The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-08-06
BY JOHN McNaUGHT.


think that any Of these portraits are to
be handed down to posterity as a rep
resentation of nineteenth century tall
oring skill"
From that statement we may learn
at least there are two sides to the Ques-
ton Of the relation of modern clothing
to art. Certainly until artists have
learned how to copy a coat properly,
they have no right to declare the gar
ment incapable Of artistic treatment.
When a tailor by his skill has con-
cealed the defects of the masculine
form and made man look presentable,
1t is&learly libelous and unjust for a
painter or a sculptor to rise and remark
the dress itself is ugly.
It Is one of the gayest and also one
of the grimmest humors of the time
that the lingo press, which but little
while ago were clamoring to all the
powers that be for censorship of the
mails to prevent the sending of I'M
censored news from this country TO
Manila, are now making an equal
amount of noise because a censorship
at Manila prevents the sending of news
to this country. They denounce as
military outrage in the Philippines the
very policy they insisted upon inflict-
ing upon all of us at home. The old
conundrum What makes more noise
than a pig under a fence" has been
answered at last 1t is lingo journal
ism with its foot in it's mouth, bawling
because 1t can't swear.
There are now visible in this country
signs and symptoms of a worse censor
ship than any we need fear from either
Major Generals or Postmasters General.
1t is the censorship which by slow
but steady movement is being extended
over the universities of the country.
We have not felt 1t in California, but
in the East it has shown its baneful
power from New England to Kansas.
When the trustees of Brown Univer-
sity demanded that President Andrews
be silent on financial problems storm
burst forth that forced the trustees to
yield the point for a time. They re-
coiled but they did not retreat; and
in the end Andrews had to leave. Since
that occurrence there have been many
similar happenings in various univer-
stiles, but the public seems to have
lost interest in the subject. There are
no more universal protests, and the
censors are steadily gaining an ascend
ency that threatens to render free
thought and free speech we'll nigh i'm
possible in university career.
Outside theological seminaries, where
dogma is frankly and rightfully made
the foundation Of all teaching, Chicago
University is the seat of the most dog
matte censorship ever established over
intellectual freedom in the United
States since the days when Puritanism
died out because it was too hide-bound
to grow. The secretary of the univer-
sity recently sent to all members of
the faculty this warning:
while it is the privilege of every
member of the university to entertain
whatsoever opinion he may choose con-
corning controverted questions of pub
lie interest and to express that opinion
in any proper way and on any proper
occasion, it is nevertheless desirable
that great care should be taken to
avoid involving the university, even by
remote implication, in such contro-
verted matters; that all actions and ex-
pressions of opinion on such subjects
should be scrupulously ASSOCIATED from
all university relations so far as pos
sble; that by such scrupulouS regard
for the good standing of the university
in the opinion of all classes real free
dom of speech and action will be pro-
noted"
Such a letter following so closely
after the dismissal of Professor Bemis
from the university has not unnatur- 4
ally given rise to a good deal of agita-
ton among university men who deal
with economic problems. There Is hardly
a department of economics that is not
now more or less subject to political
discussion, and if professors are to alb
stain from taking sides on controverted
issues of economics it will not be easy
for them to talk at all. 1t is then not
surprising that the letter of Goodspeed
has caused a flutter in university cir
cles. The surprising thing is that the
public treats the whole affair as a
matter of course, and seems to regard
the issue as part of the private bust
ness of President Harper and Mr.
Rockefeller.
Were Chicago University the only
seat of liberal learning where a censor
ship has been put into operation, the
issue might lnueeO De passed over as a
matter of comparatively little moment
We cannot in reason expect Mr. Rookie
Teller to be much more liberal in schol-
arship than in the oil business. Unfor-
tunately the censorship practice Is very
attractive to trustees, and accordingly
it has been tried of late in more places
than one. A professor from the Uni
versity of Syracuse, in New York. and
another from the Agricultural College,
in Kansas, have been disciplined for
taking of economic prospects certain
views which the trustees couldn't see.
That these dismissals have followed
one another so rapidly and so shortly
after the outburst of popular indigna-
ton over the attempt to discipline
Andrews is a proof that the evil is a
growing one and will bear watching.
Since in these days it is the custom
to denounce politicians and laud the
business man, it is worth nothing in
this connection that in State universe
ties where the trustees are appointed