_, LVII-III - - Taft, 123, 367 - - Tagore, 252 - - Tannenbaum, 296 - - Tarkington, 367 - - Taylor, Mayor, 165 - - Teachers’ Union, 26, 27, 459 - - _Temple_, 332 - - Tennis, 230, 253 - - Tennessee, 354 - - Tennyson, 112 - - “Ten Years at Yale”, 276 - - Texas, 70, 252–3 - - Thackeray, 114 - - Thaw, 272 - - Third International, 447 - - Thomas, Augustus, 367 - - Thomas, G., 187 - - Thomas, M. C., 417, 446 - - Thomas, N., 465 - - Thompson, Pres., 337, 389 - - Thurber, C. H., 289, 292, 293 - - Tipple, E. S., 277 - - Titus, 399 - - “Toadstools”, LXIX - - Tolman, 262, 263 - - Topeka “Daily Capital”, 349 - - Traditions, 366 - - Trent, W. P., 10 - - Trexler, 97 - - Triggs, 245 - - _Trinity_, 350 - - Trinity Church, 56 - - Trotsky, 86 - - _Tufts_, 470 - - Turner, J. K., 270 - - “Twin Cities”, 202 - - Underwood, 58 - - Unearned Increment, 232 - - _Union Theo. Sem._, 355, 420 - - Unitarian, 70, 348, 354 - - U. G. I., XX-XXIII - - U. S. Comm. Industrial Relations, 193 - - “University Control”, 55, 401, 461 - - Untermyer, S., 19, 59, 367 - - “Up Stream”, 361 - - Urbana, 258 - - _Utah_, XXXVIII - - Van Cott, 187 - - Vanderlip, 64, 128, 129 - - Van Dyke, 111 - - Van Hise, 147, 236, 469 - - Van Loon, 308, 377 - - _Vassar_, 417 - - Veblen, 163, 164, 243, 297, 308, 375, 434 - - Vera Cruz, 137 - - Villard, 147 - - Vincent, M., 116, 119 - - Vincent, Pres., 217 - - _Virginia Mil. Inst._, 362 - - Vladivostok, 75 - - Wadsworth, E., 62 - - Wadsworth, J., 31, 46 - - Wanamaker, 332 - - Ward, H. F., 191, 255, 428, 430, 433, 459 - - Ward, L., 147 - - Warfield, D., 40 - - _Washburn_, 348, 444 - - _Washington_, XXXVI, 331 - - _Wash. & Jeff._, 375 - - Webb, General, 329 - - Webster, A. G., 283 - - Weeks, 368 - - _Wellesley_, 436 - - Wells, H. E., 375 - - Wells, H. G., 14, 266 - - _Wesleyan_, LXIII, 290 - - Wesleyan Foundation, 236 - - West, A., 113, 114, 119 - - Westinghouse, 307 - - _Wharton School_, 99 - - Wheat, 201 - - Wheeler, B. I., 33, 46, 115, 134, 141, 148, 388 - - Wheeler, E. P., 426 - - Wheeler, Prof., 352 - - White, A. S., 346 - - White, B., 330, 433 - - Wickersham, 93 - - Widener, 93 - - Widstoe, 187 - - Wilbur, 115, 159, 161 - - Wildes, H. E., 65, 66 - - Wilhelm, 115 - - Wilkinson, H. S., 277 - - Willard, 303 - - _Williams_, 344 - - Williams, A. R., 418 - - Williams, J. T., 85 - - Willis, 208 - - Wilshire, 325 - - Wilson, S., 135 - - Wilson, W., 137, 367, 385, 413 - - Winchester, Geo., 376 - - Winthrop, 75 - - _Wire City_, 434 - - _Wisconsin_, XXVI-IX, 393, 469 - - Wishart, 389 - - Wister, 367 - - Witmer, 101 - - Wolf, A. G., 197 - - Womer, 348 - - Wood, A. E., 116 - - Wood, L., 36, 93, 110, 367 - - Wood, W. W., 451 - - Woodberry, 15, 42 - - _Wooster_, 346 - - Worcester, 290 - - W. “Telegram”, 296 - - “Workers”, 441 - - Workers’ Education, LXXXVI - - Workers’ Ed. Bureau, 453 - - “World’s Work”, 416 - - Worrell, 197 - - Worst, 199, 204 - - Wyckliffite, 8 - - Wyland, 296-9 - - _Yale_, XXVI, 364, 365, 455 - - “Yale Review”, 124 - - Yard, R. S., 328 - - “Yellowplush Papers”, 114 - - Young, J., 185 - - Young, N. C., 206 - - Young, R., 185-7 - - “Young Democracy”, 107 - - Y. M. C. A., 70, 191, 269, 422, 468 - - _Y. M. C. A. College_, 431 - - Y. W. C. A., 469 - - Zeuch, 307 - - “Zion’s Herald”, 285 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - =Proposition to Reprint= - - The Early Books of Upton Sinclair - -All the books written by me from 1901 to 1911 are now out of print and -unobtainable. These include: - -“=Manassas=,” which Jack London called “The best Civil War book I have -read.” - -“=Samuel the Seeker=,” which Frederik van Eeden, the Dutch poet and -novelist, considered my best novel. - -“=The Metropolis=,” a novel portraying “Four Hundred” of New York, which -caused a sensation in its day. - -“=The Moneychangers=,” a novel dealing with the causes of the panic of -1907. - -“=The Journal of Arthur Stirling=,” which is my favorite among my early -books. - -“=Jimmie Higgins=,” a novel of the war, published in 1918, and already -out of print. - -It is my wish to reprint these six books in a uniform edition, both -cloth-bound and paper-bound. The price will be 60 cents a copy paper and -$1.20 a copy cloth. In order to obtain the necessary capital for this -publication I wish to hear from those who will agree to take the six -volumes, in sets put up in a box. The price will be $2.50 per set -paper-bound and $5.00 per set cloth-bound. You need not send the money; -all I want is to know how many of my readers will take these books when -they are published. If a sufficient number of guarantees are received -the books will be issued in the summer of 1923. The very low price in -sets is intended only for advance orders, and will not be repeated. - - UPTON SINCLAIR, - Pasadena, California. