Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1908-04-04
Stanford University Defended

the face of the facts absolutely ul-
called for, and the Student Affairs
Committee let him rant and paid no
apparent attention to him.
DR.. Jordan never addressed the
students on the situation. Had he
done so It is safe to say that, no
matter how absurd his contentious
were. the student body would have
compiled with any reuest he might
have made. They had done so in
the two cases above mentioned and
they would have done SO again. He
refused to deal with them as gentle
men, as the committee had done. In
stead he made speeches all over the
country calling Stanford hell
hole Of vice and drunkenness" He
gave interviews to newspaper re.
porters containing nothing even re-
motely resembling the truth. These
things were said away from the uni
versity where the president spends
great deal of his time.
He never went about talking with
the students as the committee was
in the habit OF doing. ] do not re-
member ever to have heard him dis
cuss the situation In tho student
body meetings, but he still persisted
/ I'm making his ridiculous remarks to
the outside world. The newspapers
took II up and sent II broadcast over
the country, giving the morally
cleanest university in the world and
the one most free from vice and
drunkenness, the most unsavory 0n1
the most undeserved reputation.
No one could understand the Pres
dents attitude. and the President
did not. and has not yet, offered any
explanations. The students re-
signed themselves to the only posi-
= BILE view to be taken under the cir
cumstances: namely. that President
Jordan seemed actually trying to
ruin the university. Personally I
cannot bring myself to believe that
DR.. Jordand would Intentionally do
anything to hurt the good name OF
Stanford, but the cold blooded fact
remains that he has hurt Stanford,
and that he. personally. more than
any one or anything eles is respon-
sible for the whole disgraceful posi-
tion In which Stanford is placed at
present. What his intentions were
he has not explained. shall GER
tainly not try TO interpret them. And
the fact still further remains that
Or. Jordan is still following along
his accustomed path. In the last
statement he made before he left
| for Montana the other day. be said
what everybody here knows end
what he certainly ought 20 known is
not true, namely. that the parade OF
March ~ vas an organized DEM
ongtration, not only against the Stu
dent Affairs Committee bat against
the university"
! Now what did this parade amount
TO; this "monstrous organized dem
onetration against the university"
which has been heralded abroad
throughout every state In the Union
colored. exaggerated and distorted
lby every newspaper hireling in the
country, until Il is utterly beyond
recognition by any of the two hun
dred and fifty participants?
wish TO make this statemen'
, calmly and deliberately, and have
. no hesitation in>saying that II vii
! be backed M by eyeyy student mar
ana woman, in this university. tha
! the parade of March 12. In itself ans
in the importance attached to IL Ol
the participants, wes absolutely Ia
significant, that II did no damag'
and no harm TO any person OF u
= anything, aud that it called for NJ
drastic action or even serious con
sideration by the Student Afan
Committee.
Let me say at this point that pa
:, radss are among the commonest O
all form of student expression O
any sort. They may be foolish
yin like, but they are OF such usna
occurrence that they have beeom
almost traditional. A parade o.
ours on any and all occasions, al
n, is an expression of condemnatio'
: commendation. protest, or appi%ls
!. as the case may be. The parade
7, March l2 differed in no respect iro'
=, hundred Of other parades, 40
en- Of which have occurred this yee
So unimportant in the eyes OF u
, students was this parade that u
= na-l.- n.ln ~ The aImMnnL new