The Portland daily press., 1900-10-19
THE VOTE FOR THE HALL
OF FAME.
DR.. McCracken's observations as to
Queer Things In 1t.
(From the New York Herald.)

(From the New York Herald.)
Glass prejudice, local pride and indi.
vidual likes and dislikes seem to have
been, after all, the dominant factors IN
the selection OF the candidates for the
Hall Of Fame. The West and South have
been arrayed against the North and the
East, educators against jurists, the learn
ed against the successful, and the result
has been anything but cool and impair
tial award of merit, according to those
best qualified to judge.~ At a first formal
attempt to record the ''1mmortals' OF
American history, however, the result is
interesting.
DR.. Henry McCraoken, chancellor of
the New York university and chairman
of the senate which appointed the judges
who vote on the candidates, said: "The
result of the voting was great surprise
to me. There was Cooper, for instance,
who failed to receive the necessary num-
ber to enter. 1t was the light vote of the
chief Justices that defeated him, and
that, I confess, astonished me. He had
majority among the college presidents,
who should be judges of his literary abil
ity. Judges were chosen, as far as pos
sibIe, from every state in the Union, be-
ginning with college presidents. The
states which were represented by those
men we considered sufficiently noticed,
but in others, where there are no univer-
stiles, we selected chief justices and out
of 81 chief justices II were from the West
and the other 10 from the South. Those
men, by their training, are matter of
fact, and to that attribute their light
vote on Cooper. Yet as 1 look over the
ballots longer, 1 find that the judges
gave the largest vote for Edgar Allan
Poe,s who certainly was anything but
matter of fact. 1t is probable that they
read his poetry for diversion, and did not
criticise 1t as they would prose- Poe was
fanc1fuI ana Cooper had a certain rela-
tion to fact. That to my mind explains
their light vote on William Lloyd Garri-
son. He was too much of an extremist
to impress these men OF deliberate minds.
'Chief Justices seem to have been re-
sponsible for many d1squalitcatiOns of
candidates. They debarred Mark Hon
k1ns among the educators, and elt o5ed
Mann. That to my mind 1e due to the
fact that as Mann was associated with a
ty bb0lu Ol DuUl1C OOUCdUlOud1 WOIK DQ0V
know more of him than OF Hopkins
Among educators there was also Mary
Lyon, who was not elected. The college
presidents, who should certainly be au-
thority on educators, gave her majority
In their class, but she scarcely received
any other votes 1t was she who organ
ized Mount HOlyoke seminary.
''Of the three business men whose
names were offered as candidates not one
entered. Cornelius VanderbiIt's poll of 38
votes was the largest, and was due prin-
cipally to the eastern men, who brought
1t above the others. The reason for the
failure of all seems to ms obvious. Sue
cess in business only does not qualify a
man for fame In my estimation, nor ap-
parentIy In that OF the judges.
The failure of any physician or surgeon
to qualify is to me far more interesting
and again it is the chief Justices lighT
vote that caused 1t. Among explorers