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - =Who Owns the Press, and Why?= - -When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda? And -whose propaganda? - -Who furnishes the raw material for your thoughts about life? Is it -honest material? - -No man can ask more important questions than these; and here for the -first time the questions are answered in a book. - - =THE BRASS CHECK= - - A Study of American Journalism - By UPTON SINCLAIR - -Read the record of this book to August, 1920: Published in February, -1920; first edition, 23,000 paper-bound copies, sold in two weeks. -Second edition, 21,000 paper-bound, sold before it could be put to -press. Third edition, 15,000, and fourth edition, 12,000, sold. Fifth -edition, 15,000, in press. Paper for sixth edition, 110,000, just -shipped from the mill. The third and fourth editions are printed on -“number one news”; the sixth will be printed on a carload of lightweight -brown wrapping paper—all we could get in a hurry. - -The first cloth edition, 16,500 copies, all sold; a carload of paper for -the second edition, 40,000 copies, has just reached our printer—and so -we dare to advertise! - -Ninety thousand copies of a book sold in six months—and published by the -author, with no advertising, and only a few scattered reviews! What this -means is that the American people want to know the truth about their -newspapers. They have found the truth in “The Brass Check” and they are -calling for it by telegraph. Put these books on your counter, and you -will see, as one doctor wrote us—“they melt away like the snow.” - -From the pastor of the Community Church, New York: - - “I am writing to thank you for sending me a copy of your new book, - ‘The Brass Check.’ Although it arrived only a few days ago, I have - already read it through, every word, and have loaned it to one of my - colleagues for reading. The book is tremendous. I have never read a - more strongly consistent argument or one so formidably buttressed by - facts. You have proved your case to the handle. I again take - satisfaction in saluting you not only as a great novelist, but as the - ablest pamphleteer in America today. I am already passing around the - word in my church and taking orders for the book.”—John Haynes Holmes. - - =440 pages. Single copy, paper, 6Oc postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten - copies, $4.50. Single copy, cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; - ten copies, $9.00= - - Address: UPTON SINCLAIR, Pasadena, Cal. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - They Call Me Carpenter - - By UPTON SINCLAIR - -Would you like to meet Jesus? Would you care to walk down Broadway with -him in the year 1922? What would he order for dinner in a lobster -palace? What would he do in a beauty parlor? What would he make of a -permanent wave? What would he say to Mary Magna, million dollar queen of -the movies? And how would he greet the pillars of St. Bartholomew’s -Church? How would he behave at strike headquarters? What would he say at -a mass meeting of the “reds”? And what would the American Legion do to -him? - - _From the “Survey”_: - - “Upton Sinclair has a reputation for rushing in where angels fear to - tread. He has done it again and, artist that he is, has mastered the - most difficult theme with ease and sureness. That the figure of Jesus - is woven into a novel which is glorious fun, in itself will shock many - people. But the graphic arts have long been given the liberty of - treating His life in a contemporary setting—why not the novelist? - - “Heywood Broun and other critics notwithstanding, it must be stated - that Sinclair has treated the figure of Christ with a reverence far - more sincere than that of writings in which His presence is shrouded - in pseudo-mystic inanity. By an artistry borrowed from the technique - of modern expressionist fiction, he has combined downright realism - with an extravagant imaginativeness in which the appearance of Christ - is no more improper than it is in the actual dreams of hundreds of - thousands of devout Christians. - - “Like all