EXPERIENCE WITH ORGANIZATIONS 261 



be related. The University Charter granted by 

 the State provided among other things that the 

 president of this Society should be an ex-officio 

 member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell. 

 When I became president of the Society my col- 

 leagues on the faculty congratulated me on having 

 reached this distinguished position but the Execu- 

 tive Committee of the Board of Trustees had no 

 words of felicitation for me. The President of 

 the University sent for me and quietly informed 

 me that a professor could not be permitted to sit 

 as a member of the Board or the Executive Com- 

 mittee and that the Board of Trustees could unseat 

 me by resolution or they could ask for my resigna- 

 tion. 



I replied that as to the first procedure, the 

 Board was powerless to unseat me for the Charter 

 of the University was above them; and that as to 

 my resignation, it had always been before them. 

 Some years earlier I had made it plain to President 

 White that my resignation was always metaphori- 

 cally in the hands of the Executive Committee. I 

 had never had any intention of taking part in the 

 business of the Board of Trustees because matters 

 often came up for consideration which were vital 

 to the other professors; but I had supposed that 



