August 9, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



179 



been briefer had he not voted for himself when 

 he was proposed for reelection. He had 

 hardly been installed at the Ohio University 

 when he gave it to be understood that 

 although there might be committees of the 

 board and of the faculty, his fiat was final; 

 the rest was mere matter of form. One mem- 

 ber of the faculty, the oldest in length of 

 service, resigned recently rather than submit 

 any longer to being browbeaten or ignored. 

 When committees of which he was a member 

 were called together he was left out, because 

 once or twice he had had the bad taste to differ 

 with the president. Although a petition 

 signed by about five students out of six was 

 presented against the acceptance of the of- 

 fered resignation no notice was taken of it 

 officially. Under almost any conceivable con- 

 ditions one would have supposed that the 

 board might wish to know the cause of such 

 an unusual step. 



When names were proposed for honorary 

 degrees the president arbitrarily rejected those 

 of persons whom he thought unlikely to be of 

 any service to him and added those whom he 

 believed or assumed to be in position to re- 

 quite the favor. Another specimen of the 

 method the president has of making himself 

 felt was the adoption of a resolution by the 

 board — at least he says they did — requiring 

 the attendance of the entire faculty at the 

 morning chapel exercises. A request to this 

 effect would have accomplished the same end 

 without producing any ill feeling; but that 

 would not have been a demonstration of his 

 authority. As these exercises consist, for the 

 most part, of a platitudinous speech twenty 

 or thirty minutes long by the president, the 

 performance is highly edifying to at least one 

 person present. The slender attendance on 

 the part of the student body evinces the in- 

 teresting character of the exercises. For a 

 number of years Albert Douglas, of Chilicothe, 

 has cherished the ambition to succeed General 

 Grosvenor as member of Congress. Being a 

 trustee of the Ohio University, as was also one 

 of his foremost champions, it occurred to them 

 that here was a chance to make the higher ( ?) 

 education serve some personal ends. With 



the active aid of the " college crowd " he was 

 nominated by methods that reminded one of 

 those in vogue in Central America except for 

 the absence of fire-arms. What the voters of 

 the district thought of the performance was 

 shown by the ballot cast; for while that of 

 the Democrats remained about the same the 

 Eepublican vote fell off several thousand. As 

 General Grosvenor had been elected ten times 

 without, in any way, using the college to help 

 him it is evidently not essential to an accept- 

 able candidate. Now behold how things work 

 together for good to them that love a con- 

 gressman ! One after another of Mr. Douglas' 

 henchmen were placed on the college pay- 

 roll. For the most unscrupulous member of 

 the coterie a special office, that of alumni 

 secretary, was created, althoiigh the number of 

 living alumni outside of Athens probably does 

 not exceed five hundred. If they had been 

 consulted this man would not have received 

 one vote in fifty. As neither he nor the presi- 

 dent of the college is a graduate of the insti- 

 tution the transaction has a queer look, espe- 

 cially when we take into account the fact 

 that the salary attached to the position is out 

 of all proportion to the service rendered even 

 if it were of the most efficient sort. Albeit, 

 Mr. Douglas is an " honorable man," and de- 

 clared, when accepting the nomination that 

 he had made no promises of any kind and 

 was under obligations to no one. 



Some months ago one of the trustees was 

 sued at law by a member of the faculty on 

 the ground of a misappropriation of a sum of 

 money entrusted to him several years previous 

 for investment. After various delays, the 

 animus of which was plainly evident to those 

 conversant with the local situation, the suit 

 was decided in favor of the plaintiff and the 

 defendant ordered to return the money, in- 

 cluding the cost of prosecution. This was 

 done. As the man is absolutely penniless the 

 question naturally arose. Where did the money 

 come from? Later it transpired that a num- 

 ber of members of the faculty had been ap- 

 proached, at the instigation of the president, 

 for a contribution, on the ground that it 

 would be a misfortune to lose the services of 



