The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-18
THREE KINDS OF LIBERTY
THAT OF THE COLLEGE EDUCATOR.
THE RULER, AND THE EDITOR.
Strong Presentation OF Conditions
Existing in the German Empire
and in the United states.

lOIldl OF winch the following Is q summary
The Emperor of Germany German En-
peror? now proposes to present us with
d statue of Frederick the Great OF course,
we will accept il. But we should be clear
about this matter. We received Prince
Henry with courtesy and cordiality. That
was fitting. But there exists in this coun-
try no real sympathy with the German
government. nor can there be among US
any admiration for that government till
the Emperor does three things, namely:
First-Removes the censorship of the Uni
versities
Second-Abrogates the laws of 'lese
majesty"
. Third-Grants freedom of the press.
The cool assurance of this article affects
perfect familiarity with German and be-
trays a fortified sells satisfaction with
American institutions. A man fairly well
acquainted with both German and Ameri-
can society and government must gasp at
contemplation of that sort of editorial.
L crave space TO say a word With the
newspaper and the editorial l have no
further use than to make of them sort of
John Doe TO get the case into court They
are a type of much that is passing for
ship. as to European affairs. and such
blatant ignorance, associated with such
pedantic egotism and impudence, ought not
to go unrebuked.
1 learn here in Indiana for the first time
that there exists a censorship of the Ger
man University! 1 know of no German
professor who has been driven from his
chair for expression of opinion since the
rise of constitutional Germany l have
personally heard in German universities
from Prussia to little Baden and Alsace
such free expressions of opinions and doc
trines as would, in my belief, have caused
the expulsion of those men from the Amer
lean universities, governed as they all are
by lay boards of trustees and their servant
and executor. a president, who, whatever
he may be in the spirit, is the most undem-
ocrauc phenomenon in the whole range OF
American government The lay board of
trustees has no existence in Germany.
such proposition could not be
Nistula. The entire direction of German
science in the legal hands of a Philistine
body! Think of it, Or the methods mat
ter, utterances OF Mommsen, Virchow, Won
Ranke, scissored and censured by a col
lege president who is first of all things a
business man" That's unthinkable! No
man, no official, can determine what pro-
lessor shall teach; no one attempts it, not
even for the least of the teachers, the
privat-docent. l do not believe a German
professor would be allowed to preach the
subVersion of government or its form. l
do not know how he could be reached by
the law, but l think he could not stand the
storm His colleagues and the student
body would very probably make him i'm
possible. 1 know professors who are Social
lists but not revolutionary. Would an
American professor be permitted to preach
revolution from his chair?
In the German faculties of theology
scientists mot preachers and PASTORS are
looking at all the books of revealed religion
with telescopes and microscopes, and that
without let or hindrance. Where among
US in America could Harnack teach the
history of dogma without a reVulSion of
public sentiment and scared president,
and board OF trustees with its censorship,
and AT last its writ of ejectment?
There is no one thing that now gives the
college president such fearful concern as
to be compelled to select a new professor
of sociology, or finance or political econ
omy. Why? Not because these depart
mentS lacking in well-prepared men.
These lines of investigation have been in
creasngly attractive to American scholars
for many years because there have arisen
in the United States mighty questions and
great need of light in just these lines.
Why, then, the trepidation? If Presidents
Harper and Jordan and a host of State
University presidents were in position TO
talk freely they could enlighten us. Pro-
fessors Bemis and Ross and Ely and Com
mons and Felix Adler and Howard and Z.
Benjamin Andrews could tell an interest
! ing tale of the sacred right of conscience
and opinion under the red white and blue.
| With these bold facts Before us it is a
striking picture to see the American editor
! shedding tears over the Goettingen pro-
/ fessors and the brothers Arendt and Kuno
/ Fischer driven from the German uniVer-
stiles fifty years ago. In what L write 1
| leave out any mention of the great heresy
/ trials in American schools of theology.
That's another story. That's beyond all
/ things.
The American is probably slowly gaining
i the freedom to teach. The ideal is ever
/ present in the academic head and heart
Free shall the scholar be, brave and
| free" some of us heard from the lips of
| our greatest master in Indiana-more is
the shame that he has been bound and
/ gagged. However, the strife for freedom
on the whole, is gaining ground very prob
ably. If the fight goes on bravely the
American professor may enjoy that free
dom of utterance and the American uni
Versity may have that great spirit of de-
mocracy and power of self-determination
| by it's faculty that is now the pride and
| priceless possession of the German nation
/ We need not look for them these fifty
years. In the placid fields of uncontro-
verted questions the American professor
! has all freedom. AS to all questions that
! involve public policy or touch a class OF
/ keeps silent or speaks so ambiguously and
tentatively that no one can discern what
he believes Lehr frei heit'-freedom tc
| speak ones thought-with its peculiar sa.
! crednesS in the German university is sim
! ply nonexistent in the American instftu-
| lions of higher learning. Scarcely a single
American college president to-day flatly
denies the right Of the board of trustees
/ 10 set the bounds upon the scope. method
/ and utterance of the teacher. They viii
| hedge and dodge and evade the bald cues
/ ton but. far as / know, but one has
laid down the solid ground that professor
once called TO his chair may only be prop.
/ erly removed for insanity or misdemeanor
and the actual practice of that presiden
has been among the worst Of them all
/ So long as this condition continues what
| is our warrant for lecturing any one upor
the subject Of the university censorship?