Hollinger Corp. 
 pH8.5 
 
ON THE NECESSITY 
 
 li^VESTIGATION 
 
 State UniYersity of Iowa 
 
 ORDERED BY THE 
 
 22D GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 ]mj 
 
 APR 2 
 
 BY DE. GUSTAYUS HINEIOHS. 
 
■H 5- 
 
INVESTIGATION PREVENTED. 
 
 Shortly before the election of four Regents for the Iowa 
 State University I published a few choice selections of facts 
 from the recent history of the administration of that institution, 
 in the hope that the men responsible for such facts would not 
 be re-elected. But by the control of public opinion exercised 
 through the leading men of this thoroughly Russian Board the 
 three old members were re-elected and a fourth newspaper man 
 of their own choice was added. 
 
 The legislature now resolved to investigate this institution. 
 Messrs. Knight and McCoy from the Senate, and Messrs. Wil- 
 bur, Craig and Paschal from the House, were appointed to con- 
 duct this most necessary investigation. This committee was 
 also directed to inquire into the "moral atmosphere" at Iowa 
 City, especially in regard to the enforcement of prohibition, and 
 to report on the advisability of continuing the professional 
 departments of the University. The time for reporting to the 
 legislature was extended from March 24th to April 2d. Soon 
 after this extension of time had been granted, the Senate 
 rescinded its action for lack of time to carry on a thorough 
 investigation. Though the House has failed to concur in this 
 last action, no legislative investigation can be expected under 
 these circumstances. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that the parties to be investigated 
 pretended to " court investigation " when there seemed to be no 
 danger of such, but asked for delay till towards the dog-days 
 when such investigation had been ordered. It will also be 
 
4 — 
 
 remembered that the University-Snrgeon, who was suffering 
 some from light blood-poisoning, was reported dangerously sick 
 and his final recovery doubtful when the investigating com- 
 mittee was daily expected to arrive at the University, but as the 
 desired delay had been secured, the daily bulletins in his Des 
 Moines organ were discontinued, and now his health has ceased 
 to be topic worthy of mention. That such things can happen 
 in Iowa is very remarkable, and shows strikingly how perfectly 
 a few influential men can hoodwink a great people. 
 
 THE PICKARD SYSTEM. 
 
 The system by means of which this management is carried 
 on was devised by J. L. Pickard when he as president and ex- 
 officio member of the Board of Regents, had become the real 
 Ruler of the State University of Iowa. He advised and through 
 his friends carried out the system of having Regents elected 
 from the press of the State with a view of controlling public 
 opinion. As a result, the democratic Davenport Democrat^ 
 Dubuque Herald, and Fort Dodge Chronicle^ as well as the 
 republican Vinton Eagle ^ Centerville Citizen^ Washington 
 Press and Oskaloosa Herald are now the Board of Regents. 
 The most energetic editor of the Davenport paper, also presi- 
 dent of the telegraphic association controlling all press dis- 
 patches for the entire State of Iowa, as a matter of fact controls 
 the lesser lights, and intimately co-operates with the correspond- 
 ing ruler of the State Agricultral College who edits the Des 
 Moines Register. 
 
 Thus it is that the Pickard system of control of an Iowa 
 educational institution still continues in power, though Pickard 
 himself has been removed by the General Assembly of 1886, 
 from his dominating position in the Board of Regents, and was 
 induced to give his resignation as president to the new members 
 of the Board when in October, 1886, they met at Iowa City to 
 make their final report on Pickard's financial administration. 
 Having ''confidentially" received Pickard's resignation, they 
 revised their report and drew it mild; a few months later that 
 
— 5 — 
 
 confidential resignation got into public print, having leaked out 
 long before. In fact, if the girdler had not returned as soon as 
 he did, the balance of the program would no doubt have been 
 carried out and the State of Iowa would have been spared some 
 of the recent experiences. 
 
 RUSSIA IN IOWA. 
 
