Youngest for Oldest

Eager to reward genial, homespun President Steadman Vincent Sanford for 35 years of service as head of the University of Georgia, the Georgia board of regents last month made him Chancellor of the State university system with orders to keep an eye on the University proper and some 20 allied institutions. Dr. Sanford's promotion left open the presidency of the oldest (chartered 1785) State university in the U. S. Last week the regents filled that post with a scholarly Atlantan who will be the youngest president of any State university.

Harmon White Caldwell is 36* and dean of the university's Lumpkin Law School. A slight, boyish bachelor, he has clean-cut features, flawless Southern manners and a bashfulness in the presence of women which betrays a life spent at his books & business. Some thirty years ago he was distinguishing himself as the smartest boy in Haralson, Ga. Twenty years ago he was the smartest student at Boys' High School at Atlanta. He spent two years going through the University of Georgia, two more teaching, before he entered Harvard Law School in 1921. Graduated, he taught for three years at Emory University, then set himself up in a law office. Juries found him such an earnest and convincing young man that they decided his cases without bothering to retire, gave him a reputation for never losing a case. Just as he was building up a good practice, the University regents put him at the head of the Law School, where they could get a better look at a potential president.

Last week President Sanford, anxious to take over his own new duties, expected to set Dr. Caldwell in the president's chair without waiting for ceremonies.

Georgia fancies itself something of a Southern Yale. Its first president was a Yaleman, Abraham Baldwin, who arrived from New Haven with blueprints of Yale's Connecticut Hall, used them to build Georgia's Franklin Hall. Aping Yale, Georgia took a bulldog as its mascot. When Georgia had a new stadium to dedicate in 1929 Yale graciously sent its football team, which Georgia trounced.

Although it is the oldest State university, Georgia is not rich and new buildings are perpetually needed. One of Dr. Caldwell's prime trials will be Governor Eugene Talmadge who feuds with the Roosevelt Administration and refuses to let the University borrow $2,800,000 from PWA for new buildings. Last week genial Dr. Sanford and earnest Dr. Caldwell thought that perhaps together they could bring the Governor around.

*Twelve days younger than Robert Maynard Hutching who became president of the University of Chicago at 30.

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