Montana labor news., 1937-10-07
The STATUS OF The
NATIONALLY KNOW
kEENEY- R0WE (t<f

week Attorney Rankin v Mbmit
Professor Keeney's brie Judge
Padbury and Attorney 10Th and
Toole will submit bri lor Presi-
dent Simmons ct al in ne Keeney
case which has now become a ma
tional issue in labor and academic
circles. Judge Padbury will then
take the case under advisement.
After due deliberation he will de-
eide on the basis of law whether or
not Professor Keeney is entitled to
reinstatement as librarian of Mon
tana State University as set forth in
the mandamus petition.
Governor Ayers, President Sim
mons and the reactionary members
of the Board Of Education, Judges
Carruth and Borton, Banker David
son, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Brennan
organized labor's staunch friend)
produced no written charges against
Professor Keeney in the hearings of
Sept. % and Oct. 4. They rest their
case on their power to fire Keeney
without any kind of a hearing, be-
cause they say that his contract has
always been of an annual nature.
They produce the six teachers oaths
which Keeney has signed as evidence.
of his annual status. They ignore
Regulation 2 on the back of all of
Keeney's contracts which says in
plain English that every full or as
sociate professor is deemed perma-
nently employed after signing three
annual contracts. Keeney has signed
six such contracts. They produce
also as evidence a letter written by
DR.. Swain, the executive man-Friday
Of hire and fire. education in Mon
tana, to President Simmons on July
8, 1886. DR.. Swain advised Presi-
dent Simmons to prepare himself
in case he decided to unload" Kee-
ney, because Keeney might demand
a hearing. Keeney was unloaded
because he organized a teachers
union on the campus of Montana
State University; Keeney demanded
an open and public hearing which
the reactionaries have denied him.;
President Simmons prepared him
self by retaining Attorneys Booth
and Toole at the expense of the tax
payers of Montana despite the fact
that the Attorney General of the
state is elected by the voters to de-
fend the Board of Education when
ever it gets into difficulties.
Though talk of organizing a teach
ers' union was current on the cam
pus from March l, 1887, on, Presi-
dent Simmons heard nothing about
it until April 3 when he returned
to the campus after submitting his
budget to Swain. President Sim
mons must have been suffering from
a serious ear disease during the
month of March, for the c%onversa-
tons about the value of unionization
were conducted in the light of day
and not underground" The ex-
executive vice-president said openly
that he would like to join, were a
union organized.
President Simmons, according to
his testimony, said nothing to any
faculty member about reappointing
Professor Keeney before April 6,
1887, when he wrote Keeney the
letter of dismissal. Two faculty
members might not substantiate that
testimony as both have told a ma
tionally known investigating com
mittee that sometime in March Presi-
dent Simmons told them that Kee-
ney was to be re-hired as usual.
President Simmons said on the
witness stand that he found Keeney
unsatisfactory: l, Keeney's ideas
about running the library were diff
ferent from DR.. Simmons; 2, Kee-
ney bought books for the students
that were not needed for texts for
Continued to Page g.