Montana labor news., 1939-04-06
Teachers Union Report
~Exonerates keeney
American Federation Of Teach
ers Investigation Places Kee-
ney Ousting in Long Line of
Domination of University by
Corporations.

Marshalling its extensive findings
in a sober, unanswerable indictment,
the report of the National Academic
Freedom Committee of the American
Federation of Teachers, issued re-
Gently, declares that Professor Philip
o. Keeney was unjustly discharged
in April, 1887, from Montana State
University as a result of corporation
influence in University affairs.
Labor and liberal groups who
recognize in the Keeney case the
most important challenge to progress
sive thought and academic freedom
Montana has ever faced, and who
have supported and aided Keeney in
his fight for reinstatement, will
applaud this fearless report and
watch even more keenly the battle
that is now being brought to its eli
max with the Montana Supreme
Courts review of the nationally ia
nous heeney case.
The report of the American Asso-
citation of University Professors, pub
lished in April, 1888, efficiently de-
stroyed the arguments advanced by
President Simmons concerning Pro-
lessor Keeney's competence and
loyalty to the University, and pierced
through the shameless falsity of the
arguments about his tenure. The
A. F. of T. report goes straight to the
heart of the matter with unshakable
evidence that Keeney's opposition to
the appointment of Simmons to the
University presidency, and his activi-
ty in organizing a local of the Ameri-
can Federation of Teachers on the
Montana campus we're the chief
causes for his dismissal.
President c. A. Duniway was dis
missed in 1911 because he refused
to make appointments to the Uni
versity Law School urged by cor
poration politicians. President E. B.
Craighead was dismissed in 1915 be-
cause he opposed the Governor land
the company politicians by favor
ing consolidation of the branches of
the University. Professor Louis Lee
vine suffered a same fate in 1919
because he ignored an order by the
Chancellor not to publish a scholarly
study on mine taxation, the facts Of
which were embarrassing to the
Anaconda Copper Company. Pro-
fessor Arthur Fisher was let out in
1922 for daring to help build up a
Farmer-Labor newspaper.
The Keeney ease is neither the
worst nor the least, but only the
most fragrant in a long line of gags
on the University!
The small qualifications of MI.
Simmons for the University presi-
dency, and the methods used by the
Missoula Mercantile Co. to boost him
into the saddle, are well known to
the majority of persons who have
followed the Kenney case So is the
fact that he was opposed by 80 per
cent of the University faculty. Kee-
ney was only n among many who
wanted to present a formal protest
to the State Board of Education
against his election. The censorship
dispute that took place on the Uni
versity campus in the spring of 1886,
and Simmons part in the curse of
it, could stand a thorough airing at
some future date. OF greater i'm
portance at present is the formation
of the teachers union, and its rela-
ton to Keeney's dismissal.
Since 1888, when the University
suffered drastic cuts in salary, it had
sought ways of gaining support in
the legislature for its desire for in
creases.
In an effort to improve the rela-
tionship between organized labor
and the University faculty, and to
work more efficiently toward re-
storation of salary cuts, a number
of faculty members, Keeney and
Rowe among them, made tentative
moves toward establishment of a
teachers union. Faculty members,
knowing full well the anti-union
attitude of the copper company were
fearsome of the consequences, but
went ahead. Professor Keeney did
the work of securing signatures for
an application for a charter in the
American Federation of Teachers.
On April 6, 1887, Keeney was in
formed by letter from President
Simmons that he would be dismissed.
The A. F. of T. report describes
in detail a dinner held in Helena on
April 5, 1887, at which Simmons, the
Governor, and several Missoula
Mere officials discussed the activity
of organized labor in attempting to
have H. B. IS (the Hitler bilD and
Senate Bill II referred for refer
endum to the people at the next gen
eral election. Organized labor knows
well the content of these bills, which
had the support of the Anaconda
Mining Co., the Montana Power Co,
the railroad lobbyists, and the large
wholesale business concerns of the
state. The dinner meeting occurred
on April 5, the day before Sim
mons letter of dismissal to Keeney.
Extremely interesting is the A. F.
Of T. committees statement on docu-
mentation of ifs findings. GIN a