Let's Talk Wyoming: From Textbook Controversies of 1948-49 to Celebrating Veterans Day

Ever wondered how your textbooks pass the litmus test of what's subversive or un-American? Walk with me, Mark Hamilton, as we journey through the intriguing history of textbook censorship at the University of Wyoming in the late 1940s, bringing to light the courageous stand taken by individuals like Millward Simpson, Tracy McCracken, and Torrington Dennis. We'll also examine an unexpected campus incident that, instead of inciting discord, gave rise to beneficial outcomes like the formation of the American Studies program and the assurance of academic freedom for faculty members. 

Hold on as we celebrate the highs and lows of Wyoming's sports scene, from the Border War's exciting victory to the triumphs of the high school volleyball championships. Experience the thrill of gearing up for the upcoming winter sports season while savoring the last days of the pleasant 60-degree weather. And as winter approaches, we'll take a moment to remember the sacrifices of our veterans on November 11th and rejoice in Montana's 134th birthday on November 8th. So, sit back, relax, and let's explore the essence of the 'code of the west' together as we navigate this fascinating voyage.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:22

Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Camelton, your host, and today we'll take a look at Wyoming weather. The Bronze Boot will stay in Laramie for one more year. We'll take a look at Veterans Day and finally we'll talk about a textbook controversy of the early 1940s at the University of Wyoming. Thanks for joining us today and hope you enjoy the show.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Taking a look at Wyoming weather here on the sixth day of November after the weather we had a week and a half ago, last week was just gorgeous. Over the weekend the temperatures were up in the 60s. It's been just enjoyable weather after that first bout of winter Looks like that we will continue on this pattern. Don't see any type of storms coming yet. So with the time change, of course we did fall back on Saturday night, which is kind of a bummer to me. I don't like it. It just kind of drags your day down and it kind of drags you into winter time. But right now here in Wyoming, no snow, no, nothing really, just some winds, are warmer temperatures and just a little bit more time to get a few more things done before that second winter shows up here and gets after us. Really good, here in the state of Wyoming Taking a look at Wyoming sports.

Speaker 1: 2:03

The Board of War is in the books and the Cowboys came out victorious 24 to 15 and that was the 115th edition of the Board of War. The Bronze Boot stays in Laramie, where it belongs. I saw the statistic that Coach Boll has won the last seven out of the eight matchups the Cowboys have. Just an outstanding game. A beautiful night in Laramie. Just couldn't believe the great weather they had. Nice crowd televised game. It was 10 to 7 at half and the second half the Cowboys outscored the Rams 14 to 8. Just another good win for the Cowboys.

Speaker 1: 2:45

After having the two game losing streak, cowboys are on the road this week as they head down to Sin City, down to play UNLV. They were running Rebels. That should be an interesting game. The Rebels are playing a lot better football than they have in the past and this is going to be a tough matchup for the Cowboys. The Cowboys want to continue to improve on this season. This is one that they definitely need to get the victory on. Good luck to the Cowboys. Just really a great win for the Cowboys on Friday night. And, as we say here in Wyoming, it still sucks to be from CSU, our State Volleyball included.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Last weekend in Casper, champions were crowned in the 4A, where the Laramie Lady Plainsman in 3A was Mountain View, the Lady Buffaloes in 2A Big Horn Rams. It was interesting that 2A matchup between Burns and Big Horn was a repeat of last year's championship game. This time the Big Horn Rams came out on top and in 1A Cokeville came out on top. So volleyball is in the books. Football is closing out this weekend at the war, starting Friday and Saturday. They'll play the 6-man, the 1A 9-man football game. They'll play the 2A, 3a and 4A. Should be some exciting football and looks like again another nice weekend for football.

