St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-22
THE FORTUNES OF BEMIs.

The FOHIINES Ok bEMiSe
There is a vacancy in the chair of
political economy in the Chicago uni
versity. Until the other day it was
filled by one Bemis. He became per-
soma non grata to President Harper,
and the vacancy followed. The dis
charge of a professor from even so
mighty an institution as the richly
endowed and much-advertised uni
versity of Chicago, is not usually a
matter to attract public attention or
invite comment. 1t is the reasons as
signed by the professor for his dis
charge and those given by the presl-
dent why he discharged him that
make the matter one of more than
the individual interests involved.
Political economy is in some respects
now an exact science. 1t has passed
the stage Of conjecture, although
there are clouds floating about bear
ing the name. What men will do
under the same general conditions;
what will be the effect of their acts,
has ceased to be academic. These
things are now capable of prediction.
Therefore it is that when pro-
fessor, occupying this chair, is dis
missed because it is alleged that he
is teaching a false for the true econ
hQ
AYERS, or because, as the professor
claims, he was teaching and prac-
ticing sound and approved doctrine
that was distasteful to certain cor
porate influences that dominate the
university, it becomes matter of pub
lie concern. The installation of ac-
curate ideas i'm the minds of students
is a matter of vital Importance If
the professor is wrong, he should be
discharged. If he is right, the presi-
dent deserves condemnation. The
professor claims that he carried his
teaching into practice. He Joined
the Civic Federation of Chicago,
Which is an organization of citizens
to overthrow the corrupt rule of the
boodlers and install good govern
ment. In his work in that organiza-
ton, he offended sundry politicians
who had a pull on the university.
He further made himself obnoxious
by his teaching and preaching the
control by the public of those cor
porations which have obtained a
monopoly of street transportation
and his onslaught on trusts and
combinations offended other infiuen-
tial patrons of the university With
out assuming these statements to be
the fact, it is very clear that, if true,
the political economy that will be
taught hereafter in that school will
be such that no parent, wishing his
Child to be we'll grounded in the
truth, would send him there.
On the other hand, if, as claimed,
the professor is one of those wild
eyed sensationalists, more anxiousito
say something that will be striking
and advertise him, or even if he
mistakes his visions for the truths of
the science he teaches, then it is
clear, not that he should have been
discharged, but that he should never
have been employed. The selection
Of a professor for this or any other
chain is not made at random, taking
the first that comes. 1t is a matter
| of too much Importance to the school
to be treated so lightly. What might
be excused in struggling institu-
ton, pinched by poverty and hard
| put to make ends meet, is inexcusa-
bic in university so richly endowed
as is the Chicago university. So if
| President Harper is right in dis
| charging Professor Bemis now, he
was certainly culpab1e in employing
him in the first instance If the lat
| ter is erratic, it is not a sudden out
| burst. Character does not develop
| that way. He is what he is because
he was what he has been. In the
| light of both the party statements
and the known facts, criticism of the
affair can go safely thus far. Presi-
| dent Harper was either wrong in
| engaging Bemis or he is wrong in
| discharging him.