Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/83

 THE INCEPTION OF THE PLAN 57 from him this week shows this to be clear. He has asked me to make no arrangement with Yale or with any other person without first consulting him. I shall meet him in New York City Monday or Tuesday of next week and settle the matter, so far as Yale is concerned Yours sincerely, W. R. HARPER In letters of the month following the above, Dr. Harper abandoned the conception of a triple headship. It was the temporary abbera- tion of a great mind. The idea of the dual headship remained. Those interested were groping for the right course. In writing to Dr. Harper of the journey from New York to Cleveland, Mr. Gates said: Mr. Rockefeller did not commit himself at any point, but asked a great many questions about details and seemed to be pleased with the plan that I outlined, the good points of which I defended at length. In parting with me he said that his mind worked slowly in these matters, .... and closed by saying "I think we are in the way of progress." It will perhaps be noted that among all these letters almost none has been quoted from Mr. Rockefeller. As a matter of fact he was not writing letters. He was leaving that to Messrs. Harper, Gates, Morehouse, Goodspeed, and others. From the date of Dr. Harper's letter in October, 1888, telling how Mr. Rockefeller opened to him the matter of a university in Chicago, to May 15, 1889, there were some three hundred and forty letters written on this subject, most of them by the men named above, copies of which have been before the author in writing this story. Perhaps a dozen were written by Mr. Rockefeller. But these were the briefest possible masterpieces in the art of saying nothing. They exhibited an extraordinary self-restraint. The longest of the series was the following: January 15, 1889 MY DEAR DR. HARPER: Pleased to receive yours of the i3th. So many claims have pressed upon me I have not really needed a University to absorb my surplus. We have heard a great deal this year about taking care of the surplus in the Treasury. Of late I had rather come to feel that if Chicago could get a College and leave the question of a University until a later date this would be more likely to be accomplished. If possible I will see Mr. Gates tomorrow and write Dr. Morehouse a note assuming that he will know of his whereabouts. Yours truly, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER