Another copy of the following brief memoir by the first head of the University of Chicago’s department of political economy is found in the Goodspeed papers at the University of Chicago Archives. The copy transcribed in this post comes from a copy in J. Laurence Laughlin’s papers at the Library of Congress. As persuasive a university president as Chicago’s Harper clearly was, it is pretty clear from below that the generous financial package offered to Laughlin was a necessary part of getting to yes.
___________________________
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE FOUNDING OF THE UNIVERSITY.
J. Laurence Laughlin.
I had left business in Philadelphia and accepted the professorship at Cornell University vacated by E. Benjamin Andrews who had just been elected President of Brown University. I went to Cornell in the Fall of 1890 and remained there during two academic years. In the Fall of 1891 President Harper made a visit to Cornell University, and I first met him at a little reception given at the house of Professor Hale. Later I had a walk with him about the campus, in which we discussed universities and men. Of course, there never entered my head at that time the idea of leaving Cornell. On this occasion I remember President Harper asked me what I thought of Edmond J. James. I happened to be able to sum up my judgment concisely in a number of adjectives which covered the whole case, and I recall President Harper’s interested surprise at the concise characterization.
Later, I think it was in the first week of December, 1891, the Baptist Social Union, of New York City, had a debate on “Silver”, in which Ex-secretary Fairchild and Horace White were on one side, and Senator Stewart, and Representative Newlands, of Nevada, were on the other side. A few days before the meeting I had a telegram saying Ex-secretary Fairchild was ill, and asking me to take his place in the debate. I agreed to do so, and very distinctly recall the occasion which was held at Delmonico’s. The debate evidently stirred up Senator Stewart. I did not know at the time that president Harper was seated at one of the tables below. At the end of the affair President Harper joined me and suggested a long walk before we should feel like retiring. To walk off the effects of my coffee, I agreed. We walked for several hours, bringing up, in the basement restaurant, I think, of the Murray Hill Hotel. While we were disposing of a little supper there the President proposed to me that I should come to Chicago in charge of the Department of Political Economy. It was, of course, a great surprise to me, but I agreed to take it under careful consideration.
A little later I found out that Professor Hale, at Cornell, had also been invited. Then I was urged by the President to come to Chicago and look the situation over. At that time no great endowment had been made for the University, and it might be supposed, as was said by Benjamin Ives Wheeler, that there would be “hard sledding ahead”. Or, as it was expressed by another, “We must have great faith, for it would be like hitching our fortunes to a star”. I recall the interest of Henry W. Sage, who expressed his admiration of Harper as “a man of great faith”, and later when he came to see me in Chicago he wanted to meet the President for that reason. In December, at some time before the Holidays, I came to Chicago, visiting the President at the Grand Pacific Hotel. I believe I also called upon him at the then offices of the University in the Chamber of Commerce building. I was placed in the charge of Frank Frost Abbott to be shown the site of the University. By an unfortunate fate he took me out on the Cottage Grove street cars when a partly melted snow on the ground, blackened by coal soot, gave an impression of Chicago more disagreeable than could now be imagined. Mentally I vowed that a team of wild horses could not drag me to live in such a city. When we reached the grounds the scene was, if possible, still more desolate. Cobb Hall and the Divinity dormitories were then built only to the top of the basement, and this was filled nearly to the brim with green, stagnant , swampy water. It was too swampy to pass eastward across the middle of the present campus. There was no drainage system then, and wide stretches of water extended in pools over the surface here and there. The present site of Haskell was a small pond. Another pond spread out in front of what is now Walker. The only way of getting eastward was to go into the Midway and jump from hummock to hummock. Abbbott had been instructed by the President to show me the progress on the building of the Fair; but the desolate external appearance of the University campus removed all interest in the Fair. I asked to be told the height of the level of this land above the surface of Lake Michigan. Abbott then conducted me to the house of Judge Shorey, who told me the land was eight feet above the level of the lake, and in general removed my depression.
President Harper made strenuous efforts to induce me to accept the appointment before I left Chicago. He brought every possible pressure to bear. I had, by the way, meanwhile lunched with him and Dr. Eri B. Hulburt. Finally I left Chicago without having made up my mind. Some differences arose in regard to what the salary of the head professor should be. After I returned to Ithaca, in consultation with Professor Hale, we felt that we would do a service to the professorial body by trying to put the salaries on a higher basis that had before existed. it was in this way that the salary was fixed at $7,000. I believe that this was not arrived at until we met Messrs. Ryerson and Hutchinson in New York City on their way to Europe. On condition that the salary should be $7,000 both Professor Hale and myself accepted.
In this connection I was consulted regarding Professor von Holst coming from Europe. It happened that I then knew very well Mr. and Mrs. Henry Villard. Mr. Villard was at that time at the height of his railway career. A short time before he had brought over a number of scholars and distinguished men from Europe at the driving the last spike on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Professor von Holst was one of this invited body. I soon discovered that Professor von Holst was getting Mr. Villard’s opinion as to the wisdom of accepting the Chicago position. Then Mr. Villard came to me to know what advice should be given to Professor von Holst. We then canvassed the situation, discussing all the advantages and disadvantages. I think some of these interviews went on before I had signified my own acceptance. One of the things which affected my decision was the policy of President Harper in trying to call the strongest men he could find, whether in Europe or America. This policy undoubtedly affected the acceptance by von Holst, as it did that of many others, no doubt. I was thereby thrown into terms of intimacy with Professor von Holst which continued with increasing ties of affection and friendship until his departure for Europe and his death.
During the following Winter some serious difficulties arose. The graduate bulletin had been put out and some of the proposed plans struck us as possibly undesirable from the point of view of the best development of the University. Of course, opinions must differ. Professor Hale and I might have been right or wrong. At any rate, some differences arose between us and President Harper. He then came to Ithaca at once, and we had long and serious conferences about the fundamental organization of the University. I can remember distinctly when sitting in Professor Hale’s house with him and President Harper, I said, “We have been deciding here very large questions of University policy. It is not right that these far-reaching conclusions should be arrived at on the judgment of two or three professors in consultation with the President. These matters ought to go properly to a body composed of the heads of all the departments of the University, and their opinions should be decisive in forming the University organization with which we should begin work.” I remember clearly how the President, sitting at the end of a sofa, looked up at me and in a flash said, “That’s right! It should be the Senate”. And the Senate was born then and there.
That evening, while sitting in my library until rather late, we found that our differences had been composed. At first they had seemed to us so serious that we had wished to withdraw our acceptances. I mention this because it brought out a special characteristic of the President. It was his open-mindedness. After the most thorough and frank discussion, he was willingly to make adjustment with others. Moreover, difficulties of that sort never left and scars.
In all the days after that, in Ithaca and after I came to Chicago in June, 1892, his enthusiasm and confidence in the future of the University was infectious. His dominating thought in those early days, often expressed to me, was, “Now we must all stand together.”
Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of J. Laurence Laughlin. Box 7, Folder “Recollections of the Founding of the University”.
Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.