February 11, 1904.
Dr. Charles H. Levermore,
Adelphi Academy,
Brooklyn, N.Y.
My dear Dr. Levermore:
I understand that the Unification Bill is to be passed without any amendments and that no power on earth can induce those having it in charge to alter it in any particular. The purpose is to have the Commissioner elected by the Legislature just as the Superintendent of Public Education has been elected in the past. You have probably noticed that yesterday a joint session of the Legislature convened and adjourned to a date early in March. It is proposed to pass the Unification Bill before that date and on the day before action is taken, elect a Commissioner. The matter is beyond any effort of ours, I am sure.
I have been summoned to a conference in Albany at four o'clock next Monday afternoon. If Mrs. Woodruff's condition will permit, I shall go up on the 12.50 train, returning that evening, or possibly going on to Syracuse to spend Tuesday morning. You will see, therefore, how impossible it will be for me to attend the meeting of the Board of Trustees on Monday next, from which, I trust, you will have me excused.
While I am in Albany on Monday, I will talk with the Governor and others about the Unification Bill, but the situation is, I am sure, as I have above set forth.
Yours very sincerely,