ANDY MELLON'S UNIVERSITY
Howes, Raymond F.
ANDY MELLON'S UNIVERSITY -By RAYMOND V. HOWES in The Outlook-Raymond F. Howes, who In Outlook magaiine tells the following story of Chancellor Bowman's modern crusade at the University of...
...Let us call it the spirit of i achievement...
...Woltman, with two companions, was beaten and thrown into jail at White Valley, Pa., for speaking of constitutional rights to state troopers bent on breaking up a miners' picket line...
...In the meantime, with the approach of the summer vacation, many of the liberals, especially those who had supported the Pitt Liberal club or joined the Civil Liberties union, packed their bags to leave for the last time...
...Bowman's proposition...
...Any industrial who conifibut-cd more than $1,000 could have his) name engraved on a bronze tablet in *h<-' I great central hall: and business ho^fs [ that made sufficiently large donjons J had the privilege of setting up under the Gothic archways of this same hall busts of their foundors with appropriate Inscriptions...
...It was the determination to hear first rate speeches on matters of Importance that prompted the Liberal club to Issue what proved to be its last invitation— the one to Dr...
...John Gabbert Bowman...
...Woltman secretary...
...His plan, announced in November of 1924, appealed to both...
...j "Pittsburgh...
...On the same day Frederick Woltman, a graduate assistant in the department of philosophy, was dismissed from the faculty...
...Barnes...
...Woltman had been for some time the courageous and spectacular leader of a group of Pitt professors laboring to expose political corruption and denial of civil liberties in Pennsylvania...
...During this trying period Chancellor Bowman has remained almost completely silent...
...He proposed to build a cathedral of learning 680 feet high at a cost of $10,000,000...
...His dismissal and the expulsion of the two student leaders of the Liberal club brought to fever pitch the unrest and resentment among students and faculty...
...There is a way of thinking, a way j of doing a spirit here out of which has come the wealth, the manufacturing...
...The University of Pittsburgh in 1921 was seriously overcrowded...
...On May 8. 1928, Mr...
...The students could do little...
...Prof...
...Bowman's campaign committee to ' raise funds included, besides Andrew W. Mellon and Senator David A. Reed...
...The students early discovered that any criticism of the administration or of the cathedral of learning met with swift and sure punishment...
...chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh...
...On May 2 William Albertson and Arthur G. McDowell, student officers, were expelled from the university...
...Only an Idealist could have conceived It and only an efficiency expert could have made It practical...
...He offered sweetness and light, "the knowledge of good living, of good government, or philosophy and poetry, the knowledge of art...
...Fourteen other members of the Pitt faculty joined...
...professors had found plenty of both to expos...
...Lastly, the plan appealed to the ordinary citizen, whose civic pride had long been suppressed because he had nothing in particular to be proud of...
...more specifically, of industries that had contributed immense sums to the cathedral...
...D., LL...
...To business men the cathedral of learning seemed an attractive venture irLaa"*1 vertising...
...There has been almost continuous friction between faculty members and the administration pver since...
...Some went entirely of their own volition, because they foresaw what their ultimate fate might be...
...Bowman I offered "a promise of the new day in The Cathedral of Lcarnf/ng at Pittsburgh tangible form...
...that they believed they were following his own ideals, working to spiead knowledge of good living and of good government, made the situation still more difficult...
...The immediate result of the campaign was to make the university representa-t.ve of the spirit of Pittsburgh and...
...and the tonnage production...
...No reason was given...
...In the fall of 1928 liberal leaders of Pittsburgh organized a branch of the American Civil Liberties union...
...He therefore canceled a series of projected articles on the Pennsylvania strike...
...at 44...
...The architectural conception, combining a medieval cathedral with a. i twentieth century office building, was , ! daring...
...When city officials of Pittsburgh refused to allow meetings in the Pittsburgh Labor lyceum, Mr...
...The new building ' Is to express this spirit of achievement...
...of its sublimity that the whole world j will understand...
...This spirit Is little known...
...1 the leaders of every big industry in ' Pittsburgh...
...Hence the whole of Pittsburgh accepted Dr...
...The enterprise, the erection of a 52-story building to express the soul of Pittsburgh, bears unmistakably the stamp of an unusual personality...
...It is known for the making of steel, glass and machinery...
...with such force and with such grasp...
...No one can tell, from any printed utterance of his, whether he approves or disapproves political methods in Pittsburgh, the actions of Pennsylvania coal and iron police, or the conduct of the coal strike...
