New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-23
MEN, CLASSES AND LAWS.

Some Of the students Of one of our local uni
versities recently violated in a fragrant manner
| the laws of that institution. In the same acts
they also broke the laws of the state and city
of New-York. Az for the laws of manliness
generosity and courage, the less said about
them the better, so completely were they ignored
by these young men. The academic authorities
succeeded in identifying three of the offenders
and properly suspended them from their stu
| dent functions for year. which was little short
| Of expulsion. Next we were told that all the
rest of that years class between two and
three hundred men, were preparing an address
asking for the reinstatement Of the offenders
and declaring that they themselves were all
equally guilty. The sophomore logic appears
to have been that the authorities could not Justly
punish only three men for the fault of three
hundred, and that 1t could not punish the whole
three hundred; wherefore it would be conpelled
to pardon them all. The latest report, however,
IS that most OF them have withdrawn from or
have refrained from making the address, in
which they are acting with discretion
There are ample precedens, in college life
and out OF It. for Furnishing only a few where
many are guilty We have heard of a mutinous
regiment being punished by having every tenth
man shot Moreover, if all the members Of the
class had declared themselves equally guilty. #
would still have been certain many of them were
so only in intention for 1t IS known that thew did
not all participate in the lawless acts Again.
there are not lacking precedents for the sus-
pension of Il whole class. Precisely that has
occurred at more than one American college.
The notion that the proverbial principle of
safety in numbers" goes SO far as to assure
immunity TO lawbreakers provided their gang
Is numerous enough is a vicious and intolerabIe
one. university that could not uphold its
authority against a whole class or against all
the classes of the student body would be I'M
worthy to attempt uphOlding it against a single
student.
We have no wish to see the three suspended
students or the whole class to which they he
lOnged treated with unnecessary rigor But
we do believe 1T Is time to impress upon college
and university students the supreme necessity
, OF obedience to law. In the whole studiit7n
generate there is no more important lesson than
that and there is none that in particular ia
more needed in American colleges and in the
American conn., unity. The chief motive of the
students in moving, through Standardization.
Ior the reinstatement OF their guilty comrades
was or course, perfectly evident II was not that
they Thought injustice had been done to those
three' or that, with generous spirit they de-
slred 10 snare their fate. 1t was Simply that they
thought 1t would be smart thing To "nut 4be
faculty in hole" and cause 81 10 re,,arso Ito &c
ton. That would magnify the influence or +be
students ana correspondingly lessen the authority
and prestige Of the faculty Nax+ ,,oor,e st,,.
dents OF disorderly prociv1ties would think
that they were safe in breaking the laws. for