WHOSE ACADEMIC FREEDOM?
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front Whose Academic Freedom? By William E. Bohn ONE THING HAS PLEASED ME about the argument set off by Professor Landauer's reference to Catholics in our issue of April 2. The New...
...But such men do not come to us with Special societies for their exclusive protection, nor hints that we may be the next victims of mysterious forces, nor with self-pity and much wailing in public...
...It might lead one to think the world is not so bad...
...Parents and students pay tuition, for which they expect in return education in the theories which have been validated by careful, scientiflc work...
...Father William L. Keleher, S.J., president of the school, announced that they had been discharged because they propagated "ideas leading to bigotry and intolerance...
...The Communist is a reactionary, 'careful to excite all the warlike and active passions of the multitude and of the young...
...Among all the letters which have come, I am reprinting one from Donald Warncke, a Columbia University graduate student...
...Let him read Carlton Hayes' History of Europe and correct his views...
...Nor, unfortunately, do they arouse the public attention or gain the support of opponents which have been accorded the dismissed Communists...
...When men of integrity and intelligence are deprived of livelihood and honors for divergence of opinions, or on account of petty jealousies, they deserve our support, however much we may disagree with their ideas...
...between those deeply imbued With, sympathy for their«fellow-men and those who seek to lead mankind for glory or revenge...
...The chief idea entertained by these men and disapproved by the church is "that there may be no salvation outside the Catholic Church...
...Few of them try to cover up the seamy sides' of its history with the complete dishonesty that characterizes Communist apologists for everything, from slave labor to the Hitler-Stalin Pact...
...who 'will stop short as soon as the injustice shall cease with regard to himself or as soon as the overthrow of the power attacked shall have satisfied his self-love and mitigated the sense of rebellion within him.' "It is-riot the teaching of Marxism but the teaching of haUred in subtle and devious ways which disqualifies the Communist as a teacher...
...Unlike other work, that of teaching carries with it honors and privileges which—however much a man may value them—are not necessary to his welfare...
...Warncke enclosed a clipping on the recent dramatic events at Boston College...
...However wrong the theories of the former, we cannot but derive good from them...
...WE HAVE YET TO LEARN the distinctions Which Mazzini made in his short essay, 'Doctrinaires of 1930,' between the revolutionist and the,reactionary...
...From this Catholic institution three .eachers have been dismissed...
...However right the theories of the latter, they will lead us ultimately to frustration...
...who argues 'from a fact and ends in the consecration of force...
...By William E. Bohn ONE THING HAS PLEASED ME about the argument set off by Professor Landauer's reference to Catholics in our issue of April 2. The New Leader has many Catholic readers...
...who seeks to better his own condition with the help of all who suffer under similar distress...
...At least, not everyone is a victim of bigotry...
...Many Catholics, whether they are theoretically free to do so or not, do criticize their church...
...If the present furor about academic freedom were inspired by cases such as the dismissal oi Tucker Smith or the less recent dismissals of George Hartman and Bertrand Russell, it might be viewed with concern...
...This," remarks Mr...
...To my surprise, the answers have come from Protestants...
...Whose academic freedom is being defended by whom...
...and not theories which are produced by political manipulation...
...1 anticipated a rather heated response from some of them...
...The Communist, in or...
...BUT HERE IS MY CORRESPONDENT'S REPLY to the letter of April 2: "As a person who is not only non-Catholic, but strongly opposed to many Catholic beliefs and activities, I would like to point out that Professor Landauer's remarks on professors of that faith are hardly in accord with the facts...
...Yet, is academic freedom at stake in this case...
...Obviously, religious fanatics, wilfully ignorant men, rabid antiSemites—particularly those who incite to hatred •—do not, can not, and should not belong in the classrooms...
...Academic freedom, interpreted solely in ferms of the rights of teachers, is a denial of the rights of students and of society in general...
...These honors and privileges are balanced by duties, ultimately to the students in his classes, but directly to his superiors who share with him his responsibilities...
...Warncke, "should give many a careless anti-Catholic a jolt...
...out'of class, is not merely unfree, he is bound to a program that is immoral in its essence...
Vol. 32 • May 1949 • No. 19
