Martinsburg Herald

MAY BE NEW HEAD.
MAN NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY WANTS FOR PRESIDENT.
Successor to Prof. Edmund J. James May Be Found in Dr. J. W. Jenks, Professor in Cornell University.

Ithaca, N. Y.—Since the Northwestern university, at Evanston, Ill., lost its president to the University of Illinois, at Champaign, where something over a year ago Prof. Edmund J. James assumed the duties of president, it has been looking around for the right man to call as his successor. The trustees of the university have gone deliberately about the task of filling the vacancy, and as yet have not given out any information as to the direction in which they were looking, or the probability of an early selection.

It is reported on excellent authority at the Northwestern university, however, that an effort is being made to secure Dr. Jeremiah Whipple Jenks, professor of political economy and politics in the Cornell university at Ithaca, N. Y. Prof. Jenks has admitted that he has received some sort of a proposition from Northwestern, but is not prepared to say whether he will accept or not. He has held the present professorship since 1891, coming to Cornell from the Indiana university, where he held the chair of economy and social science.

Before his two years of work in this latter educational institution he spent three years with Knox college, where he was head professor of political science and English literature.

Prof. Jenks is still a young man, being only 49 years old. He was born at St. Clair, Mich., in 1856, and graduated from the University of Michigan when 22 years of age. After a post graduate course in his alma mater, he spent several years in study and research at the University of Halle, Germany, where in 1885 the degree of doctor of philosophy was conferred upon him.

After his return to Michigan he studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never followed the profession, for, being called to a professorship by Mt. Morris college, at Mt. Morris, Ill., he accepted, and for a year or two taught Greek, Latin and German.

An element of romance enters into Prof. Jenks' life at Mt. Morris, for it was there that he met and married Miss Georgia Bixler.

Prof. Jenks is a hard worker. In addition to his lectures and class room work in connection with his professorship at Cornell, he has served with distinction and ability as expert agent of the United States on the industrial commission appointed to investigate trusts and industrial combinations in the United States and Europe, and he has been the consulting expert of the United States in the same capacity for the department of labor. In 1901-2 he was on a special commission appointed by the war department to investigate the question of currency, labor, internal taxation and police in the orient.

The prospective new head of Northwestern is also an author. His best-known book is "The Trust Problem," issued in 1901 and revised in 1903. He has compiled and edited various government works on economic and industrial subjects, and is also a frequent contributor to periodical literature on economic and political questions.

The nearly 15 years which Prof. Jenks has been one of the faculty of Cornell university has created strong ties which it will be hard for him to break, if he should decide to accept the call of Northwestern university to become its president.

PROF. JEREMIAH W. JENKS,
(It Is Reported That Northwestern University Is Seeking Him for President.)