The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-22
Liberal Viewpoint
by DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES

IONE Of the most deplorable and ominous de-
~ velopments in the country today is the
current attack upon teachers which is being
conducted by certain patrioteers and heresy-
hunting newspaper publishers.
Teachers are naturally docile enough even
When not scared out of their boots. They are
mainly to be criticised for their conservatism
and failure to take position of social leader
ship Therefore, anything which further iatim-
dates them is doubly disastrous to the public
interest.
Teachers who are alert enough can however
not infrequently make the reactonary assaults
upon them boomerang against their instiga-
tors. This was recently done by Prof. George S.
Counts of Columbia University when he trapped
couple of Hearst reporters bent upon playing
him for a sucker.
similar feat has been achieved with respect
to the Ives loyalty bill by Prof. Carl Becker of
Cornell University in an article in The Nation.
He was asked to sign the following statement:
Il do solemnly swear Cor affirm that l will
support the Constitution of the United States
OF America and the Constitution of the State of
New York, and that will faithfully discharge,
| according to the best of my ability, the duties
of the position to which am now assigned"
Prof. Becker tells us that he signed it will
ingly because he said he could not see that it
deprived him of any rights or imposed upon
him any new duties
What, then, does the Ives law mean? So
far as 1 can see, nothing except this That
teachers in New York State are obliged to ac-
knowledge in writing that they are obligated by
the obligations imposed upon them by the duties
they have assumed, and by the obligations
imposed upon all citizens by the Cons titution
of the United States and the Constitution of
the State of New York
DROCEEDING further with this analysis,
Prof Becker shows how the Ives bill is
nothing more than an impairment bit of non
sense, as completely useless as it is absurd:
"The New York Legislature is subordinate
authority, its jurisdiction being defined by pro-
visions in both Constitutions. It has no authority
to modify either Constitution, nor can it create
any rights or duties not explicitly implicitly au-
thorized by one or the other of the two Consti-
tutions. I can make nothing of the Ives law
as legal document except that it is a re-
dundancy, unless it be also an impertinence: by
enacting it, the New York Legislature presumes
to reimpose obligations already imposed by the
supreme law of the land"
Moreover, Prof. Becker shows that a law
Of this sort may be actually dangerous to the
reactionaries themselves by directing the at
tention of teachers and public officials to both
the state and Federal Constitutions which guar
antee the right to criticse all laws and institu-
tons:
| Both Constitutions, unless am mistaken
contain provisions which guarantee citizens
against any infringement, by statute or other
wise, of that right.
ID 9TH Constitutions rest upon the principle
- that laws should be enacted by representa-
tives freely chosen by the citizens and that il IS
not only the right but the duty of citizens to
express, either orally in print their approval
or disapproval of the conduct of their repre-
SentativeS, and of the laws enacted by them.
Both Constitutions, unless am mistaken, con-
tain provisions which guarantee citizens against
any lntrn cement, by statute or otherwise of
that rielt'
Tie Ives law is directed particularly against
teachers of history and the social sciences AS
one of the most distinguished teachers OF his
tory in the whole world, Prof Becker indicates
how an honest historian might react to this law,
to the confusion and embarrassment of it's max
erS:
II am teacher of history. The DUTY of
teacher of history, as understand it, is to learn
and encourage his pupils to learn, what has
actually happened in some period of human his
tory, and to discuss with the utmost freedom
before his pupils any opinion Judgment, or the
DRY that may be formed about the cause or the
effect or the Importance of what has happened
The Ives law is something that has hap
pened, and so far as that is concerned I can
discharge the duties of the position to which L
have been assigned only by declaring that it
would have been better, in my opinion, if the
Governor and Assembly of New York had pre-
vented it from happening I have now dis
charged that duty in writing, and I intend
whenever occasion seems fitting, to discharge it
orally"