TO LEVERMORE, MARCH 1, 1905

Categories

The Timothy Lester Woodruff Papers: A Digital Resource

Language

ENG

Author

Woodruff, Timothy Lester (dup)

Woodruff Date

19050301

March 1, 1905.
Dr. Chas. A. Levermore,
Adelphi College,
Brooklyn, N.Y.
My dear Levermore:
I am in receipt of your three communications of the 22nd, 24th and 27th of February.
I thank you for your congratulations on my impending marriage, which you refer to as having been announced, no doubt, with my authority. It has not been announced with my authority; but so sensational has the newspaper press nowadays become, that one's private, domestic affairs are as much used for the purpose of increasing circulation as are the affairs of public men or the affairs of State. However, it is a fact that I am to be married and I am glad to receive the congratulations of my immediate friends. I thank you for your expression of confidence and affection.
I will attend the meeting on Monday night, the 13th, and then talk with you about the deal with Pratt High School. I cannot arrive at a conclusion as to what is best to be done, without talking the matter over with you and being better posted than I am at the present time.
I agree with you that the three lady members of the Board could serve the institution much better in the capacity you suggest, and thus make room for three men upon the Board who could be more surely counted upon to attend our meetings.
About Miss Mae M. Hall, now in the employ of the Government at Ellis Island, being transferred to a place in the Brooklyn Post Office, I will have my Secretary, Mr. Smith, take the matter up with Postmaster Roberts and others, and see if anything can be done for her. Of course, a vacancy will have to be found before such transfer can possibly be made.
I read, with much interest, your description of Comptroller Grout's dinner. I met him at lunch today and he asked me to attend the meeting of the Committee of One Hundred tomorrow afternoon, which was the first knowledge I had that a Committee had been appointed, or was to hold a meeting. I told him I could not
the meeting because I was going to Washington on the 12.55 train tomorrow, having an engagement there tomorrow evening. He then wanted me to write him a letter to be read at the meeting expressing my advocacy of his scheme. I told him I was not prepared to take a definite position with regard to the proposition. I told him I must certainly consult you and my fellow trustees of Adelphi Board before I even expressed a personal opinion. I asked him if you were on the Committee and he said of course you were. Therefore, I presume you will be present tomorrow afternoon. It is just as well for me not to be there as I would certainly have to say something and it looks to me as though the matter would take shape without our having any participation in the direction or shaping of the course which will be eventually pursued. I mean by that to refer to the attitude of the Polytechnic Alumni, which Mr. Grout said was hostile to his scheme. As you know, from what I said, I think a consolidation of the institutions is a good thing and probably it might be a good you will attend the meeting tomorrow afternoon, and without committing yourself one way or the other, learn the views of all the others who are prepared to express themselves.
I see no objection to the insertion in the catalogue of the paragraph embodied in your letter of the 27th. I am willing to take the responsibility of saying "go ahead." We will bring the matter before the Board, if necessary, at the meeting on the 13th, when I am sure our action will be ratified.
Relative to the closing paragraph in your letter of the 27th, let me reiterate what I have said, that the matter will shape itself without our being obliged to take the initiative. At all events, let's see what transpires between now and the 13th, a week from next Monday, and then we will discuss it. I go to Washington tomorrow and will not be back in the City until a week from today.
Yours very sincerely,

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