The Goose-step: A Study of American EducationSinclair, Upton
History
The Goose-step: A Study of American Education
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States; Universities and colleges -- United States
A great deal was made of the matter in the newspapers all over this
country, under the heading of College Freedom, and many papers took it
up. I did teach after that, for two years, 1897-9, in the Kansas State
Agricultural College, but, finding no openings in the larger
universities, I turned my attention exclusively to the investigation
of public utility questions, and to assisting states, cities and
commissions in such matters. I found a congenial field as head of the
Cleveland, Ohio, Water Department, under Tom L. Johnson, from
September, 1901, to 1910, and have since then spent my strength on
building up an organization of engineers and accountants devoted to
assisting cities and states and other public bodies, including the
national government, in appraisals and rate adjustments of public
utilities.
I received no calls for teaching, save as above mentioned, since I was
forced out of the University of Chicago, and for over twenty years
have sought none. I have never been a Socialist, or an extremist along
any line, but have investigated and to some degree favored public
ownership of public utilities, and have had a friendly relation with
the American labor movement.
My opposition to the efforts of certain Chicago utilities to secure
lighting and street railway franchises, while I was at the University
of Chicago, and the public address which I made during the famous
Pullman strike in 1894, wherein I did not endorse the strike but did
say that the railroads had often boycotted each other, violated law,
etc., as well as had the men, were features assigned by President
Harper for the opposition to me, resulting in my dismissal by the
trustees of the university.
A professor at the University of Chicago who read this manuscript
volunteered to get for me the university’s side of the story, and he
wrote me:
At the time of his “dismissal” Bemis was in the extension division.
His appointment ran out and he was offered re-appointment, his
remuneration to come from the fees of students. This action might, of
course, be described in Mr. Bemis’ phrase, “dropped me from the
faculty.”
I submitted that statement to Professor Bemis, who answered by wire:
My letter which you quote is absolutely correct. No proposition for
continuance of my work, half of which was to advanced students within
the university walls, was ever made to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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