The record-union., 1895-06-21
IMPATIENT UNDER CRITICISM.

Professor Gaylor, Of the Department OF
Literature in the State University. has
committed capital offense against State
pride by series of declarations which,
when summed up, amount to an iudict-
ment of California for its provincialism.
The furore these statements have raised
is as good evidence as Professor Gsylor
would need to introduce into any court
of the truth of his statements.
The most patent manifestation of pro-
vincialism is impatience of criticism.
Cosmopolitanism would not have cared a
cent for the utterances Of Professor Gay
lor. Cosmopolitan London never cared a
straw for the adverse criticism of the
Professor of Literature in any univer-
sity; nor of the editorial writer of any
newspaper; nor Of any person, great or
small. The highest sensitiveness is al
ways found in the persons who are con-
scious OF their vulnerability to criticism
Who is Professor Gaylor? He is a
chair in the State University. He de-
olares that true culture begins with the
study of the classics, and that true cult
ure will not reside in California ex-
Oept through classical evolution. as it
were. All right, Mr.. Gaylor. That is
simply your opinion, and you are
TO this charge is not a declaration
that Professor Gaylor is another; that
California has true culture; that the class
ios are not the beginning of literary taste
or intellectual refinement. Assertion
and dogmatism are not conclusive OF
anything. But we are certainly provin-
cial, and the evidence of it Is abundant.
Recently Professor Ross of the STAN
ford University delivered lecture on cur
rent financial subjects in Portland, Or.
The great leading daily of the Northwest,
finding itself in disagreement with the
Professor of Political Economy of the
Stanford University, Immediately began
to denounce Senator Stanford and the
life record he had made. Professor Ross
declared that honest money related TO its
quantity as well as to its character. For
illustration, he declared that the Gov
ernment alone could make money. It
had reserved to itself that right II it
did not make enough, it produced a
stringency, having bearing on the value
of property, since scarcity of money
makes property cheap. Therefore scarce
money, no matter what metal it is made
of, is dishonest money. On the other
hand, the Professor declared that where
the Government made too much money,
or by any device produced plethora,
then property was unressonably inflated,
and values illegitimately disturbed.
From this the Professor concluded that
the exercise of the prerogative which is
exclusively governmental in its char
acter might be injudioious. and that
therefore honest money meant the proper
amount of money for the transaction Of
business-a volume which would neither
initiate nor depress the values of prop
erty.
This was the opinion of Professor of
Political Economy in g university
simply. A community may not be said
to be more cosmopolitan than its jour
nails. Yet the Oregon5on. with infinite
Iittlep ess, instead of refuting the eco
nomic principles enunciated by Pro-
fessor Ross, attacked the late Leland
Stanford, declaring that he was a robber
in his lifetime, thief. scoundrel, pol
troon. an idiot, marplot. machiavel-
ian boss, a corruptor, q corruptionist,
knave, a fool, and that he had founded
university to perpetuate his memory;
hence, the economic position taken by
Professor Ross was fallacious.
Thus the leading metropolitan journal
of the Northwest descended to plane
far below the level of the most obscure
paper published in any county of the wild
and woolly Southwest, and edited by the
hired swash- buckler and literary bully Of
tbe town. But the provinoialism of the