The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-17
APOLOGIES FOR
HUNT|NCTON'S
BANQUET TALK
Stanford a Thorn in
the Flesh.
THE MAGNATE'S NARROWNESS
GOOD RAILROAD MONEY PUT IN
HIGHER EDUCATION.
Comment on a Speech Recently De-
livered by the President
of the Southern
Pacific.

Inc versatile COILS z. Huntington was
not satisfied with the laurds which he
gained as an after-dinner speaker at the
Palace Hotel banquet, so he made an
other speech on the occasion of the return
banquet last Saturday evening. The first
effort, a broad invitation for the Russian
Firms TO settle on railroad land in Cali
fornia, did not enlist widespread atten-
ton; but his second speech, a declaration
against too much education, has excited
the wrath of college professors and other
advocates of the highest and most elab-
crate educational embellishments.
Two evening papers of San Francisco
yesterday sought to break the force of
the clamor against the Huntington
speech and square the magnate in the
eyes of the college-bred men. In what
may be classed as a semi-apology for the
speech it is contended that Huntington
did not declaim against higher education,
but only spoke against misft education.
1t is noted that David Starr Jordan,
president of Stanford University, is
among the first to challenge the correct
ness of the Huntington position No
where in DR.. Jordan's response is any
allusion made to the blessings conferred
by the late Leland Stanford in deVoting
a fortune acquired in railroading to the
establishment of a great institution of
learning, and nowhere in Mr.. Hunting
toms speech is any reference made to the
Squandering of good railroad money to
overeducate the youth of the land. The
mind-reader who is abroad, however,
knows that Huntington as we'll as Jor-
dan employed language to conceal
thought, and that both were thinking Of
the Stanford educational institution.
One of the apologistic evening papers
is of the opinion that Huntington is a
broad man. 1t is the fashion for every
one on the Southern Pacific payroll to
speak of Mr.. Huntington as a man of
broad views and strong character. The
magnate's strength of character is not
disputed, but the notion that the presi-
dent of the Southern Pacific is given to
the entertainment of broad views is not
justified by his letters to the late Colonel
Cotton, or by the revised proofs of his
recent after-dinner speeches. The Col
ton correspondence shows clearly that
Huntington is crafty, suspicious and
coarse-coarse to the verge of downright
vulgarity. He was successful merchant
in Sacramento, and is to-day successful
railroad man; but if a misfit system of
education had not diverted his genius to
he might have achieved worldwide re-
nown as a detective. His mission in
Washington required him to know what
his rival, Tom Scott. was doing, but he
was not obliged to trace around the jew
elry houses of New York to ascertain
how much money Governor Stanford paid
for jewelry.
five of the railroad magnates-the five
mentioned in one of Colonel Colton's
breezy letters to c. p. Huntington-eX
presses the opinion that Stanford was the
only broad-minded man of the quintet.
Cotton was courageous and entertaining.
Charles Croker possessed grea{ energy
and individual force Mark Hopkins was
close and economical. Huntington was
crafty cunning and J indpst b In
against cunning schemes and hence his
mind was turned TO counter scheme and
plot in order to protect the interests of
his corporation. His letters do not indi-
cate that he was familiar with the broad
intellectual life of Washington. Leland
Stanford, while dull in some respects, was
broad in his general views of the world
ideas concerning the betterment of man
kind and the sincerity of his views was
atteSted when he gave vast fortune to
endow a noble institution of learning.
Stanford'S measure of wealth was the
power to do good Stanford placed a high
value on his own word. If he had said
to the people of California, the railroad
company shall go out of politics and stay
out, Californians would have believed
him. He would have at least made an
effort to redeem his word.
The allusion by Huntington to over-edu
cation at his home banquet was not aim
less. Obviously Stanford University was
in view. Certainly the Huntington pro-
jectile went there. The money finders
calculations We're correct. DIR. Jordan's
reply indicates where the Huntington
shell exploded. Juding from the tone of
the evening papers, the magnate is pre-
pairing to get under cover.
The tone of the speech, the occasion
and the time go far toward esta blishing
the conclusion that the higher education
education afforded by the Stanford Uni
VprSitV in particular