The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-10-29
By OAKLEY JOHNSON


lege of the City Of New York
would be of no special consequence
to workers and intellectuals if it
had not definite political signifi-
canoe. With 100000 people in
the United States out of work, in
GLIDING thousands of teachers and
other white collar workers. gen.
eral condition of very high political
Significance-the routine of firing
one or another individual is not
worth noticing. But in my case, as
in that of Professor Leo Gallagher
recently, there were demonstrate
political causes for dropping me
from the faculty list, even though
I had been teaching satisfactorily
at this college for two years.
THE FIRST STEP
The immediate cause was my
sponsorship of the Liberal Club
the second semester of last year,
after the administrative authorities
had persuaded the previous faculty
adviser to resign. /, too, was prop
agandized by DR.. Paul H. Linehan
in an effort to detach me from the
Club. He suggested to me smilingly,
on several occasions, that the Lib
eral Club is wild crowd" that
didn't have to act as adviser to
them, that l hadn't ought to bother
myself with them lie meaning
of these maneuvering lies in the fact
that the Liberal Club couIl not
legally exist, with the right of
meeting in the college halls as do
other campus clubs, unless a fac
ulty adviser could be secured. When
DR.. Linehan and President Robin
son-to put the actual explanation
in a nutShell-found they could not
persuade me to set the Liberal
Club adrift, they fired me.
AS a result, the Liberal Club was
denied permission to meet on Oct.
s. the first regular meeting sched-
uled for the current term, and the
Club with its several hundred SYM
pathizers was compelled to gather
on the Street-Wllich the Club did,
at Amsterdam Ave. and 18Th St,
with myself and several National
Student League and Liberal Club
members as speakers. incidentally,
the adviser of the Social Problems
Club of G. G. N. Y. (the Day SeS-
sion students club has resigned,
it is reported ION pressure of other
business" and as result City Col
lege students, both day and eve
ming, have at one stroke been
robbed of the right of free speech.
NURING the time served as adj
~ wiser Of the Liberal Club, insist
ing on their right to distribute leaf
lets, to get editors of the Daily
Worker and other working class
leaders as speakers, and to carry
on a campaign against student
fees, I was continually annoyed by
objections and complaints from DR..
Linehan. He disliked the phrasing
OF the announcements of the Clubs
meetings, complained that the Lib
eral Club was more active than
all the other college clubs put to-
gether," and accused the members
of the Liberal Club of dishonesty
in the use of their student ques-
tionnaire on the issue of tuition
fees at supposedly free college.
His antagonism to every assertion
of independent student opinion and
his rage at the persistence and
courage of the Club members were
unmistakable.
DIR. ROBINSON
ORDERED DISMISSAL
On top of these facts is the final
definite information, conveyed to
me orally by Professor A. D. Comp
ton, head of my department, that
he had nothing to do with my dis
missal, but that President Robin
son himself had directed that my
name be crossed out. In the face
OF this, and in the face of my sue
ceSsful twelve years teaching in
three universities, it is absurd to
state, as the college administration
does, that my dismissal is due to
reduced enrolment and the re-
turn of two instructors from leaves
of absence. The truth is, the en-
rollment would have been much
greater than the present teaching
force could take care of if hun
dreds had not been turned away
in the interest of Mayor McKee's
economy program at the expense
of teachers, students and workers.
MY sponsorship of the Liberal
il Club is not the only cause for
President Robinson's displeasure.
For several months I have taken
part in revolutionary activities
which he would stop if he could.
I was on the committee which the
Protection of the Foreign Born sent
to Washington, d. c., to protest
against the Dies Bill and other pro-
posed anti-alien laws. spoke be-
fore the House of Representatives
Committee on immigration and
Naturalization, and condemned, on
the basis of our school book and
educational traditions in favor of
political asylum, the entire Doak
anti-alien program.
starvation and capitalist oppres-
sion