Arts and Letters

One day toward the close of the year 1902, Edward M. Shepard of Brooklyn, then a Trustee of the College of the City of New York, told me that General Alexander S. Webb, who had been president of that college since 1869, was about to retire. Mr. Shepard asked me whether I could suggest some young man who might be considered for this important post. It was on the point of becoming much more important than it had been, because of plans which were making for the development of the college, as well as for providing it with a new group of stately and well equipped buildings. I told Mr. Shepard that I knew a young man of unusual personal charm who was a scholar, an admirable speaker and a good administrator, who was then a professor at Princeton University. I said that it would probably be impossible to detach him from his academic relationship at Princeton, but that he was just the sort of man that I was sure the Trustees of the College of the City of New York were seeking. He whom I had in mind was John H. Finley, then about forty years of age, and already making quite evident the possession of those qualities and characteristics which gave his life its charm, its usefulness, and its distinction. After a series of conferences with Mr. Shepard and his fellow trustees, Dr. Finley was offered the presidency of the College of the City of New York, and was installed in that post on September 29, 1903.

It was ten years later, on a hot Sunday morning in August, when I met Dr. Finley walking up Fifth Avenue near 42nd Street. He hailed me and said: "You are just the man I have been trying to see, but I heard that you were on holiday and away from New York. Look at this! I had to answer before I had a chance to consult you." He drew from his pocket a letter advising him that he was to be elected Commissioner of Education for the State of New York, and showed me his letter of acceptance. He said: "What do you think of that?" "Well, Finley," I replied, "it is no doubt a most unusual honor, but I cannot help looking at it as proposing to use a razor to cut down a tree." A quarter-century later Dr. Finley reminded me of that sentence, and said that the years had taught him what it was that I meant.

Dr. Finley's career was certainly exceptional. Not only did he hold the distinguished positions which I have named, but when in 1921 he left Albany to join the editorial staff of the New York Times he greatly increased the scope of his influence and multiplied his opportunities for reaching the public mind. He made it plain to his fellow countrymen that he was distinguished not only as educator and as orator but as editor as well. It would not be easy to find in the history of his day and generation a career of greater usefulness or zeal in public service.

Dr. Finley was born in a small town in the state of Illinois on October 19, 1863. He was graduated from the neighboring Knox College in 1887, and then went on to Johns Hopkins University for graduate study in his chosen fields of literature and politics. After several years of service with the State Charities Aid Association in New York, he was for seven years, from 1892 to 1899, President of Knox College, his Alma Mater. Then, in 1900, he became professor of politics at Princeton University. This was the definite beginning of his years of leadership in the instruction and guidance of public opinion. The New York Times has testified with strongest emphasis to its appreciation of his service to that great newspaper and through it to the service of the public.

This is not the place to dwell in detail upon all the happenings in Dr. Finley's life. It cannot be long before a suitable biography will be written to record in our literature the story of this most admirable career. After all has been said and done, it will be recognized that it is Dr. Finley's charm of personality and the many-sidedness of his nature and of his intellectual interests upon which those who knew him intimately most like to dwell. The story of some of his remarkable walking expeditions in Palestine and Greece and Scotland as well as in different parts of the United States reveals a human being of many-sided contacts with his fellow-men and their history. The causes to which he gave such generous and helpful service in our modern life were those which have greatest meaning for the happiness and the well-being of mankind.

John Finley's knowledge of the English Bible and of the Greek and Roman classics was certainly remarkable. It was this knowledge which guided his thinking and enriched his literary style. He led an intellectual life which was spiritual and a spiritual life which was intellectual. His strong religious feeling and faith really dominated his life and gave him those satisfactions which religious faith alone can bring. His painless death on March 7 of the present year, without a struggle, brought this life to an end with almost dramatic appropriateness. It would have been sorrowful indeed, had such a nature as his been sentenced to long and difficult illness in preparation for death.

John Finley was chosen to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1927, in well earned recognition of his writing and his eloquent spoken words. He greatly valued the associations which membership in the Academy brought to him, and he was loyal and devoted in his membership.

John Finley was one of the few outstanding personalities of our time. His faith was such that he might have been expected to repeat the extraordinary last words of the late Earl Balfour, who, as his eyes closed, whispered:

"This is going to be a great experience."