THOUGHT CONTROL: U. S. STYLE

...Repeated efforts brought the same response...

...I did, with the result that he evidently advised his clients against bringing suit...

...We ridicule Russia for not permitting her people to associate freely with American citizens in Russia...

...There is a growng tendency to restrict the freedom of students as well as that of teachers...

...It is part of the same piece as freedom of the press, freedom of radio, freedom in the pulpit...

...Yet the Japanese were only doing then what we are doing now, trying to protect their system against dangerous thoughts infiltrating into the minds of their people...

...Presently, Arthur Garfield Hays, the civil liberties lawyer, informed me that he had been retained by the lecturer and the speakers' bureau to bring suit against me and against the Commission...

...Certain student organizations in one of the municipal colleges requested permission to have one of these suspended teachers present his side of the matter at a meeting on the campus...

...A number of the stares appear to be engaged in competition with each other to see which can devise the most obnoxious and repressive kind of special loyalty oath for teachers...

...It is feared that to preserve them will leave us vulnerable to further Communist infiltration...

...If he is to be dismissed it should be for what he does or fails to do...

...We are engaged in a futile effort to defend democracy by abandoning its principles...

...Bowsher referred the matter to the National Education Association's Commission for the Defense of Democracy Through Education, of which I was then chairman...

...Its prospects do not appear to be too good...

...He is -- also a member of the Academic Freedom Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Educational Advisory Council of the National Association of Manufacturers...

...Toward the end of the luncheon, after the banker and I had discussed a good many subjects, he said to me: "I am troubled about something that I am sure you know much more about than I do...

...We should insist that no person should be fired for what he thinks or is alleged to think...

...Specifically, suppose the Russians should suggest the exchange of teachers between their colleges and ours, and suppose they should suggest that 100,000 Russian youth should come to America to study in our colleges and universities in exchange with 100,000 of our students who would study in Russian colleges and universities...

...We used to ridicule "thought control" in Japan...

...The lecturer replied that he was too busy with his lectures to see Dr...

...Unable to get any satisfactory reply...

...I am confident that this can be done...

...They did not dare permit their people to become informed about our great democratic freedoms, our living standards, and our system of private enterprise...

...How safe would it be for an American boy or girl to become one of the participants in such a program...

...If there is anything certain, it is that an essential condition for a secure and lasting peace must be the resumption of the free flow of goods, services, people, and ideas throughout the world...

...On the basis of his ex-perience with Springfield teachers, he agreed that this must almost surely be true...

...DuShane's unsuccessful efforts to secure a conference with him, and said that I thought the lecturer was too busy with his speechmaking, and that something should be done about it...

...A faculty committee denied the request...

...Academic freedom is merely freedom of speech operating in the classroom...

...We must make common cause with those who would preserve civil liberty in all its applications, and we must invite them to make common cause with us...

...Just how much Communism is there among members of the teaching profession...

...Suppose the Russians were to take us up on that proposition...

...This we were happy to do...

...How safe would it be for an American teacher to participate...

...I realized that it was a serious question asked by an honest man...

...Perhaps these are the things such legislation aims to do...

...Are we, in fact, any more ready to lift the Iron Curtain than are the Russians...

...It uncovers no Communists...

...The board of presidents of the four municipal colleges supported the faculty committee's action...

...A few years ago a professional speechmaker, apparently in order to compensate for a declining popularity, began making the most violent attacks against the teaching profession in his speeches...

...Soon we had a communication from the lecturer stating that he was willing to discontinue his attacks on teachers and asking that we inform the teaching profession that he was discontinuing these attacks...

...Students are afraid to join respectable organizations such as international relations clubs for fear that at a later date the organization may be labeled as subversive...

...In each case he assured me of what I already knew, that these teachers could by no stretch of the imagination be considered Reds...

...We first castigated Hitlerian Germany, and then Communist Russia, for the ridiculous practice of condemnation by association...

...II Perhaps the most vicious and dangerous legislation ever enacted against the teaching profession is the Feinberg Law, introduced in the New York legislature about two years ago by a legislative lieutenant of Governor Dewey, and rushed through to passage in the closing days of the legislative session without an opportunity for the educational forces of the state to appear in opposition to it...

