Last year, when the “I. V. A.” came into power, the new Governor Nestos came to the university to deliver the Founders’ Day address, and revealed the new scheme of his crowd—to “get” the liberal professors on the issue of religion. In the North Dakota legislature a representative of the “I. V. A.” had proclaimed the terrible tidings that the state library was circulating “The Profits of Religion.” He described the pages referring to the Catholic political machine as “so sacrilegious, so terrible, that I would not read it in this house or any other place.” According to the Bismarck “Tribune,” he “called the attention of every minister in North Dakota to this book”—apparently overlooking the inconsistency of asking the ministers to read the book, and at the same time forbidding the state library to furnish it to them!
Now came Governor Nestos, accusing the professors of “undermining the faith of the students”; and President Kane wrote letters to three of the liberals, O. G. Libby, A. J. Ladd, and Dean Willis of the Law School—several pages of virulent abuse, culminating in the announcement of their dismissal. Under the constitution, this matter should have been taken up by the dean, and the professors had the right of appeal to the university council. This council appointed a committee, consisting exclusively of Kane supporters; nevertheless, after hearing the evidence, this committee unanimously exonerated the professors, and the board of administration did the same. The board tried to settle the matter by requesting both Kane and the professors to resign, but the railroad attorneys who are now running the university will not permit that. The struggle is still on, and the outcome uncertain as I write. One man who has got away tells me how it feels to teach under the control of big business in North Dakota:
“It means the surrender, not merely of your mind, but of your character; a man who stands it for two or three years becomes wholly unfit to influence the young. It has been less than a year since I left, yet I have had letters from probably twelve men at the university, asking me to help them to get positions elsewhere!”
Finally, in justice to the liberal professors, I think I should state that no person now at the university has furnished me any information about it. Several were asked to do so, and declined.