of Sinclair’s writings, this book is, of course, a Socialist - tract; but here—in a spirit which entirely destroys Mr. Broun’s charge - that he has made Christ the spokesman of one class—he is unmerciful in - his exposure of the sins of the poor as well as of the rich, and - directs at the comrades in radical movements a sermon which every - churchman will gladly endorse. - - “It is not necessary to recommend a book that will find its way into - thousands of homes. Incidentally one wonders how a story so - colloquially American—Mr. Broun considers this bad taste—can possibly - be translated into the Hungarian, the Chinese and the dozen or so - other languages in which Sinclair’s books are devoured by the common - people of the world.” - - Price, $1.75 cloth, postpaid. - - Order from - UPTON SINCLAIR, - Pasadena, California - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - _A book which has been absolutely boycotted by the literary reviews of - America._ - - THE PROFITS OF RELIGION - - BY UPTON SINCLAIR - -A study of Supernaturalism as a Source of Income and a Shield to -Privilege; the first examination in any language of institutionalized -religion from the economic point of view. “Has the labour as well as the -merit of breaking virgin soil,” writes Joseph McCabe. The book has had -practically no advertising and only two or three reviews in radical -publications; yet forty thousand copies have been sold in the first -year. - - _From the Rev. John Haynes Holmes_: “I must confess that it has fairly - made me writhe to read these pages, not because they are untrue or - unfair, but on the contrary, because I know them to be the real facts. - I love the church as I love my home, and therefore it is no pleasant - experience to be made to face such a story as this which you have - told. It had to be done, however, and I am glad you have done it, for - my interest in the church, after all, is more or less incidental, - whereas my interest in religion is a fundamental thing.... Let me - repeat again that I feel that you have done us all a service in the - writing of this book. Our churches today, like those of ancient - Palestine, are the abode of Pharisees and scribes. It is as spiritual - and helpful a thing now as it was in Jesus’ day for that fact to be - revealed.” - - _From Luther Burbank_: “No one has ever told ‘the truth, the whole - truth, and nothing but the truth’ more faithfully than Upton Sinclair - in ‘The Profits of Religion.’” - - _From Louis Untermeyer_: “Let me add my quavering alto to the chorus - of applause of ‘The Profits of Religion.’ It is something more than a - book—it is a Work!” - - 315 pages. Single copy, 60c postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten copies, - $4.50; By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 40c per - copy; 100 copies at 38c; 500 copies at 36c; 1,000 copies at 35c. - Single copy, cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; ten copies, - $9.00. By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 80c per - copy; 100 copies at 76c; 500 copies at 72c; 1,000 copies at 70c. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - =A New Novel by Upton Sinclair= - - 100% - - THE STORY OF A PATRIOT - -Would you like to go behind the scenes and see the “invisible -government” of your country saving you from the Bolsheviks and the Reds? -Would you like to meet the secret agents and provocateurs of “Big -Business,” to know what they look like, how they talk and what they are -doing to make the world safe for democracy? Several of these gentlemen -have been haunting the home of Upton Sinclair during the past three -years and he has had the idea of turning the tables and investigating -the investigators. He has put one of them, Peter Gudge by name, into a -book, together with Peter’s ladyloves, and his wife, and his boss and a -whole group of his fellow-agents and their employers. - -The hero of this book is a red-blooded, 100% American, a “he-man” and no -mollycoddle. He begins with the Mooney case, and goes through half a -dozen big cases of which you have heard. His story is a fact-story of -America from 1916 to 1920, and will make a bigger sensation than “The -Jungle.” Albert Rhys Williams, author of “Lenin” and “In the Claws of -the German Eagle,” read the MS. and wrote: - - “This is the first novel of yours that I have read through with real - interest. It is your most timely work, and