Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/231

STUDENTS AND FACULTY 201 the probability that the presidency of the institution in process of being founded in Chicago would be thrust upon him had been constantly before his mind, and he had been studying men as pos- sible members of a faculty. He had high ideals of what a university instructor should be. He must be a teacher, but first and foremost he must be a scholar, in love with learning, with a passion for research, an investigator who could produce, and, if what he produced was worthy, would wish to publish. It was a recom- mendation to have studied abroad and earned a higher degree. President Harper was endowed with a kind of intuitive recognition of a scholar, which enabled him to select a faculty of scholars. He had, moreover, a singularly judicial mind, and in considering possible teachers he weighed the evidence on both sides with insight and justice. In dealing with those he wanted to engage for his faculty he manifested a consideration of their interests, a friendli- ness and sympathy that disarmed opposition, and a personal charm, a power to make his theme interesting, and a contagious enthusiasm, that won even the reluctant. As a result of these unusual qualities and of this exceptional equipment for selecting and securing his faculty, President Harper made few mistakes in his first faculty. In the appointment of the hundred and twenty members of that faculty not half a dozen disappointed him. They were a body of instructors of which any university in the world would have been proud. President Harper's wide acquaintance with, and extensive knowledge about teachers, gave him abundant material for making his first selections. He began also at once to make inquiries of educators he trusted as to the fitness of men for suggested positions. After a few leading men had been secured for the faculty, he con- stantly used them to assist him in finding other men. He set them to writing letters of inquiry. He sent them to make visits and to hold preliminary conferences. But he depended finally on personal interviews between himself and candidates or those he was anxious to get. Serious attention was given to promising applications. These were often accompanied or followed by voluminous testi- monials, books, pamphlets, theses, and newspaper articles published by the candidate. If these were found promising a personal inter- view was had to determine whether the man was what his