The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-26
The Case OF DIR. Andrews.

DR.. Z. BENJAMIN ANDREWS, President of
Brown University, has resigned a. Presi-
m and as professor on account of his I'M.
willingness to comply with the request Of
the trustees and the wishes Of the majority
of tho graduates Of that institution and re-
frain from advocating conspicuously tho
free coinage Of silver. For some years DR..
ANDREWS has been an eager partisan of
bad money. The Brown men were willing
that he should continue to recommend his
views to his friends, but they objected to
having the college compromised by his
opinions. They did not seek to interfere
with his liberty Of thought, but they did
think that the interests of the university
would be furthered by his ceasing to be a
prominent and insistent champion of what
seems to most Brown men not merely
economic error, but moral dishonesty.
DR.. ANDREWS refused to accept the sug-
g~estions Of the trustees and graduates.
Consequently he has the misfortune to be
regarded by the Bryanites as q victim Of
the Money Power. They extol him as Q
person who has given up a comfortable job
rather han sacrifice his convictions. The
Rhode Island Democratic State Central
Committee pities him to the extent of Sc
Letting him as the Democratic candidate
for Senator in Congress to succeed the Hon.
NELSON W. ALpRIoH. The compliment Is
great, because there are at least five Demo-
cratic members of the Rhode Island Legis-
lature. Some authorities say that there arc
six.
The attempt Of the Bryanites to represent
the voluntary withdrawal of Mr.. ANDREWS
&C.,. 1t. -2-N - u -zz-k
Of his opinions, is made with the vociferation
to be expected, but it is palpably uncandid
n absurd. 1t was not desired by the
Brown men that Mr.. ANDREWS should
resign. 1t was not expected that he would
resign. 1t was desired and expected that as
President of Brown University he would
cease to advertise and recommend beliefs
which to the minds of most of its gradu-
ates are nothing less than dishonest. The
friends of the Providence college were will
ing that he should support privately what
they believe to be . delusion. but they
wished that he should cease to injure the
college by publicly committing it to dan
gerous opinions. 1t seems that a number
Of persons willing to make bequests to
Brown University had declined to do so
because they objected to DR.. ANDRKws's
silver spouting. II he is right, there is no
use for colleges. A professor of ethics who
should deliver q series of lectures on the
advantages Of grand and petit larceny
would be no more out of place than a col
lege President who devotes himself to
preaching free silver.
DIR. ANpREws's friends have been very
kind to him. As a matter of business,
apart from sentiment, q college is not justi-
fed in employing a man who is not agree
able to the majority of its friends. Ameri-
can colleges are largely dependent upon
private liberality for their support. They
cannot afford to have at their heads unbal-
anced s~entimentalists with a gift for shock
ing the moral sense of the communities and
the persons that maintain them. The
question of the freedom of opinion md of
the free expression Of opinion is not in
volved. President ANDREWS owed some
thing and much to Brown University. For
the interests Of Brown University he might
have consented to DO less extensively prom
inent as a propagation Of error. AS he did
not care 30 to consent, he resigned, thereby
showing that he loves notoriety moro than
he loves his college.
OF late years the colleges have produced
and fostered more than their share Of un-
patriotic or hysterical de~magogues. As
each college represents the whole body of
the graduates, 1t Is obviously improper that
the President shall, by virtue of his Office,
seem to commit 1t to views abhorrent to
the great mass of its graduates. President
ANDREWS is a victim of his own delusion,
not of oppression. He is said to be an
amiable person, and doubtless he has many
virtues, although readers of his so-called
history of the United States in the last
quarter of a century are aware that accu-
racy and the ability to write good English
are not among them; but it is feasible for
Brown to have a President who not only
has many virtues, but is not a sentimental
politician and political economist.