 The essential character of the Russian administration con- 
 sists in preventing the people from knowing how they are fooled, 
 robbed and abused. In Russia this is done partly by the Czar 
 ruling the press; here in the Iowa University it is done by a 
 Czar-editor controlling the telegraphic news, and his editorial 
 brethren on the Board. The result is the same in Russia and 
 in Iowa. The methods of work differ according to the machin- 
 ery of government in use, but the outcome is the same. 
 
 In Russia they confiscate the property of the man who is in 
 the way of the administration, here they refuse persistently to 
 make an equitable settlement for services rendered, and thus 
 accomplish the same end. In Russia they break into the homes 
 — here they break into the office and intellectual work-room and 
 help themselves to what they please and then publish their vic- 
 tim to be incapable, to prevent him from making up the loss. 
 In Russia they grant a mock trial, giving at least plenty of 
 time; here they do grant a hearing, but no time, or they grant 
 neither hearing nor time. In Russia they at least tell a man 
 what he is accused of; here they do not even deem that to be 
 necessary. In Russia they condemn men, using the forms of 
 law and proclaim that to a disbelieving public; here they con- 
 demn and proclaim that condemnation in their own organs, pre- 
 tending to be public organs, and the public does not yet fully 
 understand how these organs are worked except perhaps on 
 monopoly questions. In Russia they torture people in prison 
 to drive them into insanity; here they simply create through 
 word and print the opinion that their victim has become what 
 they worked to make him while yet subject to their control. In 
 Russia cruelty and torture have found a home in the dungeon 
 
--6 — 
 
 of political prisoners; here we have surgical clinics and Univer- 
 sity hospitals to take place thereof. Finally, in'Russia, the treas- 
 ury is always empty, the taxes always unbearably high; here 
 the University treasury is always showing a deficiency exactly 
 in proportion to the magnitude of the extra allowance made by 
 the tax-payers of the State. When an extra $16,000 had been 
 granted in 1884 for current expenses — a deficiency over twenty 
 thousand was the result in 1886. Now that the State contrib- 
 utes yearly $28,000, the new five thousand dollar president in- 
 forms the legislative committee that the current expenses of the 
 University exceed all income by about |25,000 a year, which 
 amount is now asked for in addition to the fixed grant of 
 128,000. 
 
 In Russia, terrorism is as widespaead as the power of the gov- 
 ernment, and most persons connected with that government 
 have become tools simply; here in the University of Iowa, a 
 kindred terrorism prevails amongst professors, students and 
 even citizens. The professors whisper in secret confidence, but 
 dare not speak their thoughts for fear of Ring and Regents ; 
 the calm so produced is called harmony. The students know 
 that real merit counts but little, and that honors are safest won 
 by subserviency. Even many citizens deem it necessary to 
 ignore what they see and hear, for fear of being branded ene- 
 mies of the University. And when recently I had published a 
 few samples of such facts, I vfas promptly threatened with 
 prosecution before the grand jury by a party organ and its 
 friends that may influence such a body. To prosecute, defame, 
 and, if possible, destroy any one who may dare to state facts 
 concerning this State University, is truly a Russian method.'*' 
 Will Iowa support an institution, or rather the management of 
 an institution that confesses to be compelled to use such meth- 
 ods of defense? 
 
 To what extent this terrorism has gone may be understood 
 from the fact that some of the professors in the medical depart- 
 
 *The Towa City printer who had this in type was threatened with boycott 
 by Iowa City business men if he would print this paper. 
 
•7 — 
 
 ment have been abused by Peck for having been seen to speak 
 to me; old students have not dared to call upon me except late 
 at night for fear of being black-balled and made to fail in their 
 examinations. The student-editors dared not publish a correc- 
 tion of facts, stating to me that they knew that the publication 
 made in their University paper was false in fact, but that they 
 did not dare to correct it ! And the publication referred to had 
 been paraded over the State in the Ring-organs at Davenport 
 and Des Moines as fully exonerating Peck and condemning 
 me! Members of the class concerned came to me on the street 
 and at my house, telling me that the publication in the University 
 Reporter was false in fact, but that they did not dare to tell the 
 truth, and begging me not to give them away by name. 
 
