The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-22
THE CASE OF PROFESSOR EMER.
SON.

BUN.
I Commenting on the case of Profess
sor Alfred Emerson, of Cornell uni
versity, the New York Commercial
! Advertiser says:
The recent action of the board of
trustees of Cornell university in abol-
lsning the chair of classical archaeol-
ogy is not without significance as in
olcating the attitude of the university
toward professors who take an unwise
par IN politics. In the late campaign
Professor Alfred Emerson, who held
this chair, made himself conspicuous
py being the only member of the fac
ulty who declared for free silver. He
StroVe TO aid the cause by making
speeches, presiding at free silver meet
ings and writing articles on the sub
Ject, in which, with PROFESSIONAL in
genulty, ne went back to the iron
money of the Spartans as a precedent
Tor the vagaries of his party
In aboiishing his chair it is clearly
SHOWN that the thorough scholarship
ana great intellectual endowments of
fro1essor Emerson are regarded as of
less importance than the removal of a
dangerous influence from the univer-
sity: The reason assigned for the
adjustment of the department is that
the facilities. The true reason-the re-
cent political career of the head of the
department-is perfectly apparent
NO one will question the right of a
university to protect itself from the
iooilsh or misguided conduct of one of
us members in a matter which con-
Germs the public welfare. The faculty
u any college or university is a unit
II must stand as a united and infiu-
entail body to the outside world. and
us influence must be for the best in
all po1tlcal and social questions of
vital Importance. 1t cannot side with
anarchy or with bad government. AS
the guardian of educational interests
II must be conservative, judicious and
SOUND. Its members must be of one
mind in the preservation of the ideal.
the professor who ventures out of the
ioId IN a chase after political will-o'-
the-WispS cannot complain if he is per-
manently excluded.
There is no doubt in the world that
Professor Emerson was dismissed from
Cornell university because of his free
silver views; the Commercial Adver-
tiser says that this is perfectly ap-
parent. A university being a place
where truth III its highest form is
taught place where the highest mo-
tive that prompts the faculty and
students is the search for truth, is it
not despicable in the board of trus-
tees of Cornell university to dismiss
Professor Emerson under a false pre-
tense? Where is the moral courage
that university training is supposed
to give? The learning of a university
faculty, be it never so great, cannot
do away with the necessity for moral !
courage in it. II it lacks moral cour-
age it lacks that which rules the
world
A year ago the faculty of the Chi
cago university had so little moral |
courage that it felt called upon to |
make public announcement that the |
views of Professor Won Hoist on Mr.. |
Cleveland's Venezuelan message (they |
were against it), were not those of |
the faculty. And now Cornell univer-
moral courage to say that it dismisses
Professor Emerson because he holds
financial views at variance with those
of the board. Could anything be more
When Professor Briggs
is taken to task for heresy, the uni
versity faculties are shocked, are hor-
rified at the display of Presbyterian
bigotry. When a wealthy protectionist
wishes to found a chair of political
in leading university where
the doctrines of protection shall be
taught and those of free trade shall
be combatted, the university faculties
the land are shocked, are
mortified beyond measure. And now
when a university professor thinks for
himself on the financial question he is
simply bowed out of the faculty, and
not very politely either 1t all shows
that there is more pretense of freedom
Of research and thought in some of the
universities than there is in reality.
1t also goes to show that some of the
universities have the grand name with
out the grand thing. This case of
Professor Emerson's makes it plain
hat at Cornell university orthodoxy
S the board of trustees doxy and that
neterodoxy is everybody's doxy who
doesn't travel in their narrow rut. Cor
hell restores the inquisition so far as
professors financial views are con-
,erned.