Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/75

THE INCEPTION OF THE PLAN 49 right to do everything for Chicago and nothing for the rest of the country. On November 28, 1888, Dr. Harper wrote: I am sorry to say that I can hardly agree with you and the other brethren in reference to the policy to be pursued. I hardly think it is legitimate, for if the thing you are wanting at Chicago is only a College, I have been working upon a wrong tack .... and the result will be that a College is all that we shall get. This would be very sad indeed, for it is not a College but a Univer- sity that is wanted. My only desire is to see the thing go through in as large a form as possible, and I am sure that unless we come out boldly and con- fidently for what we want, viz., a University of the highest character, having also a college, we shall lose ground and make a mistake. At this time a letter was received from George S. Goodspeed who was very intimately associated with Dr. Harper in New Haven. The following is quoted from it, because it bears on this point and particularly because it shows quite conclusively that the founding of an institution at Chicago was proposed by Mr. Rockefeller: If Chicago and Dr. Harper were urging a great University upon Mr. Rockefeller and he were hesitating, .... then it might do to moderate demands and say that a College was all that was needed. But the fact is that all the urging and all the impulse has come from Mr. R. He had embraced the idea of a great University! he sent for you and Dr. H. and desired your counsel. Under those conditions Dr. Harper thought it unwise for Chicago to back down until it perceived that Mr. R. was anxious to back down He objected to any seeming yielding until it was absolutely necessary. The fact is that Chicago is more likely to get the great University, .... as things look now .... than New York is. A meeting of the Executive Board of the Education Society was held in Washington, on December 3, 1888. Mr. Gates sub- mitted an elaborate report, setting forth his conclusions so con- vincingly that the Board approved the effort to establish a well-equipped institution in Chicago, and instructed the secretary to use every means in his power to originate and encourage such a movement. In a letter dated December 5, Dr. Harper writes of the meeting and says: Mr. Gates will give himself early to the work. He is coming to New Haven this week and is to be with me at Poughkeepsie next Sunday. Mr. E. Nelson Blake made a most excellent speech in behalf of Chicago. I think I appreciate better now your last proposition to Mr. Rockefeller and desire to retract all statements I made in reference to it. I wrote too hastily Gates and I talked Monday night, .... [after the meeting approving the Chicago effort,]