Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-08-20

fered especially from the heedlessness
of the rich about paying their debts
during the depressed times of the last
few years. and his appeals to debtors
who fail to be prompt in payments are
well worth heeding.-Boston Herald.
FOLLY OF THE TRUSTEES OF BROWN.
The best answer to the lame and awk
ward defenders of the action of Congress
man Walker and his friends at Brown
comes from the faculty of the college,
profe: sors are as well acquainted with
the situation at Providence as the editors
of the New York Post and the New
York sun, and that they are as deeply
concerned in the welfare of the univer
sity as Mr.. Walker, who is not an
alumnus of Brown but of the boot and
shoe factory of Joseph Walker & Co.
in Worcester, Mass.
The members of the faculty first de-
molish the statement that DR.. Andrews
presidency has wrought pecuniary in
jury to the university. "Dr. Andrews.
they say, lis entitled to be regarded, in
pecuniary sense, as the greatest bene-
factor Brown university ever had. More
than half its income is beyond doubt
due to him and his labors."
But they do not insist on this point,
fatal as 1t is to the contention of the
trustees. They pass at once to the
higher ground of freedom of thought as
essential to the development of tearing:
If the resignation of DR.. Andrews is
accepted the burden and the stigma fall
on his successor. 1t would stamp the
institution in the eyes of the world as
one in which freedom of thought is not
permitted when it runs counter to the
views of the community or of those
| from whom the college expects financial
support. The action of the
trustees Is open to the gravest obiec-
ton, and rests upon a theory which if
extensively acted upon would eat the
heart out of our educational institutions.
On the one hand we have the
problematical or imaginary additions of
certain number of dollars; on the
other hand we have throughout the in
tellectual life of the university the
deadening influence of known or sus-
pected repression. Our students will
know or suspect that on certain sub
iects the silence of the president has
been purchased or imposed.
Nothing could be more damaging to
the prestige of a college than the general
prevalence of the suspicion that its
teachers are gagged by money or pc.
ltical influences. And this is precisely
what has happened at Brown. Young
men will not be attracted to an institu
ton where they will expect to be classed
as dependents Of rich men, at the mercy
of almoners of narrow understanding
and slight education. With such a mar
as Mr.. Walker in control who eau say
when the opinions of the faculty on the
aorist or the Marian atmosphere or thC
ponderability of matter may not bt
cited as a reason for the Withholding o.
legacies and endOwments; How would
the University of Chicago have prospereC
if the trustees, with a backward though
for Mr.. Rockefeller, had undertaken t
prescribe for DR.. Harper what opinions
he should express and what opinions
suppress on purely political questions
a college may exist without large funds
but nocollege can exist without students
1t is fortunate for the well-being o
this country that the Introduction o
American citizens because of their thee
ries on national finance is not very high
ly priced among sensible people. Tn
harshest criticism passed upon tn,
greedy bgotry of the trustees Of Brow
has come from the newspapers ant
public men that fought the hardest ant
l most effectively last fall for sounC
money and conservative methods o
government. They are able to see but
: slight difference-and that one of degre
between the reputation of debts-fo
gain-advocated by Mr.. Bryan and tn