Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/146

Ii8 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO you are in your prime, few men will care for a Ph.D. or even a B.A. from your new University who can manage to get a similar degree from an institution like this. But even stronger arguments were urged in a flood of letters from all parts of the country in the effort to convince him that he must go to Chicago. Presidents and professors of universities, colleges, and theological seminaries, pastors of churches, Trustees of the new University, and others enforced the claims of Chicago by every sort of consideration. No wonder, since he was unde- cided what to do, that Dr. Harper wrote to Mr. Gates on July 26, 1890: Whether your characterization of me as a Jonah is correct or not, time alone will show. If ever a man had a subject on his mind I have this one. It is with me day and night. I cannot throw it off. If I would, others will not permit me. It is becoming the torment of my life. Every mail brings letters; every newspaper contains a statement; every man who meets me makes a suggestion. I feel very much like packing my valise and leaving the country. A little before this date Mr. Gates had visited Mr. Rockefeller and with his approval, had, in a long conference with Dr. Harper, informally pressed the presidency upon him and discussed financial and other details with him at length. He now responded to the foregoing letter from Dr. Harper: I think you may be assured of unanimous and enthusiastic action from the Trustees as soon as such action will not embarrass you, and also that your salary will be fixed at such a figure .... as will go far toward indemnifying you in the change; and, still further, that details as to the trip to Europe, the time of beginning active service, time to be allowed you for original investi- gation .... amount and character of teaching to be done by you, all these things, I say, and any others will I think be arranged to suit you. The impor- tance of your decision, your favorable decision, to the University and to edu- cation at large grows upon my mind I need not tell you how strongly I feel that this is God's will for you, this the path of usefulness and so of happi- ness; I mean the highest and largest usefulness and happiness, and so the path to be chosen at any personal cost. But I desire also to add that, in my deliberate judgment, it is also the path of the highest fame, the mightiest influence, the most enduring power. I believe it will afford you a coign of vantage from which you may, by wise use of your opportunities, achieve more in scholarship, more in elucidation of the Bible, more in reaching hearts of men than your present position in Yale, besides giving you a field of usefulness