Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/237

 STUDENTS AND FACULTY 207 1. The salary of Head Professor was increased to seven thousand dollars. 2. Professor J. Laurence Laughlin was elected Head Professor of Political Economy. Thus was the problem of securing head professors at least partially solved, and with its solution most of the difficulties in the way of securing a faculty disappeared. This latter fact was illustrated in the immediate appointment under Mr. Laughlin's advice of Adolph C. Miller, also of Cornell, as associate professor in his department. In the meantime it had become clear to the President that he must have expert assistance in the tremendous task of organizing the work of the University, arranging the courses of instruction, preparing the schedules and announcements, establishing regula- tions under which the work of instruction should begin, and solving the thousand and one problems that were sure to arise. He found the man he needed in Harry Pratt Judson, professor of History and lecturer on Pedagogy in the University of Minnesota. The two men had reached a tentative agreement in the summer of 1891, and on January 26, 1892, Mr. Judson was elected Professor of History and Head Dean of the Colleges. The circumstances attending the coming to the University of a future President are of such historic interest that the following is quoted from a state- ment written by President Judson: In the winter [1891-92] it became time to settle definitely whether I should or should not come to Chicago, and some matters had taken such shape that I sent word to Dr. Harper that, on the whole, I didn't think it advisable for me to leave Minneapolis. However, he had anticipated me by having the appointment made by the Board of Trustees, and an announcement made in the press before my letter reached him. Of course that committed me so that I could hardly do otherwise than accept the original proposition. I must confess that the new scheme, while very attractive to me in many ways, seemed in many other ways quite visionary. There was much in the air, but not much in the ground. When I came down that winter of 1891-92 to look over the plant I found a wilderness adjoining the projected site of part of the World's Fair. Still the possibilities were made to appear much like probabilities by Dr. Harper's enthusiasm. The matter being settled I sent in my resignation to the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota. They thought that the Chicago plan was even more visionary than it had, at any time, appeared to me. They did not believe that it would ever materi- alize in such a way as to make it a permanent institution. Therefore they