Cornell University Medical College - Samaritan Yearbook (New York, NY)

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recommend to the council what action should be. taken re- specting it. What -thereafter took place is shown in the fol- lowing correspondence: New York, March 24, 1898. Israel C. Pierson, Esq., Secretary: ' Dear Sir: On behalf of the Medical College Laboratory, I beg to acknowledge receipt of your communication to its several members, dated March 7, 1898, advising it that at a meeting of the coun- cil of New York University, held March 7, 1898, the following action was taken: Resolved, That the council of New York Uni- versity is willing to submit to arbitration any dif- ferences between it, on the one hand, and the Medical College and Loomis Laboratories, on the other handg and if those corporations also desire an arbitration, the officers of the council and the Chancellor be authorized to make the necessary arrangements and agree on the appointment of three arbitratorsng and to state: There are no mat- ters indifference between the New York University and the Medical College Laboratory to which the Loomis Laboratory is a party, and we confine our reply to the matters in differencce between the New York University and our college. They are briefly set forth in our letter to the council of the New York University, bearing date january 8, 1898, a copy of which is as follows: New York, January 8, 1898, The Council of the New York University: Dear Sirs: About a year ago we transferred to your institution property representing the results of the labor of our faculty for Hfty years. That transfer was made with the object of bringing the medical department and your institution into closer touch, and with the understanding that the eonrrol and management of that property should remain with the medical department, and for that purpose the interests of our faculty should be represented by a medical committee selected by your institution composed of gentlemen of the faculty, to whoni should be entrusted the entire and exclusive man- agement of affairs appertaining to ir, The expectations of that transfer have not been attained. The experience of the past few months has shown that you are unable to carry out that understanding. The control of the medical depart- ment has been taken by you from the medical committeeg the expenses and salaries of the officers of the medical department have been fixed without their consent and without consultation with the medical committee, the personnel of the medical committee has been changed by you, and one of the gentlemen selected by our faculty to guard and protect their interests 'has been dropped from your council in direct opposition to the wishes of those who represent our faculty, and in direct violation of the understanding. Under these circumstances, we consider that you must necessarily be unwilling to retain the property which we gave to you on the foregoing understanding. By a restoration of that property to us, we trust to be able, as we have always been in the past, to carry on our institution with success, and by harmonious action, which under the present circumstances is impossible of attainment, to pro- mote the prosperity of both our institutions. We request that you will give the matter your immediate attention and re-transfer to us our prop- erty transferred to you last year. We remain, Yours very respectfully, D. Willis james, President Charles E. Miller, Vice President Francis Lynde Stetson, DireCtOr M. Polk, Director Lewis A. Stimson, Director R. A. Witthaus, Director Gilman Thompson, DireCf0f Prior to that time a committee had been ap- pointed by your President, Dr. William A1160 Butler, in pursuance of a resolution of the council dated November 5, 1897, adopted without any re- quest from us, directing the appointment of a com- mittee to investigate -the matter of the properly of the medical department and recommend to the llVard, Jecozrd New York Horpilal. Sha by Ibe First and Second Medical Division red r. c0UnCi That Hall, Fredfflf 8, ter is 35 mittee, ff .Deaf 5 to take U sirous Of You' I 3. illness of of Placing 'When resulted lf the PFOPC tion, my 1 some of fl poration. I gentlemen have more fore consie stand fully tion wisro? gentlemen that l enter and dehnit case the pr erly and tl matters rela in a medic agreement c mittee sm . by the cou Glmstances, turned or-er 'I feel rt when givin, and ml' out felumed. W1-lliS QQ iilt council bers in 3 O .The l L01 '1fl'lYQd .H , v u K F0 8 . P in Bloonriwdr., Y If 1 r -ur MMI: u'1'l flip.. v 4414.1 7, -4