...I think if he behaved the way a Communist is supposed to behave he would be spotted as a propagandist and as an intellectually dishonest person by the students whom he sought to indoctrinate...

...But what would we do if the Russians ALONZO F. MYERS, chairman of the Department of Higher Education at New York University, has long been identified with the struggle to keep the teaching profession free...

...Business men and other responsible community leaders are being propagandized to the effect that there is a great Red menace in the schools...

...There is evidence that even a reasonable amount o f intestinal fortitude coupled with effective organization could help greatly...

...were to make that offer...

...Our teaching profession has permitted itself to be placed on the defensive in this matter of defending itself against unjust attack, primarily because most of us are so timid, and because our profession is not strongly enough organized to combat such attacks...

...Finally we decided on another approach to the problem...

...We must recognize that academic freedom cannot stand alone, and that destruction of civil liberties inevitably means destruction of academic freedom...

...Teacher members on the committee of a civic lecture series in Tulsa persuaded the committee to inform the lecturer's booking agency that the lecturer would not be reengaged in Tulsa until he was at least willing to confer with official representatives of the organized teaching profession regarding his reckless attacks upon teachers...

...There is a growing tendency to dismiss teachers on the allegation that they are members of subversive groups or that they associate with persons who are members of subversive groups...

...It was teachers elsewhere in the United States that he was worried about...

...III In Springfield, Mo., I sat beside a banker at a luncheon...

...The banker thought about that for a bit and said: "I suppose you're right...

...We must not demand the right to indoctrinate for Communism, nor for any other ism, under the cloak of academic freedom...

...In an address before a convention of hardware dealers in Toledo, Ohio, he was particularly bitter in his attack, referring to teachers as Reds and loafers...

...But to do it we must approach the task with clean hands...

...It is in this setting that academic freedom is making its feeble struggle for survival in our American schools and colleges...

...We must be clear as to what it is we stand for, and we must have nothing up our sleeves...

...There can be no greater degree of academic freedom than public opinion will support...

...I asked the banker about teachers that both he and I knew who were employed in the local public schools and in the state college located in Springfield...

...Recently, in New York City, the superintendent of schools suspended eight public school teachers, charging them with being Communists...

...Would we permit the Russian professor, who unquestionably would be a Communist, to teach in one of our state universities...

...Finally I said: "I think Communism is just about as common among teachers as embezzlement is among bankers...

...It frankly adopts the principle of indictment by association, one of the most vicious of all totalitarian practices...

...DuShane...

...Negative policies and negative actions possess greater vitality and popular appeal today than do positive actions and policies...

...The teaching profession must give positive indication of a determination to preserve academic freedom...

...Hays was good enough to invite me to give him our side of the controversy...

...We in America today, with no such justification, can think of no better way of protecting our system than that of aping the totalitarian practices of our adversaries...

...There were many teachers there...

...But the threats to civil liberties and to academic freedom in the policy of indictment by association and of dismissing people because of what they believe or are alleged to believe, are so great that we must take a strong stand at that point...

...Further, we must recognize that the teaching profession alone cannot preserve academic freedom...

...We, the organized teaching profession, must be prepared to expose and discredit all such attempts...

...For six years he was chairman of the Commission for the Defense of Democracy through Education of the National Education Association...

...I observed that the banker was well acquainted with many of them...

...We seem to be moving in the direction of requiring young men and women to pass a loyalty examination as one of the requirements for admission to college...

...Teachers are being discharged because they hold, or are alleged to hold, unpopular political and economic views...

...Increasingly, colleges are building up permanent dossiers on students which go far beyond official needs...

...Just how safe is it for non-Communists to associate with Communists in America today...

...Admittedly it is more difficult to prove overt acts than it is to accumulate evidence in support of "dangerous thoughts...

...I would not knowingly hire one...

...Unless the teaching profession has the courage and the forthrightness to expose and discredit those few subversive members of our profession who would pervert academic freedom in order to propagandize for totalitarianism, the task will be handled by those who would destroy all liberalism and all academic freedom...

