The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1914-01-02

inclined to present the unfortunate
affair in the light of an unwarranted
persecution of DR.. Kane, and some
have broadly limited at political and
partisan intrigue as the real cause OF
the doctors removal.
No one who knows DR.. Kane can
doubt for a moment his loyalty to the
university or his earnest purpose to
advance it's best interests at all times.
In all fairness and candor, the same
must be said of the board of regents
of the university. No one who knows
the members of the board, who knows
the high order of ability of the sew
eral individuals who make up it's per-
sonnet, who knows the disinterese1
patriotism of those gentlemen, and
their untiring and jealous efforts to
promote the welfare of the institu-
tion for whose proper and efficient
government they arc responsible can
honestly question the purity of Their
motives or the singleness of their
purpose. While it may appear thai
they blundered seriously in permitting
So unfortunate controversy to be
precipitated at this time, there is no
ground whatever for charging that
controversy to political intrigue. The
action of the board was unanimous.
1t was endorsed by the newly ap-
pointed members of the board, as well
as the holdover members. One of
the gentlemen recently appointed to
the board by Governor Lister concur
red in the action that resulted in the
summary dismissal of President Kane.
and which has aroused such tempest.
II the board acted precipitately, Presi-
dent Kane was equally at fault in his
hasty, ill tempered and i'll advised re-
ply to the regents. His open letter
to the board was so bitterly personal
in tone, so childish in it's complaints,
and so full of unworthy suspicious
and unsupported charges, that it fairly
convicted him of the principal charge
OF the board of regents that he lacked
the breadth and bigness requisite in
the man fitted for the head of such
an institution as the University of
Washington.
Governor Lister promptly took a
hand in the controversy land issued a
statement that cannot be said to have
poured oil on the troubled waters or
to have minimized in any way the
harm likely to flow from the affair."
1t more particularly exhibited his
eagerness to take advantage of a sit
uation apparently favorable to his pre-
determined design to reorganize the
board of regents with appointees of
his own. His statement was followed
few days later by the announcement
from the executive office that the res
ignatiOn of four of the members of
the board had been called for to take
effect January LIST and the further an
noucement that the names of their
successors would shortly be made pub
lie. 1t is noteworthy that the men,
bers whose terms are thus cut short
are those who have served for mum
Der of years and do not include the
names of the two gentlemen recently
appointed by Lister, even though one
Joined with the others in making the
criticised action of the board unan'-
nous. But this is only natural and
there is no reason to believe that the
governor has acted from other than
unselfish motives. 1t would be I'M
just to charge him with trying at this
time to make political capital out of
a most unfortunate situation, or to
suspect that he has anything but the
highest and best interests of the uni
versity at heart in making the change.
His wisdom may be questioned, how
ever, as it does not appear that he can
very well help restore confidence or
allay the feeling by acting so hastily.
At that, the responsibility is his, and
since he sees fit at this time to make
a complete and radical change in the
board of regents, every citizen of the
state will hope that his action is the
best calculated to mend an unhappy
situation.
Later-Geo. H. Walker, one of the
regents recently appointed by Lister
and leading progressive of Seattle,
has rendered his resignation and in
doing so scores the poyernor for hiS
action in reorganizing the board at
this time. Mr.. Walker resigns, he
says, because no self-respecting man
can serve on a board that must be
subservient to the will of the execu-
tive.