Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-05

| \ peratng to bulls, college presidents
| and university trustees a thing to be
| gored trampled and tossed in the air. To
| the quiet bruins of the race, who go about
their own business and not about other
peoples, the academic variety of freedom
| seems less red rag than glad rag to
| be aired like a hood and gown at COM
| mencements or on other commemorative
occasions and to be properly boxed and
| protected from the moths the rest of the
| year From another angle, academic free
| dom is the red rag tied to the tail of the
| academic cart, warning the careless passer-
| by, This cart is loaded; hands off"
| TTNHE Gownsman has conviction that all
| l. real human freedom is as impartial as
| sunshine, beaming on the just and the un.
| just alike illuming the little as well as
the big though incapable Of refracting as
| much from a small surface as from great.
The Gownsman has another conviction. and
that is that since the days of Solomon no
| one human being has had a patent-celestiai
| to absorb to himself all the wisdom of the
race. 1t seems not irrational to believe
that man who has studied a subject is
| likely to know somewhat more about that
| subject than another who draws his
| knowledge only from his inner conscious.
| ness; and it seems preposterous to the
Gownsman to suppose that addiction TO
| books and to study necessarily destroys
| the common sense Of the scholar. There
| fore the inference that in things which
| belong to that in which each Is an expert
| the teacher is more likely to be right than
| the nonteaCher be he trustee or business
| man, who criticizes him.
| WE MAY even go a step further and de-
w clare that ever free man has a right
| to his opinions and to the control of his
personal conduct, and the questions who he
| is. what he does where he stands are ir-
| relevant. But there are limitations to the
freest, of the free, for every man has has
| parted with some Of his ''inalienable
rights" that he may enjoy the protection
| of his fellow men, and live, by an implied
agreement, under the law. There are even
| individual limitations. There are places
| into which a clergyman ought not to go
unless he is Enthusiastically Summing. And
there are licenses which we allow to the
| tired business man'-as though NOBODY
| else was ever tired!-which would stretch
| the most elastic conception of the teachers
| freedom to the breaking point
THE new trades union for college teach
L ers or, as it would prefer to be desig-
| mated "The American Association of Uni
versity Professors" has in the two or three
years of its existence examined and passed
| on some ten or dozen cases of violation
| of the rights of academic freedom, extend
| ing territorially from Connecticut to Mon
| tana and from Colorado back to our own
| Pennsylvania. The Gownsman never
quotes statistics except to the confusion of
| the statisticians. But when we recall that
| there are nearly thousand universities
colleges and chronological institutions In
these the United States of America" in
| which there are at least fifty times as
many ardent, eager, alert teachers, talking
| hard every day in the week, the degree
to which their utterances go unchallenge>
| is something remarkable.
THE right to say whatever you want to
! l. say wherever you are and whenever
you choose is less a question of freedom
than one of kindness decency and good
manners. The people who get into trouble
| in this way are usually taking a short cut
| into that sea Of troubles in which they are
| happiest when most deeply submerged and
struggling. You may walk all day. on the
monotonous boardwalk Of daily life, com.
| porting yourself like an ordinary, in
glorious citizen and nobody will look at
| you twice. But contrive to drop off pier,
when it. is we'll occupied with people and
! when rescue is not likely to prove too
| hazardous, and you can make sensation
and perhaps get your petty name-and
| possibly your pretty picture-into the
| papers. There is much to say for academic
freedom as means of publicity, and
| chapter on the subject should find place
| in every Well-regulated treatise on the art
of self-advertisement
TNHE most recent finding Of the American
l. Association mentioned above, has to do
with academic freedom in wartime. and the
query at once arises, Shall our can
| tankerous friends, our advertising friends,
our friends who are afflicted with buril-
ing zeal for martyrdom it matters not
about what. be restricted in the various
kinds of free speech which lead them SO
certainly to these goals of their desires?
Is there a difference between splashng
in the water of ordinary controversy which
may anger, wet perhaps even muddy. and
playing with fire in a dangerous proximity
to much that is inflammahe?
TN ENGLAND "the legitimacy Of except
/ tional restraint upon free speech in time
of war" has been strenuously maintained.