Speaker 1: 4:11

I can remember the first year that they had it down in Laramie and I may be wrong. I may have been the second year, but the Thermopolis Bobcats it was their first time in the State title and made the trip down to Laramie and that is back in about 2000. I'm trying to date myself around 2008, 2009. The roads closed behind us on the way down to Laramie. I remember we were leaving Casper and they were talking about how bad the roads were. We got into Laramie. The Bobcats played on a Friday. The stadium, the 4 Memorial Stadium, was just buried in snow. So we ended up standing down in the North End Zone area because the bleachers were just non-bearable. They took and cleaned off the yard markers up so you could see where the yard markers were, and the Bobcats came out victorious. They played Glenrock in that championship game. That was my first real taste of the championship games at War Memorial. In the past they had played at home. Teams like the number one seed would host that championship game and then they brought it down to Laramie. I think they're not going to have that issue in Laramie this weekend, but it looks like it's going to be outstanding football being played.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Then, just right around the corner, starting on the Monday before Thanksgiving, all the winter sports will start up here in the state of Wyoming. So go from one to the other, and again, we're two weeks out from Thanksgiving. So where to November going? Just a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I want to take this opportunity to wish the state of Montana happy birthday. Today, on the eighth day of November, they are 134 years old. So congratulations to the state of Montana. I know this show is about Wyoming, but I had lived in Montana for about 19 years and so I kind of have it as a second home. Great state, beautiful state, a lot of great people, just like the state of Wyoming. Two of them are pretty well cut. The same beautiful scenery, great people, but 134 years old today, montana, the Big Sky Country. On Saturday, november 11th is Veterans Day and we'd like to thank all those that have served our country.

Speaker 2: 6:54

We celebrate Veterans Day on the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Sometime back, I received, in the name of our country, the bodies of four Marines who had died while on active duty. I said then that there is a special sadness that accompanies the death of a serviceman, for we're never quite good enough to them. Not, really, we can't be, because what they gave us is beyond our powers to repay. And so when a serviceman dies, it's a tear in the fabric, a break in the hole, and all we can do is remember that with them we are the last best hope of man on earth. Without them, we are a little more than the crust of a continent. When I am some thousands of miles away, believe me, the memory and the importance of this day will be in the forefront of my mind and in my heart. Words alone cannot express our gratitude to the brave men and women who took on the task of protecting our country from foreign threats and aggression. President Coolidge once said the nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten. Nothing is more important to the soul of America than remembering and honoring those who gave of themselves so that we might enjoy the fruits of peace and liberty. On this day dedicated to American veterans, we honor the brave men and women who have, by their service, preserved our liberty. Our parades are a celebration of freedom, our banner is all glory and we hold her high and proud. This is the legacy of the brave men and women that we honor today. Let us go forth from here having learned the lessons of history, confident in the strength of our system and anxious to pursue every avenue toward peace.

Speaker 2: 8:56

This Veterans Day offers more reason than ever to think about what these special people mean to America. If we remember that their dedicated service is in defense of our freedom, and if we understand that they put their lives on the line so we might enjoy justice and liberty, then their sacrifices will not be in vain. This is our obligation and this has been the spirit of Veterans Day from the beginning. Yes, veterans have given their best for all of us and we must continue to do our best by them. Our hearts turn also to our disabled veterans. Their sacrifices and hardship endure every day of the year. A compassionate government will show them that we do remember and honor them.

Speaker 2: 9:37

When you see one of our young men and women in uniform on the street or someplace, how about a smiling hello and maybe a thank you? Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they have suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us. That is our duty. They have never let America down. We will not let them down. Let us remember all those who fought so freedom itself could once more live and thrive, and let us pray that for the cause of freedom, it shall always be said in the words of the Psalms the Lord shall preserve thy going out and coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. All those who served in America's uniform deserve the nation's thanks To show our gratitude.

Speaker 2: 10:29

I am about to do something I have been looking forward to for a long time Sign the bill that creates a cabinet level department of Veterans Affairs. This bill gives those who have borne America's battles, who have defended the borders of freedom, who have protected our nation's security and war and peace. It gives them what they have deserved for so long a seat at the table in our national affairs. And so, in signing this bill, I am saying to all our Veterans what I say to new cabinet members welcome aboard. And I am not talking about bullets or guns, but about heart and spirit.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Once again, young Americans wear their uniforms and serve their flag with honor and pride. From the NATO lines to the demilitarized zone of Korea and at bases and ports all across America and all over the world, young Americans are carrying on in your footsteps, in the courageous footsteps of those who stood in harm's way so that others might have a chance to find freedom, peace and happiness. You know, every time I see a young serviceman or woman, I get a lump in my throat, thinking of how lucky we are to have them serving our country and protecting our freedom with real honor, courage and competence. I'll never stop working as hard as I can to make sure that our nation keeps its special commitment to those who served, to those who have kept the torch of liberty burning brightly. Because of you, america's best days are still to come and with faith, freedom and courage, there's no limit to what America can and will accomplish.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Today in our History section. This comes from Wild History dot org. The University of Wyoming textbook controversy of 1947 to 48. This was by Mr Phil Roberts.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Americans in 1947 were still celebrating the long, difficult victories over Nazi Germany and Japan, but beginning to have doubts about the intentions of one of the former allies, the Soviet Union. Spread of communism had worried Americans in earlier times, but their concerns in 1947 were fueled by ideology as well as Soviet occupation of Eastern European countries, by gains of communist insurgents in China and by rumored experiments with atomic weapons. In this atmosphere, universities in America were profiting from spring from the millions of returning war veterans going to college on the new released GI Bill. The Bill granted veterans up to $500 per year for tuition and a minimum of $75 per month for living expenses. The University of Wyoming experienced a similar boom, the largest in this history. In 1945 through 1946, enrollment languished at 1500 students. A year later the number more than doubled to 3,364. More than 2,000 of them veterans. Some 1,560 were newly admitted freshmen. University officials scrambled to provide housing for the new students as well as sufficient classroom spaces and courses.

