The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-04-21
A Kaiser of Education

In the beautiful country Of the Cumberland gap
stands citadel of learning named in honor of the
Great Ernancipator The Lincoln Memorial university
was founded to bring higher learning to the stalwart
mountain-folk of this area 1t is endowed principally
by rich men OF New York and Washington.
Most of the endowment was raised by the present
chancellor, John Wesley Hill, eminent patriot and
bosom friend of the late President Harding.
Having secured the funds to operate the plant,
Chancellor Fill believes he is entitled to regard the
site as his feudal patrimony Such frills academic
freedom and tenure do not enter into the perspective
of this stern educator.
The contracts of the professors are "terminable
by the university without notice and without cause
The eminent Tennessee lawyer, DR.. John R. Neal,
brands them as worse than the yellow dog contracts
Of the mining areas.
The Lincoln Memorial university may not be ia
nous in the annals Of scholarship and science but no
old and fossy eastern institution is flush with
administrative novelties. It boasts both chancellor
and president. The relationship is not unlike that
of the kaiser and his chief-of-staff.
Chancellol Hill is accused of assuming absolute
power "to hire, discharge. and brutally to berate
teachers at his whi unchecked by any higher power.
The chancelorc ak has fallen frequently and in high
places
In 1926 Hill fired President Matthews. In 1928
Dean Lewis and large fraction of the faculty were
amputated. Now President Roop and about half of
the faculty which opposed Roops policies have been
let out Here is administrative impartiality for you'll
Next the students appear on the scene. They went
out on a sympathetic strike. They tried to hold a
meeting on the campus but were dispersed. So they
walked a couple of miles across the border into
Thomas Jefferson's old state and blew of steam The
president of the student body arrested and held
In 81 500 bail for using profane language roting, and
r5iS+rYrhi,oo on educational assembly,"
Deputies like unto the coal and iron police of the
mine country were brought in to patrol the campus
and protect the chancelor'S castle. The students
forthwith baptized the deputies with buckets of water
thrown from the dormtory windows. Whereupon the
students were threatened with eviction. The students
came back with telegram to Governor H. H. Horton
petitioning him to send in the National Guard:
eve the students of Lincoln Memorial university.
are being threatened by rough-appearing deputy
sheriffs who are carrying on campaign of terrorism
and making arrests. We respectively do request
that you dispatch company of National Guard troops
Immediately"
Now an injunction has been issued by the Tennes-
see court restraining two sympathetic professors and
their wives from aiding the students and restraining
the president of the student body from entering the
campus.
The Association of American University Profess
sors and the American Civil Liberties Union promise
10 investigate the situation In the meantime, here is
q nbretto to challenge the fiber and imagination Of
the most ambitious composer.