The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-09

gratLlations. No thought has been
further from our mind than that Pro-
fessor Norton represented in his unfor-
tunate and Giscreditable words the ami
mating sentiment of either the faculty
or the pupils of Harvard, considered in
mass. Such an idea would do violence
to many Of the best traditions of this
lcading institution of learning and es-
pecially would it forget the patriotism
shown by Harvard men during the
civil war. Indeed. we have taken care
to give prominence in cur columns to
each uttcranca from Harvard's repre-
scntatives, notably the recent speech
OF Professor Hart, which in spirit and
tenor tended to neutraliGe the indisCrc-
ton Of Professor Norton.
But we do not withdraw a syllable Of
what we have said in condemnation Of
the Norton harangue. Nor can we ex-
Cusc it, as our correspondent tries to,
on the plea that 1t represented the
principle of Free Speech. When II was
made war had been declared and was
in progress between the United states
and Spain. The president had called
fer volunteers; duty of citizenship
was presented which, though infre-
quent is of the highest Importance.
The speech Of a leader in American
intellectual thought which at that
moment and under those circumstances
deliberately embarrassed this govern
~ N a IN a
the national enemy was not a speech
coming under the ordinary privileges
and permissible according to the lenient
standards Of peace times, but it was
on a level with the communication Of
q foe of the United states from point
within our borders to a point within
the eneny's lines. The government in
its exercise of censorship over cable
and mail routes lays down the law that
such communication, or any Gommuni-
cation tending TO hurt it and help
spain, is contraband of war; and of that
character precisely was the utteranCc
Of Professor Norton.
We resent this the more because
Harvard i'm late years has become iden-
titled in the public mind with the abom-
Unable cult known as MugWumpery; a
cult of which Professor Norton's trea-
sonablc utterance is the logical con-
clusion. In trend and effect Mug
wumpery means that the American
people are boorsh, ignorant and not to
be trusted; that vigor in patriotism is
something to be despised that as a
general rule with few exceptions the
traditions upon which our institutions
rest are the Crudities of buncombe and
that to the Mugwumps has been given
the commission of reconstructing
American society on an aristocratic
basis. From continually belittling ones
country to actively working against it
is evidently short step and when
Professor Norton took it we feared he
might take his fellow Mugwumps with
him. That would have destroyed Har-
ward and made damaging gap in our
educational frontier. The knowledge
that our fear was groundless is graft
flying; but the original peril resident in
Mugwumpery remains, and upon this
sound Americansm should never cease
to train it's heaviest guns.
The American people want their col
leges and college men to stand at all
times in the front of patriotic work and
duty. That type Of schOol-made smart
ness which spoils a man for citizenship
merits unsparing reproach, and the
college professor who, by grace of the
high commission which he holds,
teaches doctrine that put into prac-
tice, would render the practitioner
liable to sentence of death, insults
his office no less than he affronts the
character and conscience of his coun-
trymen.