The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 257
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The University Becomes Politicized 257
of the teaching staff at the University of Texas in these years was very
solid. The history department possessed a nucleus of real talent, and
men such as William J. Battle in classics, Milton B. Porter in mathe-
matics, Frederick D. F. Heald in botany, and Alvin S. Johnson in eco-
nomics had claims to national standing, or the potential to achieve it.
Faculty salaries were not competitive after 19oo, and library resources
remained sparse. There was a tacit administrative policy of sabbatical
leaves, and a faculty workload of thirteen class-hours per week. "The
faculty," Thomas Vernor Smith recalled, "was replete with learning,
and shared what they had generously with the students."4
In class the students, as Alvin S. Johnson remembered them, were
"extremely respectful to the teacher," but not disposed to inquire into
what they were taught. Some individual students-Walter Prescott
Webb, T. V. Smith, and Walton H. Hamilton-displayed brilliant
promise. As a whole, the undergraduates expected frequent holidays
from class routine, and had early established a reputation for devoted
partying they have never relinquished. Hazing of freshmen resulted in
one shooting in 1911, and brought legislative investigations and an
outlawing of the practice. Fraternities were influential, and there was
some political and social tension because of their importance.
When academics joined the Texas faculty, colleagues at other
schools cautioned them that the state was not hospitable to academic
freedom. Nonetheless, there was a public sense of tolerance and open-
ness in these years. "Politics have no more to do with the appointments
in the University of Texas than they do with the canals on Mars," said
A. Caswell Ellis, a professor of the philosophy and psychology of educa-
tion, in 1910, "and ... the professors are as free from interferences in
their work as it is possible for one to be in any kind of an organiza-
tion." Ellis added that "We are likewise free in our relations with the
outside world, with a few possible exceptions." An instructor who
publicly advocated "social equality for the negroes" or the abolition of
4T. V. Smith, A Non-Existent Man (Austin, 1962), 38; Gregory M. Tobin, The Making
of a History: Walter Prescott Webb and The Great Plains (Austin, 1976), 33-85.
5For Smith and Webb, see the sources cited in the previous note. Alvin Johnson, Pio-
neer's Progress (New York, 1952), 193. On the question of holidays, see responses by F. A. C.
Perrin, F. L. Reed, and Leon Green to a form letter of May 4, 1921, circulated by Bene-
dict, in the College of Arts and Sciences file, Harry Yandell Benedict Papers (Eugene C.
Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas, Austin; cited hereafter as BTHC). On
the fraternity issue, see Willmot M. Odell to Charles K. Lee, Jan. io, 1913; Lee to Sidney E.
Mezes, John A. Lomax, and Thomas Watt Gregory, Jan. 11, 1913, John A. Lomax Papers
(BTHC); H. T. Parlin, A Brief History of the Regulation of Fraternities in the University
of Texas, University of Texas Bulletin no. 1737 (Austin, 1917), 1-83; Benedict (comp.), A
Source Book, 464-468, deals with the hazing issue.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983, periodical, 1982/1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101209/m1/293/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.