Quaker Parting
Pennsylvania's Haverford College last week was in an uproar. Two professors had resigned. Haverford's President Dr. Felix Morley. onetime editor of the Washington Post, said the trouble was domestic. The two professors said it was political.
When Dr. Morley quit the Post last October to take his place at Haverford, newsmen whispered that he had disagreed with Publisher Eugene Meyer over U.S. policy and the war. His friends explained that he was no isolationist, but that Haverford's peace-loving Quakers liked his scrupulously neutral attitude.
The two professors who resigned were members of Haverford's English department. Dr. Leslie Hotson, Canada-born, is renowned as a "literary detective." Through old court records he tracked down the name of the murderer* of Playwright Christopher Marlowe, and he ferreted out long-lost letters that Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to his wife after he ran away with Mary Godwin.
Dr. Hotson is chairman of Haverford's campus committee for aid to Britain. Dr. William Reitzel, an associate professor, was a former vice chairman of Philadelphia's branch of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, is now a member of the Fight for Freedom Committee.
Last week Dr. Hotson admitted that "the immediate cause" of his resignation "was a question of salary." But, said he, "an element that contributed largely to my decision was my disagreement with the administration over . . . academic freedom." Dr. Reitzel gave his version of the "disagreement" that led both professors to quit.
When Haverford asked Rene de Chambrun, son-in-law of France's No. 1 Nazi collaborator Pierre Laval, to address the student body Dr. Morley rejected Dr. Hotson's suggestion that he also invite British Novelist Somerset Maugham. And when Dr. Reitzel invited Eugene Houdry, president of France Forever and a supporter of General de Gaulle, Dr. Morley objected, and the speech was canceled.
Dr. Morley last week explained that Rene de Chambrun was one of a series of speakers that also included British Novelist Phyllis Bentley "at the suggestion of Dr. Hotson." Furthermore, Dr. Morley said that Dr. Hotson asked for a raise soon after Dr. Morley arrived at Haverford last October, was refused, resigned last month. Dr. Reitzel, the president said, "informed me of his intention to resign" in October.
No sooner were their resignations announced last week than Dr. Morely confirmed the appointment of their successors. To replace Ce. Hoston: Dr. Ralph Sargent of Knox College, Illinois. To replace Dr. Reitzel: 25-year-old William Howard Taft, son of Ohio's Senator Robert Alphonso Taft, grandson of the late President of the United States.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.