Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR FLUORIDATION Thank you for James Rorty's "The Dangers of Fluoridation" [NL, January 2]. I am grateful that The New Leader has the courage to challenge the official propaganda and to...
...New York City Louis Joughin Assistant Director, ACLU Executive Officer, Academic Freedom Committee President Gideonse replies: The information which Mr...
...One question I would like to have answered: How many children do they find in community who suffer from dental caries...
...Rorty has ever done any research on aluminum in cooking utensils...
...It proves none of its points and it contains no fundamental truths...
...All the relevant documentation can be found on pages 185-202 of Dean Thomas E. Coulton's recent Harper's book, A City College in Action...
...We wish there were more articles like Rorty's...
...It takes courage to print an article like that one when so many papers are falling in line with the ballyhoo...
...The American Civil Liberties Union offers these comments on Mr...
...Staten Island, N. Y. Agnes E. Yates I think Rorty's article is fine, and will help to bring some of the facts on the "other" side of the picture to the American people...
...Brooklyn Harry D. Gineonsi...
...In relation thereto, he refers to "the discredited reports of a so-called 'academic freedom committee' of the American Civil Liberties Union which included parties to the dispute on the campus...
...Joughin mentions "a national student organization representative" who served on his committee, but he fails to note that this organization was party to the dispute and that it was at the time under suspension at Brooklyn College for violation of published faculty regulations governing student groups...
...Five of these persons are members of the national ACLU Board...
...Gideonse so believes...
...Its membership includes: 10 professors and three associate professors distributed among Columbia, the New York municipal colleges, New York University, Princeton, and Sarah Lawrence...
...It has formulated policy and handled cases in its area since 1931...
...Rockville Centre, N. Y. Robert Day The article is just what we need here in Edmonton, where the City Health Officer is trying to put over the idea that fluoridation of the public water supply is a cure-all for dental caries...
...a publisher...
...2. Whether the reports are "discredited" would seem to be a matter of opinion...
...It is also irrelevant that Mr...
...Gideonse fails to note that the 1950 ACLU reports themselves clearly stated that no person connected with any New York municipal college had any part in their preparation...
...May I assure you that they are only a very few, possibly a few hundred people throughout the United States...
...a retired teacher...
...These facts were all known to Mr...
...and a public-forum program director...
...In fact, these issues arose before a Faculty-Student Committee--which is elected by the Faculty Council--and the action voiding the charter of the student paper was taken on motion made by the president of the student government organization...
...This very same ruckus which is being made over fluoridation today was made over vaccination, chlorina-tion and pasteurization in years gone by...
...Great Neck, N. Y. Libbie Lightstone You have done the public a disservice by publishing Rorty's article...
...Professor MacIver's book overlooks the unanimous approval of the faculty and the initiative of the student spokesman of the student body, and Mr...
...I genuinely do not know of any drug, chemical or public measure that has been so thoroughly studied as has the fluoridation of public water supplies...
...It is my feeling that it has only fear, doubt and uncertainty to sell...
...3. In 1950, the Committee membership included two faculty members and a national student organization representative from the Brooklyn College campus--out of total membership of 18...
...I am grateful that The New Leader has the courage to challenge the official propaganda and to give us the scientist's side of the experiment...
...We wonder if Mr...
...Hartford, Conn...
...New York City Harold J. Farkas ACADEMIC FREEDOM President Harry D. Gideonse of Brooklyn College, in his review of Robert M. MacIver's Academic Freedom in Our Time [NL, January 2], mentions the 1950 faculty action at Brooklyn College concerning a student newspaper...
...My husband will not permit us to use any aluminum cooking utensils, and I'd like very much to have some confirmation by someone like James Rorty...
...I went through the scientific reports myself last year...
...LEONARD F. MeNCZER Public Health Dentist Please send 24 copies of Rorty's article...
...When this report was compared with the facts by our faculty--and by the Board and when it was discovered that the bias of the editors was as obvious as the spurious character of the "data," the report was filed as further evidence of the need for liberal scrutiny of the activities of the American Civil Liberties Union...
...This is the background for my statement that the reports were "discredited...
...Gideonse "believes" this or that--in fact, the President of Brooklyn College had nothing whatsoever to do with the incident in any form or shape...
...Edmonton, Alberta H. E. Nichols Happy to see you will publish a reply to Rorty's article, which fails to review the numerous scientific works on the subject, all of which establish that fluoridation is of definite aid in cutting down tooth decay...
...Joughin and to his committee...
...It is good that you are opening debate in this manner, but I am sure the facts, when presented, will destroy most of Rorty's illogical arguments...
...Joughin's committee--and Professor Robert M. MacIver in the book which I reviewed--presented the issue as if it were conflict with the President and with "administrative prescriptions...
...a former executive director of the Public Education Association...
...Gideonse's statement: 1. The Academic Freedom Committee is one of the five subject-matter committees of the ACLU, reporting and directly responsible to the Union's national Board of Directors...
...Every single one warned of the dangers...
...The statistics deal only with number of carious teeth...
...a university librarian...
...Yet, because of the desire on the part of few to create controversy, thousands of American children are suffering from a disease that need not be...
...Joughin's committee similarly disregarded all the relevant facts of the case...
...Geneva, N. Y. Marion E. Lynn New York State Pare Water Association We are grateful that someone has courage enough to speak out against mass medication...
...This means nothing unless we know the number of children involved...
...the ACLU believes them to be correct in fact and judgment...
...Rorty, a lay individual, is doing nothing more than parroting the thinking of other violent anti-fluoridationists...
...We in public health know that truth will win out eventually...
...Joughin supplies is, of course, utterly irrelevant to the point at issue...
...five practicing attorneys of the New York bar...
...two teachers in the New York public schools...
Vol. 39 • January 1956 • No. 5