Speaker 1: 14:55

Between 1945 and 1947, 150 new faculty members joined the ranks at the University of Wyoming Dr George Duke Humphries, hired in 1945 from Mississippi, served as UW President during this boom period. A conservative, strong-willed administrator, he already was pressed to make UW Athletics competitive at the national major university level. When Humphries introduced the commencement speaker Governor Earl Warren of California in June of 1947, he was working under the direction of an influential group of Wyomingites serving as university trustees. Millward Simpson, a prominent Coty attorney and unsuccessful Republican candidate for Senate in 1940, held the chairmanship of the board. His vice chair was newspaper man Tracy McCracken, the longtime Democratic Party chairman, who owned daily papers in Cheyenne, laramie, gillette, whirland, rawlins and Rock Springs.

Speaker 1: 15:54

That summer, simpson and the board treasurer Torrington Dennis, pm Cunningham attended a meeting of the governing board of Land Grant universities on the campus of the University of Michigan. During the sessions, speakers urged the assembled trustees to return to their home institutions and press for mandatory training for all students in the US and the state constitutions. Simpson and Cunningham smugly noted that such requirement had been in Wyoming loss since the middle of 1920, when then, at the insistence of the indomitable Dr Grace Raymond Hebert, the legislature mandated one-year instruction in the Constitution that remains in the statues and the university study program thus requires a V-course introduction to the Constitution of Wyoming and the United States. Later, at the meeting in Michigan, a speaker warned of a possible communist subversion in the form of textbooks being used at various universities. Simpson noted that one example not used at the University of Wyoming was an economic textbook preaching the clearly communist doctrine that government deficits aren't bad. To the mind of most of the fiscal conservatives among the UW trustees, such doctrine was a prima facie example of communist propaganda.

Speaker 1: 17:14

When the trustees met on October 27th of 1947, the board worked on numerous proposals to accommodate the ever-increasing student numbers. At one point Dr Cunningham made a motion that President Humphrey appoint a committee to read and examine textbooks in the use of field of social science to determine if textbooks were subversive or un-American. The motion was seconded and passed after practically no discussion. Without delay Humphrey announced appointment of several deans to such a committee, including R R Hamilton, dean of the law school, as chairman of the examining group. Factually reacted almost immediately. The newly established chapter of the American Association of University Professors noted the potential problem and when the faculty met on November 19th for its quarterly meeting it voted 123-24, the members' opposition to such a censoring board. The faculty voted to have 15 of their number represent the faculty position before the board. Dr T A Larson, chair of the history department, was chosen as the chairman of the committee of 15. The committee of 15 met later that week and agreed that the faculty had two goals and the investigation, and affirmed principles of academic freedom.

Speaker 1: 18:31

The Army Republican Boomerang editor, ernst Lindford, editorialized on the side of the faculty, noting that the board was trying to restrict the free marketplace of ideas, a bedrock American principle. His boss, the owner of the Boomerang, was trustee vice chairman Tracy McCracken. In his editorials published in the Wyoming Eagle from Cheyenne, mccracken took the opposite position, arguing that academic freedom could be used as an excuse for practicing subversion. Soon after Lindford quit as the Boomerang editor, moving on to the Salt Lake Tribune, his departure was perhaps prompt by his stand on the issue. Students, many of them veterans, got involved. Some were practically annoyed when one trustee argued that the investigation was necessary in order to protect the impressionable young minds of UW students. The student newspaper the Branding Iron published editorials opposing the investigation and a newspaper titled Common Sense began a short-lived publication run entirely devoted to opposing the investigation. But the trustee's position has been supported as well. Local Chamber of Commerce and a few labor unions endorsed the investigation plan Soon.

