VOL. XVI., NO. V
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LINCOLN. NEBR.. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2. 1901.
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the tierce determined p'oneers. to
whom the intervening Utali desert
was something to be crossed and then
ESIK GOflRIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING GO brided- There a.e two opinions now
about the right to import coolie labor.
-BI-
fornia accessible, would not have disappointment to tiis friends in Ne-
bcen built by Hamlet California braska that he should have sacrificed
would still be fifteen hundred miles his notable career in Stanford unlver-
overland away if it had nob been for sity out of sympathy for a manwln.se
career and speeches do not appear to
me to merit sucli a sacrifice. Profes
sor Howard would be more than hu
man if the worship of his students
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which followed him to California and
In the time of the construction of the lias grown to California bulk there,
first through 'line between" the east should'not react upon him. Wliat-he
and west there was but one. In the said to Ills class in the French Revo
luxurious recitation room, or under Union after the resignation of Profcs
the cool arcades of Stanford unlver- sor Ross had been accepted, indicates
sity the untrammeled study of the that Professor Howard has lost a part
California pioneer's hand-to-hand of his former sense of proportion and
struggles with a marketable legisla- values. Otherwise to a class of under
ture is an academic temptation to graduates he could not have criticised
which Br. Ross yielded, all the easier the trustees or management of the in
because the beneficiaries of Stanford stitution of which that class was a
character part.
The Cocrikr will not be responsible.for vol
antary communications unless accompanied by
ratarn postage.
Communications, to receive attention, must
tto sUrned by tno fall name of the. writer, not
merely as a gnarantar or good faith, but for
vablieation if advisable.
1
9 OBSERVATIONS.
Stanford.
The trouble at Stanford is aug
mented by the jealousy which the
foundation of the university excited.
It has been an increasingly successful
rival of the university of California
and the vicissitudes which it is now
passing through are, I fear, enjoyed
by its enemies. Senator Stanford's
human desire to immortalize the
name of his only son induced him to
found a separate institution instead
Of bestowing his wealth upon a uni
versity already established. Regret
for the youth born to an unlimited in
heritance, a poignant realization that
the posterity he had hoped for, the
family he had thought to found, was
a futile dream; this as well as a de
sire to help other boys to an educa
tion induced Senator Stanford to at
tempt the foundation of a university.
No human desire so universal and
tenacious as the one which actuated
Stanford. The pyramids were built
for the same reason. That his seed
object to the monumental
of the university.
The trouble at Stanford will induce
other millionaires to pause before
they leave their gains, which the
students are sure to be taught are ill
gotten, to a university. A present
able, tall dumb spire in a landscape
garden cemetery, where the mounds
are leveled, where a faithfully sprink
led, green turf shines responsively
througli the summer, and where even
the inveterate lecturer's voice is still,
is a wiser investment. In a cemetery
there is peace, and the dead who lie
there have gone to trial. They will
not be tried over and over again by
professors who need illustrations of
wickedness for their lec'ures and by
undergraduates, who are taught that
every rich man is a robber, and that
the competitive system is the code of
pirates, and that excepting for the few
socialists who have founded Lomes or
settlements or written bcoks, or re
signed from lucrative jobs all the
men and women who have lived and
labored according to the competitive
rules sinned grossly against their fel
lows whom they hired and bossed.
Prof. Geo. E. Howard.
There can be but one opinion in re
gard to Professor Howard's distinc
tion as a historian, and his ability as
a teacher. There are teachers and
teachers. Occasionally there is one
whose lips have been touched with a
coal, who can concentrate the gaze of
should perish and his name be forgot
in the land to which he had jour- fifty or a hundred idly rolling eyeballs and sociologists in the country,
Touching The Courier's editorial of
three weeks ago. Professor Howard
says in a letter to the editor: "Ihe
charge that, Dr. Rt;ss has ever at
tacked or criticised Senator Stanford
in his class-room is entirely false. It
arose in the lie of a boy employed in
the office of an interested lawyer in
San Francisco and it ws repudiated
with indignation by the alumni body
of that city in formal assembly. Dr.
Jordan has not publicly accepted or
rejected the charge. In fact, it was,
at once, dropped by the enemies of
Ross; and lias no credence here. It is
not now mentioned unless cretly.
It is astonishing that the State Jour
nal and The Courier should have gone
to lower extremes in repeating false
charges and disregarding all the ad
mitted facts, than perhaps any other
newspapers in the country; and I
have some five hundred clippings on
the Ross case. Of course, you must
have been misled. From enclosed
clippings, events since November may
be traced. Ross' statement of Novem
ber 13 i absolutely accurate (reprint
ed on page .'! of the Courier). 1 know
this from documents some of which
have not been published, and from the
substance of Dr. Jordan's conversa
tion with me on the cening of that
day wherein he admitted the truth of
every detail of Ross' statement.
