The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-04
THE PASSING OF DE1MAs.

THE PASSING OF DELMAS.
 The action of the Yale authorities in so conducting the negotiations with Dolphin M. Delmas, of New York city, with reference to his possible appear ance before the law students of the venerable university, as to make sure of failure to agree upon a mutually satisfactory date, rises to the dignity of statecraft It recalls the traditional practice of the university officials in elevating an unsatisfactory instructor to professorship In smaller insti- tuition of learning when his room is more desirable than his company.
 We have no knowledge of the private reasons why Yale concluded. if Yale herself ever originally concluded that the presence of MT Delmas here was likey to lift the tone of the inclpient young lawyers, to get along without him as a lecturer. We are scarcely prepared to believe that the difficulty in the way of arranging dates was the real difficulty which finally led to the end of all negotiations. We suspect that 1t was thought that lawyer whose fame, as far as the Yale cam pus Is concerned, was begun and ended with the Thaw case lacked the sub stantial qualities which would justify the Law school in adding to his feath- CTS one of its own selection. Even now we know little of the foundation laid in California, of MT. Delmas' power though the sensational character of the Thaw ,nuFderssztrial gave the yellow newspapers an opportunity they were, quick to seize upon to exploit those alleged qualities. If a layman is to judge him by what he achieved In de- fense of the life of the young Pittsburg roue, and by his reprehensible present. alton of what he had the insolence to call "dementia Americana" or the right of an injured man to take the law into his own hand, he is more than ever Justified In concluding that the real reason why the arrangements to bring him here were upset, according yto the rules of diplomacy, was that he was not up to the Yale standard of lecturers.
 We dwell at more length than per- haps the subject warrants upon this in- cident in the life of Yale, and yet it is in itself sign of sober and rational government there that sensationalism must not be accepted by the students as a justification for extending its hos pitality to the personification of it. There was a reason for the invitation which was extended Jack London to preach the gospel of socialism to the students of Yale. Aside from the fact that he had done and is still doing ex-
 
 tremely brilliant literary work, just such an experiment with the flaming torch of discontent was necessary to stir the dry bones and impart to Yale thought in all of its branches livelier view of the new order of popular un- rest. One dose of London was enough. There has been no call for a single dose of Delmas, whose sole distinction in the eyes of the young men at Yale was his retainer from young Thaw. We are human enough to quite understand their curiosity and translate their de- sire to see the man to whom the news- papers had given such a Napoleonic reputation, but we are old enough at the same time to appreciate the colder philosophy of the professors and guar dians of Yale's good name, who have doubtless said to the boys, Let's get out of this as quietly as we can"
 The particular lesson conveyed by this episode is this While political clubs and good citizen clubs created by the students are, in their way, good things, 1t should be the business of some one higher in authority to exer- else a veto power when the boys de- eide to follow their own bent in the matter of distributing the hospitalities of the university. Of course the stu dents mean well, and there would have been method in their meaning welt in l this instance had they waited until the l story of the Thaw trial had been told and Mir. Delmas' place been assigned to him in the professional literature of | it. They must see to-day that, even though they may need the counsel of noted criminal lawyer in their prep aration for the bar. one who is himself l