 This is the most deplorable symptom of the utter rottenness 
 of the Iowa State University. In this particular it stands 
 below the Russian institutions; for in the latter, the young men 
 still dare think and even venture to speak and act, but in Iowa 
 the young are enslaved and forced to become hypocrites. Of 
 what possible good is any education obtained at the sacrifice of 
 manhood! 
 
 When finally they have '^ got through " and entered some 
 practical avocation of life, no longer directly influenced by pro- 
 fessors or regents, then they get even with the institution by 
 recommending young men to go elsewhere to obtain an educa-- 
 tion. And that goes far to explain why the Iowa State Uni- 
 versity has not grown in attendance of late years. 
 
 THE MOEAL ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 The legislative investigating committee was instructed to 
 ascertain how the prohibitory law is enforced at Iowa City. If 
 the committee had come down, it is expected that they wpuld 
 have not excluded the University itself from this investigation. 
 The following questions would thus have been submitted to the 
 committee for their own investigation. 
 
 Is one of the general officers of the State University habitu- 
 ally under the influence of liquor? Has his salary been raised 
 
— 8 — 
 
 from eight to eighteen hundred dollars in order to furnish 
 means to indulge in this habit? 
 
 Has one of the professors of the collegiate department been 
 followed by members of his own class into a saloon to enjoy 
 the sight of seeing him gulp the amber liquid at the public bar? 
 Is he the proper successor to an anti-prohibitionist in principle, 
 who was persecuted and driven out by the prohibition element 
 of faculty and board ? 
 
 Is one of the professors of the collegiate department still 
 engaged in making wine in great quantity and selling it to the 
 prohibition members of collegiate faculty on the sly ? 
 
 Is the prohibition leader and ex-president still using wine as 
 a beverage ? 
 
 Is it true that professors of the medical department have not 
 unfrequently been under the influence of liquor when lecturing 
 to their class? 
 
 Last winter one of our city police saw two drunken fellows 
 after midnight remove empty store boxes from the sidewalk and 
 put them in the street where they would be a dangerous obstacle. 
 The policeman went toward these men in order to arrest them. 
 Is it true that he let them off because he found them to be pro- 
 fessors in the State University of Iowa, and on condition that 
 they would put the boxes back to the curb? Did he tell them 
 that he would not let them off if he caught them again ? 
 
 These and many other questions would have given the com- 
 mittee a good deal of very useful work, and work that ought 
 to have been done for the good of the State. And after this 
 special prohibitory atmosphere had been cleared up, the com- 
 mittee might have ventured into a broader, general moral field. 
 They would possibly have learned that there were two divorces 
 in the collegiate faculty last year; one is said to have been 
 granted for scriptual reason, the other was for cruel and inhu- 
 man treatment. The professor who had to take this degree con- 
 tinues to be a member of the collegiate faculty, and has charge 
 of studies that young ladies are expected to favor. 
 
 At the morning chapel service from a half to a full dozen of 
 the students attend. It has long been considered a farce, and 
 
— 9 — 
 
 a desecration of religion. To carry on religious services at the 
 State University under such conditions is an insult to the reli- 
 gious sentiment of this State. This disgrace has been brought 
 about gradually by ex-President Pickard. When he came, the 
 entire chapel vras crowded every morning. Now a little space 
 between the tw^o entrance doors is sufficient for all. The bal- 
 ance of the chapel has been long ago set apart for library and 
 reading room purposes; it was not required any longer for the 
 purpose for which the State of Iowa had appropriated the money 
 to build it. President Pickard had made the chapel attendance 
 a sham and a farce. The Regents have already considered to 
 abolish what remains thereof. It is to be hoped that they will 
 have enough of regard for the religious sentiment of the people 
 to cease making the religious services at the State University a 
 sham and a reproach. 
 
 There are many other very interesting fields for inquiry for 
 the committee in this direction. I feel certain that at the close 
 of such investigation they would have come to the conclusion 
 that the moral atmosphere of our little town of Iowa City is as 
 good as that of any other town of its size in the northwest, but 
 that the moral atmosphere of the State University itself needs 
 a thorough renewal and the buildings a most careful disinfec- 
 tion. 
 
 INDIYIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES ENDANGERED. 
 
 I have given (in my pamphlet) a sufficient number of facts 
 showing how individuals have been tortured or worse in the 
 medical department of the University, and how the fairly well 
 to do have been " bled," both bodily and financially. I have 
 also shown how the poor, expecting to obtain free surgical treat- 
 ment, have had to sign iron-clad notes for useless operations 
 ending in death foreseen. I have not published the names of 
 the parties, because they themselves or their surviving families 
 have suffered enough without having their names appear in pub- 
 lic. I will add that the names are at anybody's service, except 
 for publication, and that the parties are ready to testify before 
 any impartial investigating committee of the legislature, or in 
 
■10 — 
 
 any court of justice. In most cases I have the testimony of the 
 parties in writing in my possession. From the many other cases 
 I have, I shall here briefly state a case furnished me recently by 
 a physician who himself personally knows the facts he testifies 
 to. It has come to a nice pass in Iowa where such things are 
 possible. In all the horrors of the Russian Katorga I have seen 
 nothing comparable to it; and yet the Russian cruelties are based 
 on lawful action of a despotic semi-barbarous country,* while 
 what is done in Iowa is done in and by the State institution 
 maintained by the people to help the unfortunate and suffering, 
 and to benefit science and learning! Ought not the honorable 
 legislators have taken the time necessary to investigate such 
 horrors in Iowa, boasting of its low illiteracy and grand system 
 of public schools, the "cap-sheaf" of which is the very State 
 University in which these horrors have been enacted? 
 
 But let me state a few of the harrowing facts of this case. A 
 brakeman gets one of his legs crushed. It occurs near a station 
 less than forty miles west of Iowa City. The leg is crushed 
 below the knee. Amputation is the only remedy, of course, and 
 it is imperatively necessary to amputate as promptly as possible. 
 There can be no question about this, if the man is to get well. 
 And as the leg is crushed below the knee, the operation will 
 almost of necessity be followed by speedy recovery and compar- 
 atively little permanent disability to the unfortunate man. A 
 doctor of the nearest station is promptly at hand, and ready to 
 do the necessary work. But just as he wants to perform the 
 amputation, a telegram is received from Surgeon-in-Chief, W. 
 F. Peck, Professor of Surgery in the State University of Iowa 
 and Dean of the Medical Department of Surgery in the State 
 University, ordering that the amputation be deferred till he 
 comes, he being on the train. Next comes an additional order 
 that the amputation be not made at the station, that Peck is not 
 on the train and that the injured man be shipped to the hospital 
 of the Medical Department of the State University of Iowa at 
 Iowa City. 
 
 The chiefs orders have to be obeyed. Th3 poor sufferer is 
 
 See current publication in the Chicago Daily News under above heading of " Katorga." 
 % 
 
11— 
 
 sent in a freight car to Iowa City. Every jolt of the car repeats 
 and intensifies the torture. With every mile traveled and every 
 hour passing, the fragments of bone in the crushed limb cause 
 additional inflammation, and make final recovery more improb- 
 able. When the now doomed sufferer reaches that "Mercy" 
 Hospital of the State University of Iowa, his wife meets him. 
 Little does she know that her husband's chance of life has been 
 wantonly taken away — by order of the Dean of the Medical 
 Department of the State University of Iowa! 
 
 Dean Peck is not at hand to amputate on arrival at Iowa City. 
 It is now pretended that the sufiferer has not recovered from the 
 shock; that the operation must be deferred. The real reason of 
 the delay being that the poor victim was hurt on Wednesday, 
 while Peck's University Clinics are held on Fridays. Peck 
 wants to make use of this sufferer before his class! Therefore 
 the victim has to die slowly. 
 
 But while this victim is surely passing to a near grave because 
 of the delay and the torture in transportation, a railroad acci- 
 dent in Illinois calls the Dean there, and the day of the clinic 
 passes. The victim is finally attended to on Saturday, and dies, 
 as a matter of course, under the knife. 
 