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The New York H orpilal, lVeJt 16117 Slreel, efzznzfzfe gate. Completed in 1877 tbir was lbe recom! N. Y. H. and was used for the fore of pfzliefzlf znzlil llae prerem' hospital was opened ill 1932. agreed that, if such change were made, the conduct of the medical department would be carried on by a medical com- mittee of the University, to be composed of gentlemen se- lected by the then governing faculty, and that such medical committee shouldin effect represent the wishes of the facult Y in every respect as to the appointment of professors, changes to be made in the professorships, and general management of the medical department, always excepting the amount of salary to be paid the professors, which was to be fixed by the council. These matters being fully understood and agreed upon, the property was conveyed by the Medical College Laboratory to the University. The conditions and agreements were not included in the terms of the deed, but were fully understood, each party relying on the good faith of the other. 'There were then two gentlemen on the medical com- mittee of the University, thor-oughly acquainted with its wants and needs, and one of whom, Colonel Oliver H. Payne, was the gentleman who had given the 2I5150,000 to put the Medical College Laboratory upon a firm basis. With those two gentlemen the governing faculty were fully satisfied. At the request of the Chancellor, the governing .faculty suggested as the other two members of the medical com- mittee the names of Mr. Henry F. Dimmock and Mr. Charles E. Miller. These gentlemen, although not graduates of the New York University, or connected with it in any manner, were promptly eleoted members of the council of New York University and appointed members of the medical com- mittee which thus consisted of Colonel Oliver I-I. Payne Mr. Charles T. Barney, Mr. Henry F. Dimmock, and Mr., Charles E. Miller. 'Sho Of discord was introduced by Chancellor MacCracken by a proposition to unite the faculty of Bellevue Medical College with the then existing medical department of the University. That plan, after numerous conferences and negotiations, fell through. The Chancellor was bitterly disappointed, and, attributing the loss of the lan to the medical faculty of spite upon away from rtly thereafter a new and entirely unexpected element the University, promptly prdieeded to vent his lt. The control of the medical faculty was taken the medical committee of the Universi-ty by him, and trans- ferred to the executive committee of the council, a body of which only one The faculty was out consultation medical faculty. committee voted they could earn of the medical committee was a member. ,appointed by the executive committee, with- with either the medical committee or the No salaries were fixed, but the executive that compensation should be limited to what by their own labors, not crediting them in any manner with the property which they had given to the University, and imposing upon them numerous charges and expenses with which they were not properly chargeable and which they had not hitherto paid. There was one nota'ble ex- ception in the case of the dean, Dr. LeFevre, who was a friend of the Chancellor, and whose salary was fixed without reference to what might have been earned. It is needless to say that his appointment was not only not approved by the faculty of the medical department or the medical com- mittee, but was very objectionable to them. 'Measures of this character followed thick and fast, until it became manifest that it was the purpose of the University council to violate the agreement upon which they had got possession of the property of the medical laboratory, and to drive the old faculty out, leaving the University the possessors of property acquired under false pretences, and without the burden of consulting or advising any gentlemen to whose generosity they were indebted for the property. 'The next step that followed was at the annual election for trustees of the university council, 'fin the month of November, 1897. In pursuance of the above plan, Mr. Henry F. Dimmock was dropped from -the council at the elec- tion, after a spirited contest in which many of the leading members of the council strongly disapproved of the ac-tion taken. The failure to reelect Mr. Dimmock was immediately .followed by the resignation from the council of Colonel Oliver H. Payne and Messers. Barney and Miller. 'It was, however, apparent to many members of the Council that they could not violate all the pledges given, under which they had obtained the property of the Medi- cal College Laboratory, and still continue to hold such property, and thereupon, on the motion of a member of the council, a resolution was adopted appointing a com- mittee of six members of the council to investigate the matter of the property of the medical department and -15'

