language is at college; even several of the language teachers themselves
were frank enough to admit it. But it was an academic tradition! I
think the two words that upset Carl most were "efficiency" and
"tradition"--both being used too often as an excuse for practices that
did more harm than good.

* * * * *

And then came one Tuesday, the fifth of March. He had his hands full all
morning with the continued threatened upheavals of the longshoremen.
About noon the telephone rang--threatened strike in all the flour-mills;
Dr. Parker must come at once. (I am reminded of a description which was
published of Carl as a mediator. "He thought of himself as a physician
and of an industry on strike as the patient. And he did not merely ease
the patient's pain with opiates. He used the knife and tried for
permanent cures.") I finally reached him by telephone; his voice sounded
tired, for he had had a very hard morning. By one o'clock he was working
on the flour-mill situation. He could not get home for dinner. About
midnight he appeared, having sat almost twelve hours steadily on the new
flour-difficulty. He was "all in," he said.

The next morning, one of the rare instances in our years together, he
claimed that he did not feel like getting up. But there were four
important conferences that day to attend to, besides his work at
college. He dressed, ate breakfast, then said he felt feverish. His
temperature was 102. I made him get back into bed--let all the
conferences on earth explode. The next day his temperature was 105.
"This has taught us our lesson--no more living at this pace. I don't
need two reminders that I ought to call a halt." Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday he lay there, too weary to talk, not able to sleep at all