The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-20

instructor may say will wound the feel
ings of anyone. Tho time has gone by
wien any Instructor in college can be
dismissed for teaching the evolution the
DRY and thereby contradicting current the
ology. and money bestowed upon the de-
partments of science can only result in
finer appliances and better teaching. But
when it comes to history, ethics. and
above all. political economy, advanced
thinkers encounter rocks of stubborn popu-
lar prejudice at every turn; and these
are precisely the subjects upon which the
college student of today should be thor
oughly instructed. Without free discus
sion in the class room, and keen ques-
tioning of the elements and forces now
combined in political movements there
is no possibility of the students getting
instruction which is worth straw. BY
far the most important sociological and
political phenomenon of our time is the
accumulation of immense fortunes in the
hands OF one man. or a combination of
men. This phenomenon cannot he over
looked, and in the interests of truth, it
must be studied without prejudice. The
would meet fairly and helpfully the wants
OF the students; the students must be alb
soiCtely free to think. and TO express their
thought. ~. then. there is power be-
hind the throne which says that this shall
not be so. the teaching of political Bon
omy is reduced to something like the level
at which astronomy would remain if
Galileo's discoveries were ignored in the
class ROOM
II is not only in the universities that
the influence of the millions is beginning
to be felt. The churches. the society, and
the press of the country feel it as we'll
The argument used against Pref. Ross is
that since he was living on Mrs. Stan
fords bounty it was discourteous for him
TO say anything against her. This is a
fallacious argument which is entirely typ
ical of other arguments on this same sub
ject. 1t is. when put into plain English.
the theory that an employer buys not only
a mans time. but his soul II is this the
DRY which leads the pastor of a church to
be silent regarding the pet sin OF the
richest pewholder; which keeps the press
of a provincial city quiet when the richest
man in it steals from the public treasury
with one hand and builds a handsome pub
lie library with the other; which makes
the railroad men vote as the corporations
tell them. As matter of fact Prof. Ross
was not accepting any bounty from Mrs.
StanfordN He was accepting a salary
which he earned in a legitimate way and
he was no more her beneficiary than she
was his, if the bargain was a proper one
TO make. If he did not earn his salary
he had no right to keep the place; and if
he could not earn that same salary in
other institutions he was certainly not fit
to earn it there. The "sabbatical half
year" to which Mr.. Lummis refers with
such acrinony was in ali probability given
him with view of increasing his useful
ness to the college: if it was anything else
he, as a self-respecting man ought not to
have taken it. The besetting sin of most
people who try to do good with their
money. as the phrase is. is the tendency
to try TO buy people with it. No human
being has right to claim service from
another in return for ostensible generos-
ity. If we do good it must be for the sake
of doing it. not for the sake of making
people subservient to our whims. In that
case philanthropy is only another and
meaner form of the commercial spirit.