Speaker 1: 19:42

The University of Wyoming was subject of national media reports, many of them favorable to the Board. Some darkly implied that the university was troubled with subversives To strong UW boosters like Simpson, mccracken and Humphrey. These reports were alarming. How might the controversy cull our national opinion about the University of Wyoming? Meanwhile, the Committee of 15 hammered out a nine-page series of arguments against the trustees' effort at censorship. One provision noted that the plan was an insult to the faculty, implying that they were either incompetent in choosing textbooks or subversives. One statement pointed out that a few classes at UW actually used textbooks, arguing that textbooks were a clutch for poor teachers who couldn't develop their own coerced material. The rhetoric escalated on both sides and the shrill voices of the national papers and commentators seemed to be directed at the University of Wyoming.

Speaker 1: 20:36

Vice Chairman McCracken, nervous about what he saw as a coming black eye for his beloved university, wrote to T A Lawson on December 31. He suggested that a compromise was possible and recommended that a meeting be held between two trustees and two of Lawson's Committee of 15. Lawson answered that he and the Vice Chair of the Committee of 15 would meet with the two trustees for lunch at the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne mid-January discuss the issues. While the former meeting on January 20, president Humphrey's Back in Larmory released the report of the Investigating Committee. After examining 65 books, humphrey reported the investigators found not a single instance of subversion. At lunch, lawson asserted that two trustees at no radical doctrines were being taught.

Speaker 1: 21:20

As the conversation continued, the group agreed that the entire committee could present its case to the Board of Trustees. At a special meeting the Board met the faculty committee four days later. After committee representatives again made their case, the Board agreed to drop the investigation, although President Humphrey pointed out that the investigation essentially exonerated the faculty by its report on the 65 clean books. The Board then acknowledged that the faculty should continue to make book selection based on their usual procedures. Even more important, the Board confirmed that the principles of academic freedom would be applied at UW this time forward. It was a clear victory for the faculty, even though various board members continued to assert that such a concession did not diminish their diligence in uncovering anti-American activities in education. The most junior member of the committee of 15, untenured history, professor Gail McGee, later said that the faculty came of age as a result of the incident. He also later claimed that unnamed trustees hired students to take notes in their lectures, hoping to uncover anti-American statements that could lead to denial of tenure. Mcgee was elected to the US Senate in 1958. He once told this writer that he had not won the Senate race in 1958. He would have been seeking work elsewhere because Humphrey's fired him when McGee announced for the Senate that summer.

Speaker 1: 22:47

The textbook incident brought an extraordinary level of student involvement. Many of the students were World War II veterans. Several went to prominent careers in journalism, law and business and Wyoming. The controversy came to a quiet close through a distinctly Wyoming way of interacting. Principles on both sides were well acquainted, even friends, in most cases In a different place where animity would have been more likely. Such a result probably would have been impossible To defuse the controversy to satisfy all sides. Civility prevailed but despite its abrupt and relatively animal conclusion the incident did not represent the end of any communist activities in Wyoming. Simpson, mccracken and President Humphrey remained active in anti-serversive organizations.

Speaker 1: 23:34

As the controversy was unfolding, wealthy Cody-Area philanthropist William R Cole noted that the university stand on anti-communism. In the following years he continued his friendship with Millward Simpson and developed a close friendship with University President Humphrey. Cole proposed forming a program of Wyoming studies at University of Wyoming where principles of capitalism and anti-communism would be taught to the Wyoming students. Following his death in 1955, his will not only provided additional funds for the construction of the American Studies buildings, but also sufficient funds remained. The university could use the money to build a general library as they went to the other building. The result is today's history building and the attached Cole library.

Speaker 1: 24:22

An incident seemingly headed towards acrimony and discord. Perhaps student strikes, faculty dismissal and open warfare on the board instead led to some positive results. Later, similar incidents led to far different results at universities such as at the University of Washington, where faculty were investigated by the Canwell Commission. The University of Wyoming gained funds for a creation of the American Studies program and a construction of a library. For the first time, faculty members at University of Wyoming were guaranteed an enduring notion of academic freedom. University enjoys both to this day. It would be rather interesting to see what the people from those early committees would think of what is being taught right now at the University of Wyoming. They might have some questions, depending on what side you're on. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As for the code of the west. We ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. We ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. We ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming.