Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-11-09
HEBRON QUITS
Iowa College Professor Resigns
After a Long Controversy.
HIS OWN STORY OF The TROUBLE
The Gr,nne,, an.,,tu,,on win sun he.
tain the Generous Rand Endow.
ment for Chair ofApplied
Christianity.

81 Il
ment for Chair otApplied
Christianity.
Des Moines, Nov. professor George
D. Heron, who has held the chair of
applied Christianity in the college at
Grinnell, has resigned, and the trustees
accepted the resignation by unanimous
vote.
The session of the trustees was
marked by spirited discussion, not so
much over the action of Professor Her.
ron as over the conditions named by
Mrs. E. d. Rand, who endows the chair
he has filled.
By the terms laid down BY Mrs. Rand
the endowment will all remain with
Iowa college. The one condition is
that the salary be all paid to one man.
Professor Heron will remain with the
institution until the close of the school
year. In the meantime new head for
the department. will be secured. Pro-
lessor Heron will continue to live at
Grinnell, and will devote his time to
lecturing and writing books.
In his letter of resignation to the
trustees, Professor Heron gives his
tory of the long fight against him and
among other things says:
When the department of applied
Christianity and its conditions were ac-
cepted by you seven years ago next
May, I frankly said to you that I felt
sure my teachings and public utter
ances would bring attacks upon Iowa
college. also stated that could make
no promises or enter into no covenant,
save to be true to the truth as should
understand it, at whatever cost. When
you established this department Icame
to it in all good faith, thinking you
were prepared for whatever might
come, and hoping that in time my
academic work might, take its normal
and organic place among other depart
ments of the college, and be held in
dividually responsible for my public
words, through, books or from the plat
form. The presence of the
department has not prevented the inte-
rior development of the college in all
that is best, though it may be that q
large number of students have been
kept away by the departments teach
ings. None the less, your position as
trustees is made more serious and diff
cult each year by the recurring de-
mands for the removal Of the chair of
applied Christianity and its occupant.
These demands come notSonly from the
press and from public men who feel
indignant at my teachings concerning
property, but from old and sincere
friends of the college who feel that its
we'll being is being jeopardized because
of the lack of support from men of
financial means and of influence among
the churches. The self-sacrifice and de-
yotion of these old friends of
the. college demand full and
sympathetic consideration. Whether
they be mistaken or not, it seems to be
the now generally accepted opinion OF
your constituency that men who have
money will not give to the college
while / remain in its faculty; that the
churches will not support the college
because of my Interpretation of the
teachings of Jesus. The reports of the
secretary and of the faculty commit-
tee, at the last annual meeting of the
board Of trustees, seem to verify this
opinion. The college is, outgrowing its
equipment; its needs are rapidly in
creasing; yet the money. to supply
these needs cannot be had while con,
tinue to teach in the college. At least
this is what men of means almost uni,
versally say when approached, and it
is what you as trustees are given every
reason to believe. You are thus forced
into a position. of choosing between my
retention as. a teacher and the reten-
ton of the support and good will OF
the financial constituency of the col
lege.
I amtwell:aware' how serious and try
ing such position is. You are not
owners of the college, but trustees
holding it in trust for the consfituen-
|cyi to which you are responsible. 1t is
no question of personal opinion you
have to pass upon, but a question OF
accounting for your trusts to the sup
porters of the college. 1 sympathize
SO deeply with your difficult response
bility that am unwilling to leave you
in position where you are forced to
choose between my freedom to teach
and the financial support upon which
the college must depend for its growth.
I am myself unwilling to retain POI
sition in which / can remain only by
being chargeable with the possible i'm,
poverishment of the college.
Let me, say that 1 do this with no
Thought of its being q sacrifice. Not
for moment Wilt allow myself to be
thought of as martyr to the cause OF
free teaching, shall defend the con.
stituency and trustees of Iowa college
in their right to choose what they shall
have taughts It is certainly true that
the doctrines of property which hold
are subversive of the existing indus.
trial and political order. ! do believe
that our system of private ownership
of natural resources is crime agains,
God and man and nature; that natural
resources are not property. and cannon
be. so held without destroying the lib.
erty of man and the basis of the reli-
gion of Christ This common and equal
riOh% of all men 10 the earth and SIC w.