 The railroad company cannot be directly blamed for this; 
 they probably do not know enough about their surgeon. No 
 company does want it's men attended to in that way. But the 
 University is responsible. This man would certainly have got 
 well if the physician at hand had been allowed to proceed. The 
 man would most likely have been alive to-day. But his life was 
 wantonly sacrificed, and before he was allowed to die, the most 
 horrible suffering was inflicted upon him without cause or reason 
 justifiable before God 'or man. 
 
 And to shield himself, the man who has done such deeds is 
 allowed to create and circulate the infamous statement that I 
 am not in sound mind, that I am insane, and that therefore, 
 what I say is of no consequence! Very true it is that he and 
 his compeers have done all they could do to rob me of mind and 
 honor and everything a man holds dear; but his object has not 
 been attained as this and the preceding publication attest. The 
 
— 12 
 
 new five-tliousand-dollar-president of the State University has 
 sided with Peck and declares* my statements to be '' lie upon 
 lie of the most flagrant character;" for doing such work, the 
 salary is really very small indeed ! 
 
 In this manner individuals are treated by University officers 
 in the free State of Iowa. On another occasion I have shown 
 how the chemical laboratories and the University chemists are 
 bringing innocent men and their young daughters under the 
 very gallows. 
 
 But entire communities of Iowa are at times made to suffer by 
 these University authorities, who draw big salaries from the 
 people they abuse. I will mention but one case. 
 
 In the factory village of Coralville near Iowa City, a Swedish 
 baby has what people call " scabby head." It has enjoyed this 
 not elegant ornament to a rather large extent and for weeks 
 already, without communicating it or any dire disease to any- 
 body. In fact, at a farm house less than a mile distant is 
 another child in about the same condition. Fortunately, the 
 latter child was not " discovered " by the Medical Faculty of the 
 State University of Iowa, while that baby was so discovered 
 when brought to a drug store, in Iowa City. 
 
 Dr. Peck, Dean of the Medical Department, and Dr. Robert- 
 son, Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the same 
 department, and also chairman of the State Board of Health of 
 Iowa, both examined the child at Coralville, in the presence of 
 their subalterns, and pronounce it to be afflicted with — Small- 
 Pox! The people of the town laugh at it and deny it, for that 
 very child has been in that condition amongst them for weeks 
 already, without anybody having been infected by it. A phy- 
 sician who while in army service, had seen and treated hundreds 
 of cases of genuine small-pox, is called in by the mayor and 
 many citizens of the town to see the child. Instead of simply 
 looking at the child's head, as the great University and State 
 Board of Health authorities had done, he orders the child strip- 
 ped — and finds its body sound and smooth without blemish or 
 
 *See my open letter to President Schaeffer, below. 
 
13 — 
 
 spot, and declares that it has not small-pox at all. The history 
 of the case has proved him to be right. 
 
 But the great State authorities put family and town in quar- 
 antine, order all people to be vaccinated, have the schools closed 
 and all that kind of thing. The busy little town is put to great 
 financial loss daily, and everybody made miserable and unhappy, 
 all because in the State of Iowa great official power and in- 
 fluence has been intrusted to men both unable and careless, not 
 to say reckless, and fond of making people feel that power. 
 
 The '"authorities" had finally to declare the quarantine raised, 
 though that little Swedish baby continued' to have its head as 
 badly disfigured as ever, and to have as smooth a skin over its 
 little body as when the University Faculty of Medicine first 
 declared the little imp to have small-pox. 
 
 A plain old farmer near by, told me that in his house that 
 other Swedish boy had been at the time, but that the medical 
 fools had not seen it, or they would also have declared it to have 
 small-pox. He wanted me to have the investigating committee 
 of the legislature call him as witness in order to have a chance 
 to tell them all about it. But he will have to forego that pleas- 
 ure, since there is no time to look into this little matter at the 
 State University. 
 
 The State University is getting to be a big thing in cost to 
 the people, and in salary to its officers. The people of Iowa 
 ought not to find fault with so big an institution; it ought to be 
 DEAR to them, for certainly its officers, from the new five thous- 
 and dollar president down to the boy professor, all endeavor to 
 make that institution dear in money taken, suffering inflicted, 
 and honor and reputation attacked, — yea, even life sacrificed. 
 
