New York Times
PROF. CATTELL APOLOGIZES
Withdraws Letter Construed as Attack on Dr. Butler of Columbia.
A letter apologizing to the Council and the Faculty of Columbia University for the suggestion that the house of President Nicholas Murray Butler, the property of the university, be appropriated to the uses of the Faculty Club, has been written by Professor J. McKeen Cattell of the department of psychology. Copies have been sent to all the members of the Faculty Club.
Professor Cattell sent out a confidential memorandum to the members of the Faculty Club in February saying that the President’s $300,000 "mausoleum" had been planned as a "center for the social life of the University," He said this purpose might be better served if the building were used as a Faculty Club, because, he said, no successor to President Butler would be willing to live in the house.
A paragraph of the letter that stirred the members of the Faculty was construed as a direct attack upon the president. It read:
"If our many-talented and much-climbing President should be swept into the national Vice Presidency by a reactionary wave it is not likely that his successor would be able to live in such a mausoleum."
The letter of apology was sent to all the members of the Faculty, with a confidential explanation. Professor Cattell said he was sorry he had made the suggestion for the appropriation of the President’s house, and added: "I regret taking any action which does not meet with the approval of my colleagues, and I apologize to the university."
Professor Cattell is the father of Owen Cattell, the Columbia student who was recently found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct the operation of the selective draft law.
