I told him that I regarded the publicity which had attended his former testimony as detrimental in its effect upon the university. In the inflamed condition of public sentiment in Colorado at that time it was exploited in a way which I regarded as unfortunate. His connection with the university was made prominent in the inaccurate publicity which resulted and the institution was drawn thereby into a controversy, and an attitude attributed to the university as an institution, which I regarded as unwarranted and unfortunate. In further discussion of this point and in illustrating the prejudice aroused by the testimony, I cited the feeling expressed by members of the Legislature and reported to me during the legislative session of 1915. I used some expression to the effect that his public statements regarding the industrial situation had been an obstacle in the university’s effort to obtain additional support from the Legislature. I did not, as I recall it, lay any stress upon this and mentioned it incidentally as an illustration and matter of interest at the moment. I stated that in view of the inaccurate publicity and the involvement of the university at the time of his previous appearance before the Federal Commission, I thought it would be desirable, in case he decided to go to Washington, that a statement should be issued indicating the temporary nature of his connection with the university and that that connection would naturally terminate at the end of the academic year.
The outcome of the matter was that Professor Brewster decided not to go to Washington; nevertheless, he was dropped from the University of Colorado. It is interesting to note that among those who were retained at the University was Dr. John Chase, who will live in American history as the man responsible for the Ludlow massacre. He was adjutant-general of the Colorado militia at the time, and an unscrupulous partisan of the coal operators. Among the regents at the time was Mr. C. C. Parks, politician, banker, coal company director, and furious opponent of the strikers. Among the law faculty who fought Professor Brewster was Professor A. A. Reed, whose law partner was engaged in prosecuting a number of the former strikers. Professor Reed, a former bank president, was at this time an official of a national bank in Denver, and a director of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Mr. Rockefeller’s concern which put through the Ludlow massacre. I am interested to note that another member of the faculty who is not objected to is Professor L. W. Cole, director of the School of Social Service, who last summer recommended to the students of his summer school Vice-President Coolidge’s magazine articles on the “Red menace,” a farrago of foolishness gathered by the Lusk committee and their secret agents.
Also we ought to have a glance at Colorado College, located at Colorado Springs; a co-educational institution started by the Congregational Church, and now conducted by the interlocking directorate. They had a first-class business man for president, but there were brought against him “serious charges of indiscreet and improper conduct toward two women employed in the college offices.” Now, of course, the business men who run the government of Colorado, in conjunction with the brothels and wine-rooms, understand that college presidents have to have their little pleasures in off hours; but some of the faculty thought that college presidents ought to have these pleasures somewhere off the campus. They endeavored privately to force the resignation of the president; whereat the trustees became furious, and fired a dean who had been active in the matter. When the students organized and protested, they contemptuously rejected the students’ demands.
This matter likewise was investigated by the American Association of University Professors, and it happened that I studied their report before I knew anything about the trustees and their financial position. It was rather funny; I read what the trustees said to the professors, and how they behaved in the various conferences; I read their letters, and found myself thinking: this must be a rich man, and so must this; here must be the grand duke, the fellow who runs the place! Then I looked them up in “Who’s Who,” and, sure enough, there they were—Mr. Philip B. Stewart, mining and public utility magnate, an active Republican politician; and Mr. Irving Howbert, president of a bank, a gold mining company and a railroad, also an active Republican politician!
Would you like to hear one of these grand dukes addressing his college professors, gathered together to be taught their place? Listen to the affidavit of Professor George M. Howe:
The meeting was opened by Mr. P. B. Stewart, chairman of the executive committee of the Board. Mr. Stewart berated us soundly for what we had done.... His mains points were that we had been guilty of sending libelous matter through the mail, for which we might well be sent to the penitentiary; that we had given the slanderous charges against Dr. Slocum into the hands of persons who should know nothing of them, since our letters would come into the hands of private secretaries of the men to whom they were sent; and that we had made the completion of the five hundred thousand dollar fund for the College impossible, since the Trustees, who were large contributors, would now withhold their subscriptions. His purpose was apparently to make us feel that our conduct had been thoroughly idiotic and ill-advised in every respect.
And then hear the summing up of the American Association of University Professors:
“The committee feels constrained to remark, further, that the attitude of the majority of the members of the Board of Trustees and of the Board as a body towards the faculty has been characterized by grave discourtesy, a lack of openness and candor, and an habitual disregard of the fact that the administrative officers and teaching staff of a college have large and definite moral responsibilities in relation to the internal conditions and standards of the institution with which they are connected.”
The outcome of the whole matter was that the graduating class of the college fell off from eighty to twenty-six; but the interlocking trustees waited. They held the purse-strings, and they knew that the incident would be forgotten, and the students would come back—which they did.
Also the plutocracy of Colorado maintains an institution for training its engineers and mining experts; this is the Colorado School of Mines, located at Golden. Here also there was trouble, because on “Senior Day” some of the students got drunk and beat up a member of the faculty at a baseball game. Naturally, the president and the faculty resented this, and they suspended five of the students, and there was a great uproar, culminating in a student strike. This incident also was investigated by the Association of University Professors, and I studied the report before I knew anything about the various trustees. Here again I was able to pick out the grand duke by his bad manners, and by the way everybody cringed before him when he came down from Cripple Creek to deal with the row. He is Mr. A. E. Carlton, president of four banks and of several mining companies.