Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/520

 454 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO debaters were heard in eastern institutions also. These representa- tives won their full share of honors, not infrequently winning inter- collegiate championships with the attendant prizes or honors. It was not to be expected that in the appointment of so large a number of instructors as the University had at the beginning, mis- takes should not occur. The President was a very patient and long-suffering man. He always stood by his professors with extraordinary loyalty. He held a man in his place as long as he could, and made every possible excuse for him. He let even a poor instructor go with reluctance, and only when retaining him would be unbearably injurious to the University. President Harper had the tenderest of hearts, and in occasioning pain or disappointment to another he was himself the greatest sufferer. When it became necessary to terminate the relations of an instructor with the Uni- versity he did it with the utmost delicacy and sympathy, always offering his assistance in securing other employment. He spared the man's sensibilities in every possible way and tried to have the separation made with good feeling on both sides. It is surprising that these cases were so very few. Ninety-nine appointees out of a hundred, perhaps, did successful and useful work. It would not be necessary to touch upon this phase of the University's develop- ing life had not certain newspaper writers, on the alert for sensa- tional stories, without the slightest basis of fact invented them on this subject. They charged that the University had denied to its professors intellectual freedom and that men could not stay in the faculty whose views did not accord with those of the larger donors. For a time there was an outcry made, and fables on this subject found their way into the newspapers all over the country. The stories were pure fabrications. It is not probable that any man who had left the service of the University was responsible for them. Irresponsible news mongers invented the stories and circulated them in the hope of making a sensation. Probably no man of his generation endured unjustifiable assault, slanderous misrepresentation, with greater apparent equanimity than President Harper. No man of his time was more injured by such slanders in the minds of a vast number of good people. But all these personal attacks he endured in silence. He was made