Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-29

Declaration by a Californian who is
a member of the American Legion that
DR.. Albert Einstein should be barred
from that State because of a statement
favorable to pacihsm arouses little SYM
pathy in the country. The great
mathematician political theories, I'M
palatable or not, are considered unim-
portant in so far as his welcome as
scientist is concerned.
THE Einstein visit to California re-
mains important" says the Oakland
Tribune. Here he will be in the con-
genial company of men who speak his
language. Drs. Milliken and Nicholson
and the others who will receive him in
their laboratories will contribute stimu-
lating contact and experience. A well
come of that kind, if it can be kept free
from vociferous sideplay and the i'm
portunities of publicity seekers and
freaks, is the kind which the scientists
wellwishers would prefer to have the
country tender him"
His idea that pacifists should in
dividually refuse to serve in armies,
either in war time or peace" remarks
the Houston Chronicle, seems to most
of us direct bid for anarchy, way
to more violence and destruction than
war could bring, and sure route to
the ruin of civilization. We think very
little of the idea, just as We should think
very little of the doctors ideas about
soap or radios or cigarettes. He has
won fame because of his mathematical
work, and because of one particular
mathematical theory Doubtless we
should admire these, and bow down be-
fore the brain responsible for them. We
can do it with better grace, however,
when we get an inkling of just what
it's about. Certainly no explanation
intended to inform even the exception
ally well educated man has yet been
given the public. None of which, how
ever, is reason for or against admit
ting DR.. Einstein to any town in the
United States
What he has to say about mathe-
MATES, and what Thomas Edison has
to say about electricity" declares the
Newark Evening News, ARE important,
for in these lines the men are experts
and they are scientists. But what AL
bert Einstein has to say about inter-
national politics and what Thomas Edi-
son has to say about prohibition are not
important, because in these fields the
eminent Savants are not experts, not
scientists. Their utteranceS are SWayed
by prejudices and emotions which would
wreck their regulations if employed in
their respective lines of work upon
which their eminence is based"
Probably he is a pacifist," says the
Ann Arbor Daily News. But he is not
visiting America as a pacifiSt. If he
were, what could be the objection?
People who don't believe in war are
permitted to sojourn in peaceful coun-
tries. First and foremost, Einstein is a
scientist. What he thinks on scientific
subjects is a matter of public impor-
lance. What he thinks about pacifisnl
is his own business, even if he espresso
his opinions In public. One pacifist
can't prevent war or make one"
I'VE think he is wrong about 1t, but
have no yearning to deport him for
thinks" states the New Bedford Eve
ming Standard The Des Moines
Tribune maintains that ito try to
clamp a lid on his talk would be to
turn our back on the foremost princi-
Piles of American freedom" The New
Orleans Item-Tribune offers the judg-
ment as to the protest against the
scientist: "What could the people of
the distant future learn that would
Justify the effort required to see an era
which could produce folk so impervious
to humor?" The Birmingham News
holds that "any effort to embarrass the
visiting scientist by the State of Cali
fornia would not be relished by Ameri-
cans generally"
There is no need for a ban," ac-
cording to the Charleston CIV. Va0
Daily Mail, which, however, argues:
Certainly this was a bad break on the
part of the German mathematician, and
savors somewhat of the pre-war peace
propaganda Germany promoted in the
United States at the same time she was
herself waging war and even threaten