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1 1 : 1 K l 1 I 1 1. lb 1 1 Sb-Wea' Vfjfomig 1 1 1 U 1 1 S 1 ,t 1 1 1 1 t 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 .,. L12 1 1 1 1 1 E council what action should be taken respecting it. That committee consisted of the Rev. Dr. john Hall, Dr. William Allen Butler, your President, and Messrs. William S. Opdyke, john Claflin, Frederic Baker, and William Wheelock. Our com- munication was laid before that committee. A letter of Colonel Oliver H. Payne, bearing date january 8, 1898, was also sent to that committee. That let- ter is as follows: 'New York, january 8, 1898 'To the Reverend Doctor Hafll, Chairman Com- mittee, etc.: 'Dear Sir: I understand your committee is about to take up the matters referred to you,-, and is de- sirous of having all the parties interested' before you. I am called out of the city by the serious illness of my sister, and therefore take this means of placing before you my relation to the matter. 'When the negotiations were in progress which resulted in the turning over to the University of the property 'by the Medical Laboratory Corpora- tion, my advice was sought by the physicians, and some of the latter, or members of the latter, cor- poration. I felt that from my past relations to those gentlemen and their institution, my advice might have m-ore weight than it was entitled to. I there- fore considered myself peculiarly bound to under- stand fully the conditions upon which the transac- tion was to be made. I repeatedly conferred with these gentlemen and the Chancellor, and the result was that I entertained no doubt but that it was fully and definitely understood by all parties that in case the property was turned over, both the prop- erty and the entire direction and control of all matters relating to medical affairs should. be vested in a medical committee, to 'be constituted by an agreement on the individuals by name. Such a com- mittee was constituted, two gentlemen being elected by the council for that purpose. Under such cir- cumstances, alone, I advised that the property be turned over, otherwise I should not have so advised. 'I feel that the agreement upon which I relied when giving the advice has been entirely violated, and my own honor demands that the property be returned. ' 'Yours very truly, O. H. Paynef This action and that of the committee and- of the council is stated as follows by one of its mem- bers in a circular letter addressed to all the mem- bers of the council: The committee, Mr. Wheelock being 211353112 arrived at the unanimous conclusion that the Uni- versity could not honorably retain P0SSCSSi0f1 of the property conveyed to it 'by the Medical College Bloofningdafe Sanitarinm-as it appeared when il war opened in 1821- 11 wa! Iocaled near the Jenen-mile .ftone on the Bloomingdale Road, now 116th Streel and Broadway. Laboratory Association, while continuing to use prOperty in such a way contrary to the wishes of the donors. The report of the special committee was not accepted by the council, although the emi- nent lawyers in the council, with one accord, urged the adoption of its conclusions on the highest grounds of hono-r and right. I In the light of this action of your committee and your council, it is difficult to see what more can be accomplished by an arbitration. No facts could be submitted by you which your committee has not already investigated and passed upon ad- versely to you, and nothing could be developed which would affect our firm conviction that you cannot honorably retain our property, given to you upon representation which you have failed to carry out. Nevertheless, we are willing to submit to arbit- ration the question whether you should return to us the property which we donated to you, provided such arbitration be confined to the question of what is right, just and equitable on your part, eliminating all legal technicalities. As it is import- ant for us that our position in regard to the property 'be speedily determined, we must make it a condition that you send us, within five days, a list of gentlemen, impartial in the matter, with whom you would be satisfied as arbitrators, and a proposed submission, on receipt of which we will either adopt your names and plan of submis- sion or submit to you another list, and any modih- cation of the submission which we desire, the arbitration to be commenced within two weeks from this date, and completed within ten days thereafter. No question of our future relations to each other or affecting the Loomis Laboratory to be co-nsidered by the arbitrators. Yours truly, QSignedj Charles E. Miller, Vice President. In everything that the medical faculty has done it has had the cordial support and approval of Colonel Payne and of every one of its own members. Colonel Payne, as is well known, has taken a very active interest in medical matters, and in addition to his generous contribution to the Medical College Laboratory, founded and supported the Loomis Laboratory at