New York Times
PROF. THOMAS EXPLAINS.
Mrs. Granger was Consulting Him on Literature
Special to the New York Times
CHICAGO, Ill. April 21. -- Prof. W. I. Thomas, who was dismissed
last week from the faculty of the University of Chicago, following his arrest at
the Brevoort Hotel in this city, where he had registered with Mrs. Granger, the
young wife of a United States Army officer now in France, as husband and wife,
tonight issued a 4,000 word statement in which he gave his explanation of the
hotel incident.
"As to Mrs. Granger," Professor Thomas says, "she is a mature and ambitious
young woman. Her life is mainly centred in her child and in a self-development
which would lead to the development of the child. In her association with me she
was, consciously or unconsciously, seek a means which would assist her to that
end.
"She has also literary ambitions. She has read a number of my 'life histories' in manuscript, and she stated that when she had previously lived in Chicago she had known a girl who had a remarkable history. On her own account she saw this girl and arranged to get her history for possible literary uses. She was to bring the girl to my office, but it developed that the girl could not come so far on that day, and it was agreed to meet in the city.
"I registered at the hotel, and Mrs Granger has such confidence in me that it did not occur to her to question the proceeding was discreet or not. We entered the room and were apprehended before the appearance of her friend.
"I am, therefore, not guilty of this charge as it is understood, but I am guilty of the whole general charge in the sense that I hold views and am capable of practices not approved by our social traditions. Society should not interfere with the free association of mature persons capable of planning their own lives and seeking their own values."
