Smoke at Madison

No bed of roses is the lot of a State University president. Potentially as colorful as Washington's great Governor Hartley-President Suzzalo fight (TIME, Oct. 18, 1926), or the breach between Michigan's Governor Green and President Clarence Cook Little (TIME, Feb. 4, 1929) is a situation which Wisconsin has been watching ever since young Philip Fox La Follette took the Governor's chair at Madison last January. Great is the fame of the La Follette clan as Progressives, as Liberals. And great, too, is the Liberal fame of eloquent Dr. Glenn Frank, whose translation from editor of Century magazine into president of the University of Wisconsin was a large pedagogical milestone of 1925. Between Liberal La Follette and Liberal Frank friction has been increasingly felt in Madison. The Governor's close friend and unofficial spokesman, Editor William Theodore Evjue of the Capital Times, has been openly flaying Dr. Frank. "The man who is afraid of his shadow," was one Evjue epithet. "Slip- pery and agile" were two Evjue adjectives.

Because no fire has yet shot out of Madison's smoke, the national Press has ignored it. Investigation finds several points of friction causing the smoke. Under the regime of Conservative Governor Fred R. Zimmerman, Dr. Frank vexed Wisconsin Liberals by refusing to permit Dora (Mrs. Bertrand) Russell to lecture on Companionate Marriage. Also against strong Liberal sentiment, he got a $350,-ooo gift from the Rockefeller Foundation. The Experimental College which Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn was imported to develop has been flayed for lack of discipline. And there are other minor issues. But, chiefly, personalities are involved. Many a La Follettite views with suspicion the big industrialists whom Dr. Frank numbers among his friends.

To check up on Dr. Frank's efficiency if not his Liberalism, Governor La Follette called for a strict accounting of the University's recent record. He lopped large sums from the University budget. After an investigation which went into such things as Dr. Frank's salary ($20,400), his earnings from press-writings (about $20,000) and the salary of Mike, his chauffeur ($2,010), the Legislature restored some of the monies President Frank wanted, but Governor La Follette came off best in the attendant publicity.

Fortnight ago it was rumored that Dr. Frank had asked his potent friend Silas Hardy Strawn of Chicago for a job. But he said: "There is absolutely nothing to it. ... I am under indefinite contract here."

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