Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-08-02
More Universlty Talk.
MoRGANrowN, w. VA, July 81, 1898.
r. a.. r-y-y.. ~ ~. p.o,sssr,

MoRGANTowN, w. VA, July 81, 1893.
10 The Editor Of the REGISTER:
SIR:-Being a constant reader OF the
REGISTER, have, OF course, noted your
views about the University. While
they are presented with great force
and lucidity, l confess l think them
open to criticism. YOU seem to thiak
that the President of the University
should be clothed with dictatorial pow
ers, limited only by his own opinion as
TO the needs of the Institution. You
have more than intimated that the
President should not only have power
TO dismiss students at his own
will, but that the professors, selected
after the most careful and palnstaking
canvas by the Regents, should hold
their Offices subject to the within, ca
price, or personal prejudice Of the
President. Now beg leave to assure
you that no competent educator In the
United States, endowed with proper self
respect, would accept chair accom-
panied with such humiliating conditions.
There is not principal OF graded
school in West Virginia who can dismiss
his assistants without consulting his
own superiors, the Board Of Education.
Dictatorship is repudiated throughout
our whole school system, and why it
should be introduced into the dniver-
sity, except to destroy IL, is more than
| can imagine.
The same arguments which you APP
/ ply TO the University would apply To
| the State or the Nation, namely, let
there be one head, with an undivided
| respOnSiblitu This has been the argu-
ment OF despots and abSolutism since
the beginning OF the world. You and
other ill-advised advocates Of the one
man rule at the University did
! DR.. Turner great injury.
Ii had been charged th at
he had the dictatorial bee in his bonnet,
| Unless he could get rid of il, it was alb
solutely certain taat sooner or later be
must go-perhaps the sooner the better.
Instead of asSjsring him to dislodRe It,
YOU encouraged him 20 nourish it. Dc
! YOU suppose that DR.. McCosh, OF Prince
ton, or DR.. Elliott, Of Harvard, ever
| coveted the power TO override the truS
tees and dismiss members OF the Fac
ulty at their own will? On the con
trary. Professor Elliott has publicly de-
clared that the proper discipline Of a
| University was that OF republic.
Upon the other hand, you seem to think
that dictatorship and despOtism are the
proper regime for university.
must venture to add that you are
much at fault in your history Of the
government Of the University. As
understand it, Dr. Martin dissolved hi!
connection with the University upon {
purely business transaction, and nevel
bad the slightest dissension with TIT
Faculty. DR.. Scott was only Vicc-Pres
ident, and was relieved by the election
OF President. The next President wa
Rev. J. R. Thompson, brilliant younl
divine, only twenty-six years old. Hi
career was cut short from the very same
causes which operated against DR.. Tur
ner. he undertook 10 run the Univer
sity all By himself. he Quarreled will
the professors, and lectured the Re
gents until his dictatorship became In
tolerable, and he was advised to resign
Any President following his example
will ultimately meet the same fate. Ii
regard 10 President Wilson, nothin!
could be more unjust than your classic
cation. Mr.. Wilson was beloved by TIT
students and honored by the professors
Not a single clash or quarrel occurred
during his whole administration. Il
never asptred to dictatorship, and neye