Nicholas Murray Butler
 

When he wasn't chatting with emperors,
popes, kings, revolutionaries (he once had lunch
with Lenin), and dictators, or receiving medals
from foreign countries and honorary degrees
(thirty-eight in all) from universities both here
and abroad (St Andrews, Oxford, Cambridge,
Paris, Louvain, Prague, Glasgow. Breslau,
Strasbourg, Toronto, and Rome, among others),
he was deeply involved in American politics. A
friend of most Republican presidents from
McKinley on, he helped draft party platforms,
influenced foreign policy, and was engaged in for¬
mulating all manner of legislation, the most
important of which, from his point of view, was his
work on the National Budget Bill of 1920.
"Nicholas Miraculous," as his good friend Teddy
Roosevelt dubbed him, was asked to run (but
declined) for mayor, governor (three times), and
senator. When Taft's vice-presidential running
mate suddenly died shortly before the 1912 elec¬
tion, Butier agreed to serve as a last-minute substi¬
tute on the ticket, no doubt deserving some of the
credit for the eight electoral votes from Vermont
and Utah that the two garnered.

He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jane
Addams in 1931, served as president of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for
twenty years, and was chairman of the Carnegie
Corporation from 1937 to 1945. He was a member
of every conceivable committee and organiza¬
tion—and president of most of them—from the
American Committee for the Independence of
Armenia to the Final Jury to Pass upon Essays
Submitted by High School Pupils in a contest
sponsored by the International Business Machines
Corporation.
 

In fact, more or less the only presidency he
failed to achieve was that of the United States, and
that for no lack of trying. Although his hatred of
losing caused him later to disavow his ambition,
he desperately sought the Republican nomination
in 1920, actually managing to receive New York's
69 Vs votes as a favorite son candidate at the con¬
vention. But not even his slogan, "Pic Nic for a pic¬
nic in November," or the assurance on his cam¬
paign buttons that "He's no pussy footer," could
alter the party's conviction that the country was
not ready for another university president to fol¬
low Wilson. It was a disappointment that rankled
all his life, much as he attempted to deny it.

As an educational reformer, he helped
purge the public school systems of both New
York City and Paterson, New Jersey, of political
cronyism. Under his leadership, efficiendy run,
centrally administered Boards of Education
were voted into replace a corrupt system of
local boards functioning under the strict rules
of political patronage. Prior to becoming presi¬
dent of Columbia, Butler had already been one
of the founders and the first president of what
began as a teachers' training school and shordy
became Columbia's Teachers College. Before
and during the early years of his presidency, he
worked hard to try to find some solution to the
problem of unifying standards for college
admission. His efforts culminated in the cre¬
ation of the College Entrance Examination
Board, which originated today's practice of
requiring all applicants to college to take the
same standardized test. In addition, he was
president of the National Education Asso¬
ciation and founder and editor of the
Educational Review.
 

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