Now, as to the college professors: From the earliest times down to the present day, learning has been fostered, patronized and supported by wealth. The kings and nobility of various times and nations, too stupid or lazy to acquire distinction in the field of scholarship themselves, have vied with each other in gathering around them the greatest scholars, musicians, poets and minstrels, as well as the greatest athletes, the most beautiful and voluptuous women, the fastest horses, and the most interesting curios of every description. Some of the patrons of learning and art have been really serious in their devotion to the beautiful and true. It is, perhaps, one of the greatest encomiums that we can pronounce upon the wealth of the world, that in all ages it has supported learning as the stalk supports the flower. This condition of affairs has not existed, however, without causing an undesirable dependence on the part of the beneficiaries.
Who has passed through the great art galleries of the Louvre at Paris, and beheld the acres of canvas, covered with the work of the immortal Rubens, without being filled with anger and disgust as he thought of the genius and years of toil which, instead of being devoted to conceiving and executing new masterpieces to delight and inspire all future ages, were applied to daubing the vain and cruel countenance and the unattractive person of the patroness who gave him his bread?
The first and greatest universities in this land were founded, have been built up, and are at present supported by the bequests and donations, the gratuitous contributions of the rich. The vast undying benefits that have flowed from this wealth, which have been devoted to learning, ancient and modern, cannot easily be overestimated. What the world would have been without the enlightenment which has come from this source it is not easy to imagine. We should hold in high esteem the solitary student who, in past ages and to-day, gropes his silent, difficult way towards those hidden truths in science, in history or in art which will one day enlighten and beautify the world. We should be lovers of all that is beautiful, and all that is true, and all that is lovable in this great world of ours. Music, painting and sculpture, the sciences, literature and history, should be to all sources both of inspiration and of light. With all our hearts let us welcome these products of man's talent and genius.
The historian is the hinge linking the present to the past. His office is not only a useful, but a sacred one. Scholarship is like womanhood—one of the most holy and sacred things in the world. But, like womanhood, when prostituted, it becomes the most debased. He who muddies with error and personal prejudice the fountain of pure truth is an enemy to his race. But let us not attempt to blame nor censure individuals. We know that wealth has been the friend of learning; that in all times past those who have devoted their time to the pursuit of truth or beauty have been dependent upon the support of the rich and powerful. You say that if wealth has been the friend of learning, it is only natural that learning should be the friend of wealth. Yes, this is exactly the fact in the case. Learning is the friend of wealth for two reasons: One, because she feels grateful for past favors; the other, and greater, because she is hopeful for favors to come.
It is well known in educational circles that any college found propagating "heresies" like "free silver" or "government ownership of the railroads"—in other words, any institution which does not distort and curtail its teachings so as to bias the student in favor of the single gold standard and the eternal reign of monopoly—will be cut off without a dollar by plutocracy and doomed to a future of comparative impotence and uselessness for lack of funds.
THE RESULT.
What is the result? The president of a large private university, knowing that his reputation for success or failure depends upon the growth of his university as compared with that of neighboring universities, continually trims his sails to secure favors of those who have money to dispense. It is a common thing for a college president to make what he calls a "begging tour." He endeavors to show to those who are supposed to have money to bestow that his university is in great need, and can make the best possible use of "sound" money in propagating "sound ideas."
A good illustration of this is the tour which Brooker Washington, the famous colored orator, the President of the Tuskegee Institute, made in 1896, through the North and East. He is a man of intellectual power. He is, no doubt, thoroughly devoted to the enlightenment of his race; but the way he flatters and cajoles the rich, advocates the gold standard, overlooks and keeps silent about their corruption and crimes, and assents to their plans for further aggrandizement, is a lesson which every patriot can study with profit. He has become a pet and fad among the wealthy classes of New York and New England. Even Harvard in 1896 conferred upon him an honorary degree. He has doubtless gotten heavy endowments for his college, but he has had to fawn and flatter and stultify his manhood to do it. And he has given a striking example of what almost every college president must do to a greater or less extent.
The fact is, that PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES, DEPENDING AS THEY DO UPON THE CHARITY AND CONSCIENCE MONEY OF THE RICH FOR SUPPORT AND GROWTH, LIKE ALL THOSE WHO LIVE BY CHARITY, HAVE ACQUIRED THE FAWNING SPIRIT OF SERVITUDE AND DEPENDENCE, AND FAITHFULLY LICK THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM. "Verily the ox knoweth his master's crib."
Many college presidents dare not use any but "orthodox" gold standard text-books, and professors who dissent from the views of these books are forced to swallow their own opinions and propagate error.