Frank L. McVey and the University of Kentucky: A Progressive President and the Modernization of a Southern University

Chapter 5: Surviving the Great Depression and Reforming the South 1932–1936

187 Surviving the Great Depression and Reforming the South 1932–1936 Chapter 5 Now the winds of adversity are blowing from the sea, stirring even the waters of the harbor. The tide is running out. What shall the captains do? Shall they stay in the harbor waiting for better weather and run with the tide; or caught on the seas, shall they lower the anchor, batten down the hatches, take in and patiently endure the pounding of the seas. —Frank LeRond McVey, 1932 As the 1932 Kentucky General Assembly neared, the nation’s economic crisis finally began to exert its full negative impact on the commonwealth’s already struggling agricultural-based economy. McVey desperately worked to assure that his university received its share from the depleted state coffers . The first day of January 1932 found McVey at Louisville’s Seelbach Hotel, not for a New Year’s party but for a meeting of the state’s college presidents and Kentucky’s superintendent of public instruction. They had a simple agenda. In view of the projected revenue shortfall, they hoped to devise a successful strategy for the legislature. McVey left the daylong meeting thinking there had been “little constructive thought.” Yet the group at least arrived at a budgetary détente of sorts—all highereducation institutions agreed to refrain from requesting funds for construction . McVey later reflected, “I have a great deal of anxiety about the legislative session. I am determined not to worry about it. Of course I will.”1 188 FRANK L. McVEY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Because the governor exerted the most control over the state budget in Kentucky, McVey met with Governor Ruby Laffoon. The nervous president left that meeting with mixed feelings. The governor seemed to grasp Kentucky’s financial troubles, and McVey was pleased that Laffoon was considering both an income tax and a sales tax to meet the state’s needs. Laffoon hoped to generate approximately $6 million in revenue. McVey needed the governor to succeed, but privately he worried that Laffoon’s “leadership would not be energetic enough . . . [to] get the measure thru.”2 The biennial session opened with the governor’s call for efficiency in operations, as well as a 2 percent sales tax to meet the growing deficit. After conferring with his board, McVey submitted a budget request totaling $2 million for the biennium; this was $120,000 less than UK’s previous annual allocation. The Courier-Journal, however, reported that the challenge might be worse than simple budget cuts. The paper surmised that Kentucky’s funds were so depleted that state institutions, including UK, might have to close before the year’s end. Nevertheless, McVey tried to accentuate the positive by announcing that despite the economic challenges , UK would meet its payroll.3 The Great Depression, along with Laffoon’s proposed two-cent sales tax, incited the powerful conservative base of Kentucky politics. Local taxpayers’ associations gained momentum by late January. The hard-line conservative activists called for the closure of the two newest teachers colleges , in Murray and Morehead, as well as an across-the-board 15 percent cut in departmental and institutional appropriations. During his frequent trips to the General Assembly, McVey tried to defend his university against draconian cuts. He lamented, “This is the day of the reactionary. Depressions bring him to the front.”4 McVey thought he might find an ally in UK alum, Lexington lawyer, and speaker of the House John Young Brown. But after a couple of frustrating meetings with Brown, McVey could not deter Brown’s support for the steep budget cuts and his opposition to the governor’s proposed sales tax. McVey’s progressive view of government contrasted sharply with what he considered to be Speaker Brown’s “unscientific” reasoning. McVey conceded that Brown had “commendable firmness,” but that did not com- 189 SURVIVING THE DEPRESSION AND REFORMING THE SOUTH pensate for his stubbornness and refusal to reevaluate a situation after he was committed.5 Even as McVey continued to maneuver through the state’s political terrain for greater support, other university funds declined drastically. Two of UK’s largest sources of income, the inheritance tax and the property tax, saw sharp drops in revenue. Accordingly, McVey planned for a cut in faculty and staff salaries and received board chair Richard Stoll’s support. The next day he informed the university’s deans that salaries in excess of $1...