The real reason behind the whole proceeding was revealed by a legislator up in Harrisburg, who got drunk at the Majestic Hotel and told how “Joe” Grundy, woolen manufacturer of Bristol, and president of the State Manufacturers’ Association, had fixed it up with Senator Buckman, his political boss, that the university should not get its annual appropriation until Nearing was fired. So Nearing was fired, and stayed fired, and that was the end of it. Several of his colleagues quit the university; the rest of them raised a fund to pay Nearing a year’s salary, as tribute of their admiration; but they themselves stayed on and behaved themselves, and there has been no more disturbance at the Wharton School. The University of Pennsylvania professors no longer go out and lecture against child labor, they no longer serve on public commissions—or if they do, their findings are what the interlocking directorate wishes found. There are no longer graft exposures in Philadelphia; as one professor remarked to me: “It’s all inside the heads of people who don’t tell!” And this same professor reported an exclamation which came from the lips of his dean: “Oh, how I hate reformers!” CHAPTER XXIII THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH What is the intellectual state of the University of U. G. I. at the present moment? I questioned four different professors about it—taking the precaution to meet each one secretly, not letting even the others know about it. Always I got the same report, frequently backed by the same anecdotes. Some one had gone to the head of a department in the Wharton School to say that the “Young Democracy” group of students wanted to arrange a debate, to have one of their professors answer the Socialist arguments of Scott Nearing. “I should like to do it,” replied the department head. “It’s just what I believe in, but I am very busy, and have plans to have my department expanded; I don’t believe in pussy-footing, but there’s no use throwing away a chance to get some good work done.” In other words, this man did not even dare to debate _against_ Scott Nearing, for fear of offending his trustees! In the Greek department a young instructor did not dare join the “Young Democracy” group, though this was an open forum, strictly non-political; he would give his money, he said, but not his name, it was too dangerous. “They never interfere with my teaching Greek,” he added.