...More spare was needed...
...Frederick A. Beutel...
...Nine thousand students struggled for knowledge in buildiiurs designed for half that number...
...He was severely censured and lold that he would not be reappointed, but was later reinstated on the condi-tion that he avoid speaking or writing about, coal...
...The Incident in itself is not so unusual in academic life as to cause extended comment...
...The chancellor promised classrooms with fireplaces and easy chairs, spacious offices, modern laboratory equipment, an enlarged library—and higher salaries...
...Barnes should illuminate the scene In a flash of publicity...
...He w-as arrested while reading the provisions of the national and state constitutions guaranteeing the right of freedom of speech and peaceable assembly...
...Colston E. Warnc, assistant professor of economics, spoke before the Hungry club of Pittsburgh describing the tragic conditions in the Pennsylvania coal fields...
...The meeting was not held...
...Instructor In business law at the University of Pittsburgh, joined (he Pittsburgh committee campaigning for Glfford Plnehot against William S. Varc and testified before the senate investigating committee...
...but he found his work the next year so unpleasant and difficult that he resigned at the first opportunity...
...ANDY MELLON'S UNIVERSITY -By RAYMOND V. HOWES in The Outlook-Raymond F. Howes, who In Outlook magaiine tells the following story of Chancellor Bowman's modern crusade at the University of Pittsburgh, Is a former teacher at the university...
...he said in his announce-1 mcnt speech, "Is known as a center of j wealth and industry...
...But that incident with its sequel, the dismissal of a member of the faculty and the expulsion of two leaders of the student Liberal club, has a larger significance, it trumpets abroad the failure of Chancellor John Gabbert Bowman's dream of uniting in a single great enterprise the spirit of learning and the spirit of industry...
...he was graduated 22 years later from the state university and became successively a newspaper man, an instructor in English at the University of Iowa and at Columbia university, secretary of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, president of the University of Iowa, director of the j American College of Surgeons, and then...
...It is to be the greatest • structure ever erected by any commu- j nity to tell Its own will...
...If a few harbored the suspicion that their research would be directed toward commercial ends and that freedom of thought would be curtailed, they said little about it...
...Socialism was barred as a subject for intercollegiate debate...
...It was to be financed largely by local: industries and to be dedicated to the \ spirit or Pittsburgh...
...Woltman made a speech there...
...He has even refused to answer the direct question: "Do you believe in the right of free speech for members of the faculty and of the student body...
...For the faculty of the university, too, the project had charms...
...He was not dismissed from the faculty...
...He found two directly under his nose: Pittsburgh civic pride and Pittsburgh industry...
...Born at Davenport, la., in 1877...
...science, of humanity, tlie full satisfaction of the hopes and desires of men," all to be products of the city's own creative energy...
...D., is both an idealist and an efficiency expert...
...But all J of this is only part of the real Pitts-' burgh...
...It is a spirit of cour- j age...
...of daring, of speed of action, and | of honor...
...When Dr...
...It was unfortunate for Dr...
...Bowman's favorite divisions, signed a petition asking the chancellor to call a faculty meeting and explain his action...
...Bowman suddenly discovered that idealism and practical expediency had parted company...
...j 1 Dr...
...Warne became treasurer and Mr...
...I Bowman that the spirit of learning j might be endangered by this step, j To the great dirty city Dr...
...It became only a matter of time until some such episode n.s the chasing of Dr...
...The idea of vast tonnage production in the minds of millions of people is associated with this city...
...It was brought here j by the pioneers...
...I j Here, obviously, was a new idea in 1 ' education...
...But a number of professors, including about two-thirds of those in the department of English, one of Dr...
...j It seems nrver to have occurred to Dr...
...Bowman ; wanted immediate action...
...M. A., Lltt...
...Bowman that the students and faculty of his univcr: ity should, in the next few years, take Important roles in exposing Pittsburgh's darker vide...
...The building, by Its shape and size, he said, would symbolize these ideals...
...But even more daring was the Identification of the ideals of a center ; of learning with the Ideals of an in- j 1 dustrlal city...
...Harry Elmer Barnes of Smith college tried to make a speech at the University of Pittsburgh last April, he was chased from the campus by a university official...
...To get it he had to discover and harness powerful sources of wealth...
...Approximately $8.D00,C00'was raised, the bulk of it from large industries represented on the campaign committee...
Vol. 1 • January 1930 • No. 8
