After meeting with Pastors Chestnut and Graham for a luncheon at the City Club in Philadelphia on Friday, January 28, 1921, and receiving McChesney's letter, Stockwell visited Cedarville College on June 10, 1921. He attended commencement and visited with key college personnel. Upon returning to New York City, he prepared a four-page report on his investigation. In this report he pointed out that the Reformed Presbyterian denomination which sponsored Cedarville College had only 13 churches in the entire country. He indicated that some of the younger men in the denomination wanted to unite with the Presbyterian Church in the u.s.A. He also pointed out that the city of Dayton had offered Cedarville College $500,000 if they would move to Dayton and become a city institution. Stockwell suggested that this might be a worthwhile alternative. Another option, according to Stockwell, might be to merge Cedarville with Wooster College. Cedarville's endowment could then be used to sponsor "boys and girls of Cedarville" who attended Wooster. The building and grounds could be sold with the proceeds endowing a special chair on the Wooster campus. If this proposal was accepted, the theological seminary's endowment could be spent on theology students under the supervision of the General Assembly. Significantly, at no point in his report did Stockwell recommend to the General Board of Education that they heed Cedarville's request for $20,000. 4 Meanwhile, Stockwell indicated to all those who petitioned on behalf of Cedarville College that it would be imperative for Cedarville to have the support of the Dayton Synod and the Synod of Ohio if they were to have any hope of financial support from the General Board of Education. In response, Graham addressed a four-page report to Stockwell in which he pointed out that the Dayton Synod had "informally approved the proposal that Cedarville college be granted a subscription by the Board of Education." He further indicated that Dr. Frank Granstaff, chairman of the Board of the Committee on Education of the Dayton Presbytery, had assured President McChesney that he would heartily endo.rse the proposal and make a favorable recommendation at the fall meeting of the Presbytery. Graham added that Dr. C.F. Wishart, the president of Wooster College, was to be 62/Chapter VIII interviewed as to his personal attitude toward Cedarville's request. Recognizing that Wooster was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church in the U.s.A., the Cedarville people felt it was important to understand Wishart's feelings. s In a cover letter that accompanied his report, Graham told Stockwell: From the contact that I have had with certain men in the Synod of Ohio, I feel certain that the Synod will approve this request, and the Day– ton Presbytery will highly approve it. I am not doing anything definite in the Synod until I am able to hear what Dr. Wishart's wish in the matter would be. If he is opposed to it, I do not feel that we should proceed, but our representa– tive will have an interview with him in the near future, and I will have in your hands, at the time your committee meets, as far as possible, evidence as to show what the attitude of Dayton Presbytery and the Synod of Ohio will be. 6 Rev. J. Alvin Orr, an 1897 graduate and current Board member of the college, was then pastor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was dispatched to Wooster to determine Wishart's views concerning his denomination's supporting Cedarville College. Following his meeting with the Wooster president, Orr exultantly wrote Graham: Dr. Wishart very cordially entered into the spirit of it all and said he could be counted upon to do his very utmost in helping us both with the Presbyterians involved and the Synod. He said he would be willing to go before the Pres– bytery of Cincinnati and advocate it on the floor as well as to do his utmost in the Synod meeting and before it convenes, to have favorable action by the Ohio Synod early in October. 7 Graham then quoted a letter sent by Wishart to the Cedarville College trustees in session on September 10, 1921. In this letter the Wooster president wished them success in their financial campaign, and added: It would be a disaster if the spirit and atmo– sphere of an institution like Cedarville should be lost out of the educational world. I shall be most happy to cooperate in every friendly way toward the goal of your desire. Please rely upon me for whatever offices I can perform in this connection. 8 On the basis of this letter and the positive report shared by Pastor Orr following his 'conference with Wishart, the Cedarville trustees voted on September 10 to express their appreciative greetings to Dr. Wishart and move forward with the request for $20,000 from the General Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church in the u.s.A. Following that Board meeting, McChesney again wrote to Stockwell. He referred to Graham's letter of August 31, to Wishart's approval, and to the support that had developed in the Dayton Synod; he urged