It is a clear case of punishing free
speech. Ross' private character is ad
mirable and irreproachable. He is one
of tee ablest, most original economists
You
neyed and which he had conquered, on himself, and Howard is such a are entirely mistaken as to bis being
was bitter to the old forty-niner. The man and lecturer. Besides the lesser wild-eyed.' He is a calm and earnest
fulminations against the vanity of a gifts of memory and concentration of thinker. He has been one of the most
man, and woman wlio thought to make effort, he lias, the un teachable, uuac- popular professors, greatly beloved of
a monument out of a'university quirablegiftof inspiration. Heclas- hjs pupils, though severe in his re
ignore the primitive instincts which si ties and outlines a complex subject quirements. After Dr. Jordan began
animated the nomad's breast before into simplicity and breathes life into to shift his ground, and to try to be
lt, so that to a class, which has been
with him, say six months, the study
of early German institutions or Ro
man law seems the only vital and
genuinely fascinating subjects in the
the pyramids were, and which still itir
to the depths the strong man who
lias gone out to meet the world with
his bare hands, served it, and made a
mighty wage. Such men are seldom
fog the real issue, he accused Ross of
breach of confidence in making the
statement of November 14. This he
retracted to Ross and then sent me a
letter dated November 17 (four days
-scrupulous. They have bright pierc- curncu'ura. Having been fortunate after Ross' statcment)saying, ! wish,
ing eyes, with a light of their own enough to hear Professor Howard lee- after convention with Dr. Ross to
like the fabled jewels that lit up cav- ture for four years I am glad of the withdraw anything I may. have said,
ems deep hid from the sun. Stanford opportunity totestify to thesoundnoss implying that he had knowingly used
used the tools he found fitted to his of his instruction and the dynamic confidential material, or in any other
hands. The railroad that made Cali- power of his inspiration. It is a great way violated personal properties in
making his statement." Is this not
by implication an admission of the
truth and fairness of that statement?
Is it not also by implication an admis
sion that the commercial influences,
mentioned by Ross were probably the
real influence, determining Mrs Stan
ford's action? On Wednesday eve
ning November M, Dr. Jordan tohJ
me that lie believed tiiat certain men
of San Francisco.hud intluenced Mw.
Stanford to take an unwise course.
George R. Howard."
Professor Howard's letter is printed
here, in order that those who read the
editorial lie refers to may read hl
side of the eac, as conspicuously
placed .vs the criticism.
jc jC
Book-Jearninj.
It is generally accepted that learn
ing acquired from books is more
worthy, of respect than that acquired:
from the experience of accomplish
ment It is a far cry from the mid
dle ages, when to write, was only the
mean accomplishment of a clerk, to
the beginning of the twentieth cen
tury when nearly every one can roart
and a few can spell and some can take
a language apart and put it together
again correctly. For four hundred
years the profession of scholar ha
been growing in dignity. We have
not progressed from the feudal con
tempt of the man who works with hi
hands The laborer is now as lie was
when he belonged to the soil, a bind.
Kdward F. Adams; editor of the San
Francisco Chronicle, says in regard to
the Ross incident in Stanford univer
sity, that uIn the
second place there is here exhibited
the degrading conception of a univer
sity professor as a common hired mau.
Sucli men as Ross and Howard do not
receive favors from universities.
They .confer them. They are not de
pendent on any one university for
"their living, nor do they owe to any
university their standing in the
world.' This paragraph correctly
estimates the arrogance of the scholar
towards an ignorant world.- Other
men, outside of umversitiesmustearnr
their living under all the conditions
of a competitive system in active and
unrestricted operation. A brilliant,,
learned man like Professor Howard or
Professor Ross, who is occapyisg a.
life position at the head of a depart
ment of history or economics is not
influenced by competition and the
effect of his isolation-from'the-systca)
which circumscribes thaactiotns and
speech of other men is apparent in
the defiant resignations at Stanford.
Among other virtues the competi
tive system teaches consideration and
toleration for all men and their opin
ions. Every man, is after all, no
more than "a hired man." He serves,
and hiservicesare paid for at the
rate established by commercial rules.
He serves ; the. public, a corporation,
or one man, it does not matter wheth
er it is one man or uiany. He serve,
from the time he begins to earn hi
