Montana labor news., 1939-11-23
RESIGNATION OF
SIMMONS ASKED
BY Butte ALUMNI
Continued from Page y

he has, in fact, given the people of
the state an untruthful picture of
their institution by making false
and derogatory statements about the
faculty, and by preventing the peo-
pie of the state from learning about
outstanding achievements of those
whom he does not favor personally.
Dr.. Lennes said that he had learned
from personal conferences with a
number of the members of the APP
preparations Committee of the last
State Legislature that DR.. Simmons
said in substance that among the
older members of the faculty there
is much dead wood, many h~as-beens,
~subversives, and some socialists and
communists. He is quoted definite
ly as saying that there are about a
half a dozen communists in the
faculty at present. While DR.. Sim
mons definitely denies making any
such statements ut is true" said DR..
Lennes, chat three different mem
bers of this committee, speaking to
me separately, assert that he made
a statement insubstance as I have
just given. They said further that
they believed he was making gross
mis-statements and that this was
the beginning of a move which re-
suited in appointing a committee to
make a special investigation at the
university" DR., Lennes then went
on to give the details of recent work
by members of the faculty, which
was given recognition not only in
the United States but also in Euro
pean countries. No mention was
made of these cases in the regular
university news bulletin that goes
out weekly from the university.
Dean Spaulding of the School of
Forestry received copies Of a three
volume work published in Berlin,
Germany, and written by DR..
Schenck who, until recent years,
was a lecturer in our School of For
estry. DR.. Schenck is without ques-
ton M of the very foremost men
living in forestry. On the title page
of this monumental treatise, DR..
Schenck gives as the first of his list
of positions held Tate member of
the faculty of the School of For
estry of the State University of
Montana, U. S. A." In transmitting
this gift copy to Dean Spaulding, DR..
Schenck wrote: 1T is with real pride
that I call myself, on the title page
of this book, a former member Of
the forestry faculty of the Univer-
sity of Montana. My connection
with your school has been to me "a
lasting inspiration and a capital
source of knowledge, Thus, this
book is, in a great measure, a book
of the Montana School of Forestry,
by the Montana School of Forestry,
and for the Montana School of For
estry."
This was an obvious honor to the
university and would be regarded
with pride by any institution in the
country. The story was written up
for the university publicity service
by Dean Stone, but it never found
its way to the newspapers. One can
not avoid the suspicion that these
outstanding cases are suppressed
from publicity because they would
rebound in part to the honor of
members of the faculty whom DR..
Simmons does not now regard with
favor.
"The conclusion cannot be avoid
ed, therefore, that DR.. Simmons not
only actively smears the university
by smearing large number of the
faculty (his half a dozen commu-
nists' speaks eloquently in this con-
nection), but also by preventing
people of the state from learning of
m%eritorious work being done in the
institution. 81 can see no reason
why he should do this, except that
it is now well known that there is
a pile of trouble at the university
and that he is grabbing in all direc-
tons for reasons for this, except in
his wi shortcomings. Under such
conditions the university must neces-
sarily go down because it must go
down in the estimation of the peo-
pie who create and support it,"