is bound to make a - sensation. I venture that you will have even more trouble than you had - with ‘The Brass Check’—in getting the books printed fast enough.” - - Single copy, 60c postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten copies, $4.50. By - freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 40c per copy; 100 - copies at 38c; 500 copies at 36c; 1,000 copies at 35c. Single copy, - cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; ten copies, $9.00. By - freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 80c per copy; 100 - copies at 76c; 500 copies at 72c; 1,000 copies at 70c. - - =UPTON SINCLAIR — Pasadena, California= - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - JIMMIE HIGGINS - -“Jimmie Higgins” is the fellow who does the hard work in the job of -waking up the workers. Jimmie hates war—all war—and fights against it -with heart and soul. But war comes, and Jimmie is drawn into it, whether -he will or no. He has many adventures—strikes, jails, munitions -explosions, draft-boards, army-camps, submarines and battles. “Jimmie -Higgins Goes to War” at last, and when he does he holds back the German -army and wins the battle of “Chatty Terry.” But then they send him into -Russia to fight the Bolsheviki, and there “Jimmie Higgins Votes for -Democracy.” - -A picture of the American working-class movement during four years of -world-war; all wings of the movement, all the various tendencies and -clashing impulses are portrayed. Cloth, $1.20 postpaid. - - _From “The Candidate”_: I have just finished reading the first - installment of “Jimmie Higgins” and I am delighted with it. It is the - beginning of a great story, a story that will be translated into many - languages and be read by eager and interested millions all over the - world. I feel that your art will lend itself readily to “Jimmie - Higgins,” and that you will be at your best in placing this dear - little comrade where he belongs in the Socialist movement. The opening - story of your chapter proves that you know him intimately. So do I and - I love him with all my heart, even as you do. He has done more for me - than I shall ever be able to do for him. Almost anyone can be “The - Candidate,” and almost anyone will do for a speaker, but it takes the - rarest of qualities to produce a “Jimmie Higgins.” You are painting a - superb portrait of our “Jimmie” and I congratulate you. - - EUGENE V. DEBS. - - _From Mrs. Jack London_: Jimmie Higgins is immense. He is real, and so - are the other characters. I’m sure you rather fancy Comrade Dr. - Service! The beginning of the narrative is delicious with an - irresistible loving humor; and as a change comes over it and the Big - Medicine begins to work, one realizes by the light of 1918, what you - have undertaken to accomplish. The sure touch of your genius is here, - Upton Sinclair, and I wish Jack London might read and enjoy. - - CHARMIAN LONDON. - - _From a Socialist Artist_: Jimmie Higgins’ start is a master portrayal - of that character. I have been out so long on these lecture tours that - I can appreciate the picture. I am waiting to see how the story - develops. It starts better than “King Coal.” - - RYAN WALKER. - - Price, cloth, $1.20 postpaid. - - UPTON SINCLAIR, Pasadena, California - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Concerning - - =The Jungle= - -Not since Byron awoke one morning to find himself famous has there been -such an example of world-wide celebrity won in a day by a book as has -come to Upton Sinclair.—_New York Evening World._ - - --- - -It is a book that does for modern industrial slavery what “Uncle Tom’s -Cabin” did for black slavery. But the work is done far better and more -accurately in “The Jungle” than in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”—_Arthur Brisbane -in the New York Evening Journal._ - - --- - -I never expected to read a serial. I am reading “_The Jungle_,” and I -should be afraid to trust myself to tell how it affects me. It is a -great work. I have a feeling that you yourself will be dazed some day by -the excitement about it. It is impossible that such a power should not -be felt. It is so simple, so true, so tragic and so human. It is so -eloquent, and yet so exact. I must restrain myself or you may -misunderstand.—_David Graham Phillips._ - - --- - -In this fearful story the horrors of industrial slavery are as vividly -drawn as if by lightning. It marks an epoch in revolutionary -literature.