 It is really too bad that our Iowa Legislature did not shorten 
 the time devoted to railroad rates a little, and use the time so 
 saved to the investigation of the manner in which, say just one 
 poor brakeman's life was lost by the officers of the State Univer- 
 sity of Iowa. It would not have returned the husband to the 
 poor widow; but it might have prevented the widow-making 
 institution from continuing its business at the old stand and in 
 the old fashion. GUSTAVUS HINRICHS. ^ 
 
 Iowa City, March 30, 1888. 
 
 Investigation ordered Apr 9 
 
— u 
 
 Why the University is Running Behind 
 $25,000 a Year. 
 
 Dr. Chas. A. ScJiaeffer, President State University of Iowa: 
 
 Sik: — The Sioux City Journal reports an interview in which you say 
 about my pamphlet on the administration of the University : " There is lie 
 after lie of the most flagrant character." Upon proper inquiry you have 
 confirmed the correctness of the reporter's version of your assertion. You 
 preface your coarse statement by the assertion that you have not had time to 
 examine my pamphlet which you denounce as being "lie upon lie of the 
 most flagrant character." You also declare '' Dr. Andrews to be one ot the 
 finest chemists in the West," though you must know that he has brought 
 an innocent father and his grown up daughter under the very gallows by 
 his ignorance and unscrupulous work as toxicologist, not to mention many 
 other facts proving his reckless ignorance. He is now trying to obtain $200 
 from a county in Iowa for having prevented the ends of justice in destroy- 
 ing matter in evidence without attaining any positive result. You also 
 declare Dr. Peck wholly innocent, and assert that my charges are visionary 
 and spiteful, although you must know I preferred no charges but stated 
 some plain facts. 
 
 It thus appears that Mr. Eichardson in scouring the country for a president 
 fit to serve under him did succeed in getting the right sort of a man. The 
 harmony which according to your statement prevails in the faculties is 
 manifest on the outside by not a few dissonant chords, which far from all 
 proceed from the Medical Department. 
 
 Your having, falsely, pronounced my statements of facts to be "lie upon 
 lie of the most flagrant character," invites me to examine your statements 
 made officially before the legislative committee at Des Moines on February 
 15. I shall not copy your coarse language, though it would be applicable in 
 fact, it wiU be sufiicient to show that your official statements were contrary 
 to fact, and that they were evidently made with a view to mislead the legis- 
 lative committee. I shall call special attention to only a few instances of 
 this kind. 
 
 You declare "that the plan of the organization of the University of 
 Michigan is identical with that of the State University of Iowa," and imply 
 that the latter ought therefore to receive ©175,000 a year in appropriation 
 from the State. But you know that the University of Michigan is governed 
 
— 15 — 
 
 by a Board, eight Regents elected by the people, while the University 
 of Iowa is governed by a Board proceeding from the darkness of a little dis- 
 trict caucus by the kindly help of designing professors and corporation 
 lawyers. 
 
 In order to explain the enormous increase of expenses — demanding a 
 doubling of the yearly State appropriation — you state that your "income " 
 at Cornell College was $4,000^= ; that here you get $5,000 a year, which is nearly 
 twice as much as the president of this University got when he also was 
 member of the Board of Regents, and ruling member of the executive com- 
 mittee, and thus had vastly greater responsibilities than you have now. 
 Fou make the legislative committee believe that your $4,000 income was 
 that much salary paid by Cornell College, but you omit saying so. You 
 also neglect to inform them that you held the third professorship in chem- 
 istry only, and fad to state that it was not sufficiently important an office to 
 be refilled after you left the same. 
 
 You say that you attach yourself to a growing institution in accepting 
 this presidency, though you must be aware of the fact that the Iowa State 
 University has been running down in attendance and standing before the 
 people of Iowa. 
 