...The Japanese had an understandable reason for doing this, just as have the dictators in the Kremlin today...

...It suggests a fear that if the American people were given all the facts and the right of free choice, they might choose Communist totalitarianism in preference to our great democratic liberties and traditions...

...We have become so jittery over the Communist menace that we are afraid to have our students listen to anybody who has not been tested for complete orthodoxy...

...Donald DuShane, then executive secretary of the Commission, tried to make an appointment with the lecturer...

...Such legislation accomplishes no good purpose...

...In an address before the Oklahoma Education Association I reported on the gentleman's activities, recounted Dr...

...He said he was not worried about the Springfield teachers, he knew they were all right...

...It singles out teaching as a profession and says in effect that the teaching profession is subversive and is not to be trusted...

...We are up to our ears in this business of thought control and condemnation by association here in America right now...

...I would say that such young people particularly need the benefits of a good college education...

...he appeared to like them, and they him...

...Students and student organizations are being subjected to inquisitorial investigation designed to suppress liberal thought and to enforce unquestioning conformity...

...Unless we have completely lost faith in the strength and validity of our great democratic principles and traditions, we need not fear the effects of having a few young people on our campuses who have decided that Communism looks more attractive to them than does our American brand of democracy and private enterprise...

...The Texas legislature at the last session enacted legislation requiring that staff members in all state-supported colleges and universities take a particularly objectionable kind of special loyalty oath in which they must swear that they are not Communists, never have been Communists, and are not and have not been members of any organization that has been declared to be subversive...

...V I do not advocate hiring Com-munist teachers...

...I assured him that the teachers he knew were no different in their economic, political, and social views from the vast majority of teachers all over this country...

...It forces boards of education to establish little gestapos within each school system, the members of which must spy and report on their colleagues...

...He is the author of "Education in a Democracy" and "Problems in Public School Supervision...

...It almost appears to be true today that nobody is interested in strengthening or preserving our traditional democratic liberties...

...I have enough confidence in the great body of intellectually honest college teachers to have no fear that the lone Communist would capture the minds of the students in spite of their efforts...

...In school and college classrooms today there are just too many things we don't dare talk about and too many questions that it is inappropriate for our students to ask...

...Nothing that could be done at this time would hold greater promise for long-time peaceful relations between the United States and Russia...

...We seem to have lost faith in the ability of American college students to think for themselves, to distinguish between true and false, and to detect a phony when they see and hear one in action...

...On one particular issue directly affecting academic freedom I am convinced that we must take a positive stand...

...It intimidates and terrorizes honest teachers...

...He admitted that he was being propagandized with printed material to the effect that there is a great Communist menace in the schools...

...Any possible damage that a Communist teacher could do is small indeed as compared to the damage that already has been done by the witch-hunters who have succeeded in intimidating and demoralizing college teachers and administrators to such an extent that, unless we get over our hysteria, perhaps it will be true that one Communist might be more effective than a hundred scared rabbits masquerading as teachers...

...Is that not what we want...

...This is symptomatic of what is happening all over the country...

...It causes independent and courageous young people to avoid teaching as a career...

...It undermines confidence in public education and in teachers...

...But neither would I become unduly alarmed over the presence of a Communist teacher on a college campus...

...IV Fundamentally, it is the task of the teaching profession to make it clear to the American people that safety lies, not in repression and suppression, but in enlightenment and education...

...We then discussed embezzlement among bankers, how rare it is, how unfair it would be to the banking profession, and how destructive of public confidence it would be if there were to be a persistent propaganda campaign designed to convince the public that bankers are embezzlers...

...This attitude indicates a shocking lack of faith in the efficacy and strength of democratic processes...

...Bowsher, superintendent of schools in Toledo, initiated correspondence with the speaker, asking for his evidence...

...We condemn the Russians for their refusal to permit free cultural interchange with the democracies...

...I told him that there are some Communists in the teaching profession, but only a small number, probably a smaller number than in almost any other profession or occupation...

...It is freely predicted in Texas that presently all public school teachers also will be required to take this loyalty oath...

...I thought about that question for awhile before making a reply...