Woodrow Wilson to Robert B. Keyser

I feel it a sort of duty on my part in view of your present search for a president for the Johns Hopkins to speak once more of Dr. Henry B. Fine, whom I have just been trying in vain to induce to accept the post of Ambassador to Germany. My disappointment in not being able to persuade him is very keen indeed, because I know of no man who could represent the country with greater dignity or efficiency or distinction. His own tastes dictate that he should come back to his post at Princeton and continue his teaching work, and it would seem as if I ought not to set my judgment against his in a matter of that kind, but I feel so strongly that it would be a great and unnecessary loss to the academic world to be deprived of the use of his administrative ability and of his capacity to govern men and attach them to himself that I am venturing once more to urge upon you the consideration of his name for the presidency of the Hopkins.

I am prompted perhaps as much by my affection for the Hopkins as by my admiration for Fine. I think if you were to ask men like Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation, you would find that they think Fine one of the greatest of the men whom our recent college life has developed.

With the most cordial good wishes for the future of the University, I am