 You declare before the committee of the legislature that you " are filling 
 a professor's chair in the medical school" when you know that you deliver 
 but half the number of lectures and do none of the laboratory work belong- 
 ing to that chair, and have elected a former assistant of yours at a salaiy of 
 $600 for five months to do this work for you under the new name of demon- 
 strator in chemistiy, who, as such, has also to get things ready for your lec- 
 tures. You also fail to state that you have gone over only half the ground 
 in this professorship you claim to fill; having entirely failed to lecture on 
 medical chemistry, including toxicology and urine analysis. In fact, you 
 know that the present medical class has not received a full course of lectures 
 in chemistiy from you at all. Now why do you make official statements so 
 entirely contrary to facts known to yourself? 
 
 You also assert that " the department rapidly expanded when Dr. An- 
 drews eame in," but you omit to state the kind of expansion that took place. 
 It was an expansion in number of men employed, and salaries paid, and 
 facilities provided. Claiming as you do to fill the chair of chemishy in the 
 Medical department, it represents |950; your demonstrator in chemistry in 
 that department,-S600; total, $1,550. Dr. Andrews receives $1,800, his 
 assistant, Hitchcock, $900, and his assistant professor, Veblen, $1,500. 
 Thus th*e State University pays now an aggregate salary of $5,950 a year 
 
 *The purchasing power of a dollar in Iowa is almost double that it is in 
 New York — so this $4,000 Avould be equivalent to not much over $2,000 in 
 Iowa. A $5,000 salary here would be equivalent to a salary of almost 
 $10,000 in Xew York. 'This is by far the highest salary paid by Iowa I 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 lllililllllllllllilllllilillllllllllilll 
 
 — 16 — 
 
 "0" 028 "342 400" "5 
 
 in this department, against $1,950 paid me during the last year I had to do 
 all this work. Further, you have spent some three thousand dollars for 
 apparatus, glassware and chemicals in the last two years, against nothing 
 given to me. Besides, the teaching done is notoriously unpopular, and in 
 many respects unsatisfactory, while the State laboratory under Andrews is 
 used to bring innocent citizens under the gallows as poisoners, and to extort 
 unearned fees from Iowa counties for destroying matter in evidence. This 
 is the kind of " expansion " that has actually taken place in fact, and you 
 cannot be ignorant of this fact. 
 
 You state that "Richardson tracked the country over from March to Octo- 
 ber" to find a professor of Engineering; you know that Richardson has 
 publicly disclaimed to have had anything to do in the matter of appointing 
 new professors. It cannot be that both you and Richardson tell a story! 
 You also say that the old salary was too small for such a man — so Prof. 
 Philbrick was not able enough. You claim that your new professor is 
 specially qualified — but do not say that his special work was done at the 
 Panama Canal, a work that 16 of no possible consequence to Iowa students. 
 You say that "our engineering students go to Kansas and get $1,500 as chain- 
 men, overlooking the two little facts that chainmen are but a poor outcome 
 of the instruction of a $3,000 professor, and that it takes an entire class of 
 five chainmen to make SI, 500 in Kansas! 
 
 You also explain the Nutting-Hornaday affair, but fail to say that the 
 Hornaday " gift" of skins was so peculiar a gift that no institution was 
 green enough to accept it, as the '* stuffing " was to be done by the giver 
 and to cost as much as the skins were claimed to be worth, and as a per- 
 manent " curator," at $900 a year, was to be appointed for the same, and as 
 finally that collection was to remain separate and distinct — conditions which 
 had been steadily and naturally refused by reputable institutions of science 
 for almost ten years before your Board of Regents accepted them on Calvin 
 McBride's recommendation. , 
 
 There are many other similar instances of most violent contrast between 
 the facts which you as president are required and supposed to know, and 
 your official statements addressed to the committee of the legislature which 
 is entitled to honest and truthful information from you. The few cases 
 here specified may suffice to demonstrate how much weight your official 
 statements are entitled to. In view of this you will pardon me for saying 
 that I believe it will not be necessary for me to ask you to recall your harsh, 
 ungentlemanly and entirely uncalled for words against me which I quoted 
 at the opening of this letter. 
 
 Hoping that you may yet learn the value of truthfulness in official life, 1 
 remain, Respectfully, 
 
 February 21, 1888. GUSTAVUS HINRICHS.