—_Eugene V. Debs._ - - --- - - Mr. Heinemann isn’t a man to bungle; - He’s published a book which is called “The Jungle.” - It’s written by Upton Sinclair, who - Appears to have heard a thing or two - About Chicago and what men do - Who live in that city—a loathsome crew. - It’s there that the stockyards reek with blood, - And the poor man dies, as he lives, in mud; - The Trusts are wealthy beyond compare, - And the bosses are all triumphant there, - And everything rushes without a skid - To be plunged in a hell which has lost its lid. - For a country where things like that are done - There’s just one remedy, only one, - A latter-day Upton Sinclairism - Which the rest of us know as Socialism. - Here’s luck to the book! It will make you cower, - For it’s written with wonderful, thrilling power. - It grips your throat with a grip Titanic, - And scatters shams with a force volcanic. - Go buy the book, for I judge you need it, - And when you have bought it, read it, read it. - —_Punch_ (_London_). - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - _OTHER BOOKS BY - UPTON SINCLAIR_. - -=KING COAL=: a Novel of the Colorado coal country. Cloth, $1.20 -postpaid. - -“Clear, convincing, complete.”—Lincoln Steffens. - -“I wish that every word of it could be burned deep into the heart of -every American.”—Adolph Germer. - -=THE CRY FOR JUSTICE=: an Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest, -with an Introduction by Jack London, who calls it “this humanist -Holy-book.” Thirty-two illustrations, 891 pages. Price $1.50 cloth; -$1.00 paper. - -“It should rank with the very noblest works of all time. You could -scarcely have improved on its contents—it is remarkable in variety and -scope. Buoyant, but never blatant, powerful and passionate, it has the -spirit of a challenge and a battle cry.”—Louis Untermeyer. - -“You have marvelously covered the whole ground. The result is a book -that radicals of every shade have long been waiting for. You have made -one that every student of the world’s thought—economic, philosophic, -artistic—has to have.”—Reginald Wright Kauffman. - -=SYLVIA=: a Novel of the Far South. Price $1.20 postpaid. - -=SYLVIA’S MARRIAGE=: a sequel. Price $1.20 postpaid. - -=DAMAGED GOODS=: a Novel made from the play by Brieux. Cloth, $1.20; -paper, 60 cents postpaid. - -=PLAYS OF PROTEST=: four dramas. Price $1.20 postpaid. - - _The above prices postpaid._ - - =UPTON SINCLAIR—Pasadena, California= - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Transcriber’s Note - -The index entry for ‘Open Forum’ incorrectly referenced an invalid Roman -numeral ‘LCIII’ rather than ‘XCIII’. This has been corrected. - -Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and -are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. -The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions. - - 3.19 a jolly Irish gentle[tle]man Removed. - - 27.15 when I was a little boy[./,] Replaced. - - 48.32 the trustees included Tammany [T/H]all Replaced. - - 56.16 of the university’s money[,/.] Replaced. - - 57.26 to bring suit aga[ni/in]st the university Transposed. - - 73.43 one of Massachusett[’s/s’] most distinguished Transposed. - jurists. - - 100.8 but this recomm[ne/en]dation was held up Transposed. - - 133.24 the wives of his wea[l]thiest regents Inserted. - - 157.2 they app[e]ared Inserted. - - 178.17 who have not incurred his disple[sa/as]ure Transposed. - - 180.41 B. W. Huebsch, New York[,/.] Replaced. - - 303.22 John[s] Hopkins what they like Added. - - 306.19 said this John[s] Hopkins man Added. - - 363.32 will always be “openings[,]” desirable Inserted. - friendships - - 392.31 was an undergradu[a]te Inserted. - - 394.27 and their a[l]pha-apple-pies Inserted. - - 398.18 Said N[ei/ie]tzsche Transposed. - - 399.25 by a peculiar circumstance[s] Removed. - - 413.12 from Princeton Univer[s]ity Inserted. - - 420.11 so I take i[s/t] as fair to assume Replaced. - - 421.20 for five paragraphs i[s/t] proceeds Replaced. - - 424.21 since to do so[ so] would Removed. - - 461.42 to make their will effective[.] Added. - - 472.40 these politics, these newspaper[s] Added. - - 486.29 Schneiderman[n], 447 Removed. - - ad.1 dealing wit[t]h the causes Removed. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOOSE-STEP *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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