The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-07-05
Louisiana Farm Boy Who Became University Proxy Now In Clutch of Law
Educatorsr
 4O- Year-Cdreer Falls tn Ruins
BY JAMES E. GROWN NEA Service Stan Correspondent

NEA Service Stan Correspondent
 New Orleans, La, July 5.-The career Q Louisiana farm boy spent nearly 40 years building, went crashing in ruins when pr. James Monroe Smith, president of Loui- siana State University, fled with his wife from his native state.
 As this is written, Smith is already safely back in Louisiana after having been taken in Canada charged with embezzlement of Si00,000 of L. 8. U. funds. The actual shortage in the funds he controlled is reported by high state officials, now auditing the books, as somewhere between $50o,0o0 and $1, 100000
 The scandal is rocking all Louisiana.
 It is the story of a country school teacher who didn't know when to stop. He won wealth and honor beyond the widest dreams of his youth, lost his head in the swirl of 1t all, turned high flnan- cier and heavy socialite. His closest friends of the days before he fled shake their heads sadly ct the need- lessness of 1t.
 For Dr. Smith was president of Q $l5,000,0 900 state university. His salary was $l8,000 Q year. He lived with his wife and two children in Q luxurious air conditioned man. sion, the presidents home on the L. s. U. campus, rent free. He drove costly car provided by the university. He was e Knight of the Legion of Honor of France. He was Commander of the Order of the Grown of Italy.
 DRIVEN BY PASSION
 FOR POWER
 James Monroe Smith was born on 6 bare little north Louisiana farm, amid the red clay piney hills of Jackson Parish, Oct. Q, 1888. He learned his letters in a one-room country school house. He grew into boyhood doing the countless chores of a barefooted farm boy. He finished his primary educa- ton, his high school education, in the country district schools of Jack son parish and Ouachita parish in north Louisiana. He worked his way. When he left his farm home to go to school in Ouachita parish, he had % cents in the pocket of his fitting pants. And by hard work and hard study, he became 6 country school teacher,
 NICKEL
 HOARDERS
 When his little savings account had grown to less than $500, he went to Valparaiso University in Indiana, and in 1913 won his first degree, bachelor of pedagogy. He returned to Louisiana with renewed confidence. But he was still c country high school teacher up there in north Louisiana when June 3, 1914, he married Miss Thelma Ford, another country school teach- CT. Two children were born to them; Marjorie Lee Smith, and James Monroe Smith, Jr., so named when all the neighbors agreed 1t was an IOiIOE " pe HuHHeu hAbeE AhEuS working, industrious father like that. The young couple hoarded nickels. Those nickels were invested in more education.
 Then the country school teacher "got @ break" Down in Lafayette, in the southwestern tip of Louisi- ana, was small college that had started admitting pupils who could hardly pass eighth grade examine tons. It was Southwestern Loui- siana Institute. They needed combined professor of education and business manager. James Mon- roe Smith leaped at that in 1920, and got 1t. It raised his standing in the educational world.
 Huey P. Long was elected gover- nor of Louisiana, and took office May l2, 1928. That was when the greatest opportunity in the life of James Monroe Smith was laid in his lap, to become his downfall:
 Thomas w. Atkinson was presi- dent of Louisiana State University, "The Ole War skule," its history going back of the Mexican War in varied forms; then a state univer- |