Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-03
BERKELEY, DEAN MAKES
 REPLY TO- COMMITTEE


 Dean Ladd of Berkeley Divinity school of Middletown in his reply to the special committees report relative to alleged 'bolshevik talks at tie school says:
 It is now evident to me thai when the charges were first made I should have undertaken to make my own an swer to them, instead, I mistakenly supposed they could be met most effec- lively and expeditiously if I asked that a committee of the trustees should in- vestigate and present report. I naive ly supposed such 8 report might be forthcoming within a fortnight More than six months have elapsed During that period and while the case was in the hands of the judges was, of course, pre- ciuded from making any public defense. Ihere was thus no way of silencing ig- norant criticism. And the charges, un> founded and absurd as they were, went abroad taking to themselves as they went other charges seven times worse than themselves. They have now pro- ceeded no one knows where, probably to some distance beyond the confines of Middletown and Portland. and the only certain thing is that they will never be overtaken by any report of committee, and that they wilIs,continue for ia long time to come to prejudice the minds of people who should have been the friends and helpers of the school.
 Dean Ladd takes up the charges sepa- rately and in conclusion says:
 l regret to be obliged in these matters to dissent so entirely from the judgement Of the committee, one member of. which is friend for whom I have long had, and still have the Warmest personal re- gard. But cannot think that the com mittee's policy would, if carried put, be anything short of disastrous for the school If the dean were to attempt to administer the school with one eye on the general public and the other on the trus- tees, if he were, out of regard for SUD- posed state of the public mind, and the opinion of the non-Christian citizen of the world. to withdraw from a society which is trying to make justice and love controlling motive in all social conditions and if the faculty were to surrender their | independence of action and influence and were to turn over to the trustees their responsibility as to what should be taught and how it should be taught, the Berkeley Divinity school would in my opinion not be long in losing confidence of the church at large. Bishops would hardly send l their candidates to such a school, nor would students of character who under 1 stood the situation; desire to dome to such a faculty to be taught
 And what would the public say? think they would say that the Episcopa | church was a church where those in au thority did not desire to make justice and 7, love the controlling motive in all socia l conditions, not democratic church, but a church for the, privileged classes, 3 church where the clergy were not free tt ! teach and act according to their honest 1 convictions, / l where even the future clergy were under the control of wealth and influential laymen, and, were trained i up after any fashion which these same laymen- desired ito prescribe for them Al i this would be mistaken. As%the commit tee says, "the public does not always set clearly" But since the report has good deal to say as to what the public at pres. ent t. of the school. it would seen fair to consider what it might think ot the school and of the church in case the ] committee undertook to arrange this whole matter after a manner acceptable | to themselves.
 l However that may be, I cannot while I remain dean of the school be party tc a policy so entirely at variance with m, own Judgment and conviction of what i. right. The Berkeley Divinity school is of course, desperately-in need of money And trustees and others have repeatedly said that no money will be forthcoming so long as our present policy continues hope this is not so. But if the school ha: to die in losing fight for a policy, one ] feature of which is to try to make justice 1 and love the controlling motive in al l social conditions, am quite ready to say with Bishop Brewster, Then let it die r
 Better so to die than to live on prosper
 ously in an attitude of subservience ant | cou1nror7iSa