Shock

"Not since Nov. 4, 1908,* have Harvard men had such a shock," said one William Everett. He referred to the resignation, announced last week, of Le Baron Russell Briggs, 70, Professor of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Everett's words were uttered in full knowledge of the many grievous shocks which, since that momentous fourth of November, have distressed the sons of Harvard -- the recent removal of Prof. George Pierce Baker to Yale (TIME, Dec. 8), the threatened departure of Roscoe Pound, Dean of the Law School (TIME, Jan. 26). He recalled the lacrimose demonstrations which attended the first, the frenzied supplications which prevented the second. Yet the calamity of Dean Briggs' resignation he placed first, saying:"Harvard without Briggs -- how changed our college world. True, Harvard, as always, goes on; but for hundreds of men, from youths to those now entering the portals of old age, a glory and a charm are gone never to be regained; for these two men, each the flower of his generation, are unique. He [Dr. Eliot] who transformed a little New England college into one of the foremost universities of the world stood alone. And so it is with Briggs, the man he chose for dean; Briggs, also, stands alone. "Who that saw the Commencement of 1900 can forget the slender, slightly bent figure that stood almost shrinking while Eliot spoke, the bowed head, the downcast eyes--and the cheers that shook the theatre? " Le Baron Russell Briggs.' A wondrous voice rang out the words. Le Baron Russell Briggs. The well-beloved dean of Harvard College, patient, tender, discerning, candid, just and cheering because convinced of the overwhelming predominance of good in the student world.' And unshaken and unshakable in this conviction, which is the soul of love, for more than 40 years Le Baron Briggs has walked among us and wist not that his face shone. . . ."It was the gentle Josiah Royce, who once said musingly: 'I should like some time to feel as good as Briggs really is, "and therein he voiced the sentiment of all men who have come to know Briggs. And what a host they are." Harvard men, here and there, read Mr. Everett's lament in the press, read also the statement of Dean Briggs--"I have been teaching long enough." Pursing their lips, they declared that the Dean's statement, for all its simplicity, was disingenuous."Trouble with Lowell," not age, they averred, was the real reason for the retirement of Dean Briggs. They pointed to the fact that Dean Briggs' name does not appear below any of his old courses in the Harvard curriculum for 1925-6, which, though just issued, went to press some time ago. They asserted likewise that disagreements with President Lowell were responsible for Baker's farewell, for Pound's attempted flight-- assertions supported by no public evidence. Clifford Herschel Moore, Professor of Latin, will be the new Dean.

Le Baron R. Briggs was graduated from Harvard in 1875. For 45 years, he has worked there, as tutor in Greek, Professor of English, Dean of the College, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. For 17 years, he was Chairman of the Harvard Athletic Committee, taught sportsmanship, waged war on the educated muckers who once kept his college athletics in derision. "Sport for sport's sake," was his slogan. He pitied trembling umpires, decried inanely garrulous big men, reformed bullying coaches, strive to bring honor back to amateur Baseball.

*On this day President Charles W. Eliot resigned his office.