Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-10-20
In Mellow Vermont.

IN mellow vermont II
We are glad to print the following
earnest reproof from an admirer of the
Rev. DR.. Guy Potter Benton, newly in
stalled president of the ancient Univer-
sity of Vermont:
To the Editor of the Evening Sun Sir
May / correct a mistaken impression
that seems to be prevalent in news
paper circles here regarding a certain |
'Puritanicap" narrowness attributed to |
DIR. Duy Potter Benton in his recent |
inaugural address on becoming presi- |
dent of the University of Vermont? A |
critic in today's issue of The Sun takes |
DR.. Benton to task for his reported !
views on college professors and the
drinking habit, and quotes these words |
as taken from the address mentioned:
THE college professor who drinks in
public or private will not be tolerated
beyond the meeting of the board of
trustees next succeeding his discovery
and | should say to you, in order that
there may be no Misunderstanding, that
| will not serve on teaching body with
any man who uses Intoxicating liquors
in any form whatever.
What DR.. Benton really said was:
1.-The drinking practice, which is prev
alent among some educational special
lists in this country, is inimical to the
development of the best manhood and
womanhood, and the time is coming
when parents who are anxious for the
nurture of the best types of manhood
and womanhood in their own offspring
will rise up and absolutely forbid the
employment of men as teachers whose
moral standards and practices will not
bear the closest inspection. The insti-
tutions of higher learning in America
can afford to be unique in refusing to
emulate Europeans through avoidance
of the FOSTERING beer drinking of the
! continental university clubs.
| 1t is deplorable that an address not
able alike for the liberality and the
soundness of the educational views
therein presented should be so palpably
distorted through inaccurate reports.
l.. E. DANES.
New York, Oct. 13.
AS it happens, however, and strange
as it may seem, the distortion" which
our correspondent notes was really
faithful fact. The very considerable
change in view displayed between the
two quotations given above represents
not inaccurate reporting, but rather an
amiable shift in DIR. Benton's views.
The liberal and sound passage which
our correspondent cites with hearty
approval was contained in DR.. Benton
inaugural address of Oct 6 last. The
illberal and unsound passage which he
considers a distortion was uttered by
DR.. Benton some days earlier in a
preliminary address to his colleagues.
We quoted the passage calling for dry
professors from pamphlet issued from
the University of Vermont and entitled
address to the Senate of the Univer-
sty of Vermont and State Agricultural
College by Guy Potter Benton, Presi-
dent" 1t was apparently delivered on
Sept. % last
Now, as our correspondent felt that
the apparent distortion" was ''deplor-
able" he may perhaps feel it to be
equally deplorable that great man like
DR.. Benton should so modify his views
between weeks. But we cannot share
any such emotion. DIR. Benton comes
from the baroness of Kansas and the
hatness of Ohio into the mellow anC
gracious hills of Vermont. On Sept. %
soon after arrival, he naturally voices
the bare, fiat thoughts of his earlier
up-bringing. But by Oct. the
ingratiating spirit of the hills has al
ready begun to enter his soul. He still
cannot countenance the roistering BEEF
drinking of Europe, condition. indeed
which would be highly distasteful il
frugal Vermont, where the hard cider
is so hard and the Scotch whiskey Sc
Scotch that he who would ROSTER neces
sarily fades almost instantly into in
nocuous desuetude. But DIR. Benton
clearly sees great light and no longer
cares to insist upon a necessary anC
inseparable relation between teetotal
ism and morality.
Just how DIR. Benton conversion took
place we cannot pretend to say. Per.
haps the "wet" members of his teaching
staff waited upon him in respectful
argument. Conceivably, DR.. Benton
was persuaded to sample the wine Of
the country. freshly imported from
Scotland via Canada, and was convinced
by patient experiment of the justice o.
the wet" plea. In any event, he mel
lowed swiftly but surely.-New Yorl
= Sun.