The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-11-27
FETTERS UPON LEARNING.

That the eminent Professor Ross of
Stanford University was crowded out
of the faculty of that seat of learning
because he would not shape his socio-
logical opinions to suit the IDEAS or
corporate worth held by Mrs. Stan
ford and her wealthy friends, is fact
of deplorable significance. When such
things can happen in this republic of
letters, liberal people will begin to fear
recrudescence in the American col
leges OF the middle age subserviency
of learning to the DEGREES of those who
fear the results of free investigation.
In the old times 1t was the Pope who
laid an iron hand upon the lips of the
conscientious thinker Did science VEN
ture to assert that the earth was a
globe? At once the long arm of Rome
reached out to silence him. Did Cali
leo declare an immortal truth of SCI
ence? Sternly the Congregation of the
Index babe him to his knees in sack
cloth to perform perjured act OF abb
juration The history of the middle
ages in it's scientific aspects, Is the his
tory of one long struggle between the
scholar and the priest And even in a
. later and more enlightened age in the
midst of Anglo-SaXon New England,
the man who thought beyond his time
was bounded and banshed, lest his
presence and his speech might con-
found the theological formulas of
church whose bigoted pretensions
none are now so poor as to hold in
historical esteem.
Times change and methods change
with them, but the spirit which swayed
the Congregation of the Index and
back OF that the Roman Augurs and
the Priests of Isis is with us yet
Free thought is still abhorred by vest
ed interests. Instead of n repressive
church we have a represslve plutocracy
represented by the Golden Calf. 1t Is
no longer safe in every American col
lege to tell the truth as the thinker
sees It. Witness the eviction of Presi-
dent Andrews from Brown; witness the
rebuke and punishment OF Ross: wit
ness the action OF John d. Rockefel- |
lers Baptist University towards pro-
fessor who, in his views, OF criminal
trusts. would not bend the pregnant
hinges of the knee that thrift might |
follow fawning. 1t has come to pass
that the teacher who takes truth for
his guide and experience for his
WIN anu tiSNbNtlA anu IIpNltillN /
the danger that comes OF corporate
monopoly bares his head to the thun-
derbolt What the Chicago professor
said OF Rockefeller ana his work was
true: but his University, at Rockefel-
ler's bidding, had to cast him OF.
With the ethics OF Ross, in his chair
at Stanford. no impartial and disin-
terested man can find the slightest
fault. Yet the spirit OF the late SEN
ator Stanford ruling from the past
Stanford, man whose fortune was
built upon a gigantic and successful
piece of rascalty-deprves Professor
Ross OF his living and sends him afoot,
like a new Diogenes with his lantern,
looking for an honest University.
Let us hope that he will find II.
Harvard stlll owns the motto "Verl-
tas" Yale Is yet unsweryed by the
men Of millions from the straight path
of duty. Cornell is still a place conse-
Grated 10 a measureless liberation OF
opinion, Somewhere such man as
Ross II sure 10 be known and honored
as the founder Of Stanford University
never was In life nor viii be In the
moral history ~ his time.