The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-24
PRESIDENT ANDREWS RESIGNS THE MOD
ERN INQUlSlTlON.

si+v whom the alternative of reslgnlng
ar !s1ppressing his honest convictions
was presented to him, is but one more
of many evidences that the money power
will crush when it cannot control. Will
liam p. st. John was driven from the
presidency of a National Bank in New
York because he would not bow the knee
TO Baal. and many others in positions
not so conspicuous have been forced to
give up lucrative positions because they
did not take their political views from
the gold and bond syndicate.
The correspondence, printed elsewhere,
which led to the resignation of Presi-
dent Andrews, discloses a chapter of
the history of the modern inquisition
that will cause all true men to instinc-
lively recoil from the conduct of the
trustees of Brown University. More
than a century ago the ancestors of these
same proscriptive men, who seek to
silence a great and an honest man, drove
Roger Williams out into the wilderness
because his conscience was not flexible
and he would not surrender his honest
convictions at the bidding of the ruling
powers. The spirit that drove Roger
Williams into exile is the same spirit
that burned Cranmer at the stake. 1t is
an intolerant bigotry that hates men
too honest and too pure to adapt their
views to suit the pleasure of those who
carry the purse or hold the reins of pow
er.
The kind of man that Congressman
Walker and his associates want for
President of Brown University is of the
stamp of the old teacher who said II
can teach that the earth is fat or round,
Whichever the school committee desires"
There are such men among scholars who
will go around, hat in hand, to the rich
manufacturers and millionaires, of New
England and ask them what TO teach
before having an opinion. Such man
can fall down and worship the trust
magnates and get a big endowment, put
in the most costly equipment and select
a learned faculty. He can have Con-
gresham Walker and other narrow men,
whose souls are mean and sordid, to pro-
claim that he is a man of sound views
and no dangerous doctrine will be
tolerated by him. With all this, he will
find that power has gone out of Brown
University. 1t will not die. Money can
keep existence in anything that man
makes. but it cannot breathe that life
that attracts, eleyates and holds the
love and admiration of the high-mind-
ed youth of the land.
| From about two hundred students,
President Andrews has secured an at
tendance of as many thousand, and has
made Brown more attractive to many
ambitious young men than the bigger
Universities. The day he is forced to
resign because he avows his disbelief
in the doctrine that money is above man
hood. that moment Brown University be-
comes the dry home of black letters, and
loses its potential place among American
universities.
| Instead of a fountain sending forth
a pure stream, it becomes a stagnant
pool giving out malarial poisons. There
may be no gold in the recesses of the
fountain, but its gushing waters give
Irefreshment and life. There may be the
treasures of Klondike underneath the
green scum of the slothful pond, but the
winds sweeping over it bear disease and
death.
| A University may be rich and have
the dry-rot, which a sordid view of edu-
cation always brings with it.
A University may be poor and impart
the riches of the knowledge of the ages
to its pupils.
Brick and mortar never yet made a
college. "My idea of college," said
a great man, sis a log with student
on one end and Mark Hopkins ON the
other"
The contagious spirit of investigation,
study, research, and love Of truth which
contract with Mark Hopkins and Benja-
min Andrews produced in young men,
these have no price to be measured in
the white or yellow metal.
| 10
because he would not teach that the dis
honest gold standard and the robber tar
if are blessings to burdened people, is
the foremost scholar in the regard Of
American patriots to-day. All honor to
him! There are some men that gold
cannot buy.