The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-06-25

much attention as has that OF Pres1-
dent VIM. De Witt Hyde, of Bowdoin
College, delivered before the gradu-
ting class of Boston University, 9Th
inst. The subject was one that has
already received considerable atten-
tion in the columns of The Progress
i've Farmer-not so much, however,
as it's Importance deserves, and as
President Hyde seems to have a very
clear, sane and unbiased idea of
academic Freedom" we give be-
low some extracts from his famous
address. Said he:
The question of academic freedom
did not rise 50 long as colleges taught
Latin, Greek, and mathematics, for
the simple reason that people did not
care one way or the other what was
taught about these things. Inter
ference with liberty comes only when
subjects are taught for which the
people care. Now that economic
and social questions have come to
the front, it is in connection with
them that nearly all Our troubles
have arisen. Theological persecution
we have wherever institutions r
tied to creeds; political persecution
we have systematically, in political
campaigns but popular interest Is
coming more and more to center in
social and economic questions. I'm
less we can come to u clear under
standing as to the rights and duties
of the several parties to university
instruction, prOf9ssOrships Of eco
nomios and sociology will be as peril
Gus positions in a democracy as
chairs of politics ever we're in an alb
solute monarchy or chairs of theOl-
ogyin the palmy days of papal power.
To define the rights and duties of the
parties to such university institution,
securing reasonable liberty for all
and a free course for the truth, is
the most pressing educational prob
lem the nineteenth century hands
over to the twentieth.
And what of the rich man who
would make gifts to educational in
situations?
He may give, or he may not give,
but when he has given his money it
should be as completely beyond his
individual control as is a thrown
stone after it has left the hand. A
donor has no more right to dictate
what views an institution shall teach
than a stockhoIder of a steamship
company has a right to direct a pilot
how he shall steer the ship to which
a thousand lives have been entrusted.
x X x Neither may he legitimately
draw up Il creed or statement of
opinion which the professors in the
institution shall be bound to teach.
To do that would be like sending a
boat to sea with the tiller dashed in
position, and with instructions to
the sailors on no account to touch it,
even though the boat might be max
ing straight for the icebergs Or the
rocks. The attempt of a donor to
dictate the views which a professor
shall teach IS to arrOgate to himself
the attributes of omniscience, ON
impotence, and immortality an ar
rOganoe of which no mortal would
care to be guilty. This limitation of
a donors rights may seem severe
and extreme, yet it is the foundation
stone on which academic freedom
rests. The college must treat every
donor, actual and prospective, as a
certain wealthy benefactOr of Har-
ward humorously complained that
President Eliot treated him. "He
comes to me-" he said, 'for my
money and my advice, and like the
women in the Scripture, the one is
taken, and the other left"
But a professor has no right to be-
come an agitator in behalf of views
and measures which are repugnant
to considerable portions of the con-
stituency of the institution-no
right, 1 say, to do these things as a
professor. If he wishes to do them
as an individual, he of course has a
perfect right to do so. But he should
fret hand in bis ro.irro+ior Tt
free country every man has a right
to be u martyr to any cause which
he believes to be worthy Of his indi-
vidual sacrifice. But no professor
has the right to lay the institution
which he serves nnnn the altar of