Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-09-30


be observed, was made by Mr.. Hood
alter he had faiIed for months to take
such alel ed advice o. i'll any manner iuti.
mate his denial OF such jurisdiction and
after lie had filed his written answer to
the charges and thus waived all objec-
tons to the jurisdiction, after he had APP
peared and cross-eXamined witnesses
produced by Mr.. Ladd and thus again
such jurisdiction, and af
ter your former committee OF June, 1889,
largely of his friends, has with
out dissenting voice found him guilty Of
some OF the most serious OF those charges.
Mr.. Hood has not offered in this pro-
ceeding a line, word or suggestion from
any OF these "oflicial superiors" in COR
roboration of his statement, nor has your
committee heard the name OF any of them,
and your committee is not convinced that
any such extraordinary advice was given
to Mr.. Hood The jurisdiction to in
yestigate could never have been seriously
denied, for this investigation is not only
to determine whether or not one of the
board and the secretary Of this university
has lnaligned and traduced the president
of this university or any of its trustees,
but also to determine whether or not such
trustee and secretary has maligned the
university itself and its work.
Your committee is not willing under
the circumstances, on the unsupported
statement of Mr.. Hood, to believe that
any of his official superiors have ever de-
MED the right of your board to investigate
for its own protection whether or not one
If RS frno md ite i "a folS al V
made any statements calculated to destroy
the usefulness of any Of its officers or
prejudice the public againstthe university
or its work.
After your committee OF June, 1889,
composed OF Messrs. Ward, Roy, Gilbert
and Thornton, had submitted its report
to your board, and it was found to bear
heavily upon Mr.. Hood, he insisted that
he could produce testimony in denial of
the correctness of several of the findings of
that committee, and thereupon that COM
mittee was granted leave TO withdraw its
report, and as most of that committee
were about to leave the territory for their
homes in the east, the papers, evidence
and that report were Immediately submit.
ted to this your committee, with authority
among other things to take such new tes-
timony as might be offered by Mr.. Hood.
That Mr.. Hood has therefore had since
June IA. 1889, as he had before that date,
every possible opportunity to establish his
innocence of these charges, must be con-
coded. Yet the record before your board
shows that he has not produced anything
but the few letters commented upon in
this report and that he has successfully
avoided making any statement under oath
on the subject to that other and equally
potent sanction crQSs-examination. This
your committee believes is not such a
course az an innocent man of the intelli-
gence of Mr.. Hood would pursue under
the circumstances.
Guided by mere questions OF expedien-
cy it would perhaps be better If this con-
troversy could end by truthful confessions
or explanations of error, and forgiveness
and abundant charity; but it must be
evident to your board that q settlement
by such means is now highly improbable,
and that however unpleasant the task,
duty remains that can not honestly be
evaded, to declare the innocence or guilt of
Mr.. Hood as to the charges made against
him by Mr.. Ladd. This your minority
committee has endeavored to perform
impartially, and in presenting this re-
port now stands ready at the request OF
any member of this board or of any
interested party to support every finding
of fact it contains by the evidence, let
tiers and documents nov in the posses
sion OF your board.
Believing that the charges against Mr..
Hood are sustained as above stated, and
that Mr.. Hoods further connection with
this university must be to its material
detriment, as well as embarrassing to this
board whose members he has so evlly
spoken against, your minority committee
respectfully recommends that it be re-
solved by this board that the Rev. e.
Lyman Hood be requested to terminate
his official relations with this university
by resigning the position he now holds as
q trustee thereof. Respectfully submit.
ted, EUGENE A. FIsKE.
Committee.
In answer to the other statements
made adversely to Mr.. Ladd in letters pre-.
sented by Mr.. Hood, part of the sworn
testimony of L. Bradford Prince is given,
in which he says: 81 have been one OF
the auditing committee for the university
for several years, and have no reason to
believe that Mr.. Ladd has ever failed to
account faithfully for all money with
which he has been intrusted. At the last
accounting the university was found in
debted to Mr.. Ladd over $4,000, and we
gave him note for the amount of the in.
debtedness."
Hon. Bernard Seligman in his testi-
mony says: 81 was chairman of the
building committee of the Ramona school
teachers building. Mr.. Ladd furnished
most of the money that was paid for that
building. l left the overseeing of that
work and the payment therfor with him
during my absence. I instructed him to
pay these matters and to report them to
the board, on finishing the building, in
detailed statement to the amount ex-
pended, which was done n l have
known Mr.. Laid ever since he came to
this country. l have found him to be
at all times with his heart and soul
in any work he undertakes,
and ever since l knew him have had full
confidence in his Integrity and honesty,
and at no time did l believe that he either
collected moneys which he did not return
to the institution to which they belonged
or spend any portion of the money 80 col
lected carelcssly or with the intention to
defraud the donors. To the contrary, it
was always my belief that Mr.. Ladd's ex-
penses in his work were far below the
amount that any other man would have
had in the same work, and l am fully sat
islied that Il larger portion OF the trustees
shared this opinion. l am also satisfied
that if he had been permitted to go on
with his work, the ultimate result would
have shown that the work of Mr.. Ladd
was entirely in accord with the spirit of
the donors and the benefits therefrom
would have been enjoyed by the people of
the territory of New Mexico. l believe
the present difficulties entirely uncalled
for and without foundation, and detrimen-
tai to the interests Of the kind benefactors
=. IL b. 4.