Evening star., 1947-12-30
By George Kennedy

BY 5eof9e kenneoy
Charles A. Beard renewed his at
tack on the Government last night,
charging it with favoritism in giving
access to official information.
The 73-year-old historian spoke
at the annual meeting of the Amer
lean Political Science Association
at the Hotel Statler.
A slight and slender man, he
filled the big room with his voice
and personality. The administra-
ton was not the only target of his
barbs. He hurled a few at those
who, after resigning from top Gov
ernment posts, heighten interest in
their memoirs with exclusive publi-
cation of official papers.
And he directed most of his barbs
at his audience. Present in num-
bers that overflowed the room were
the men who teach Government /"
and other courses to the thousands
of students, former GIs among
them, who are crowding American
colleges. Most of his speech was an
ironic dissertation on what is wrong
with political science thinking, writ
ing and teaching in America.
Called Back Those Times.
At its conclusion, they gave an
ovation to the old rebel in their
ranks, the man who stuck to an i'm
creasingly unpopular antiwar posi-
ton right up to Pearl Harbor He
was called back to the dais three
times by the applause.
Again and again." he said in the
middle of his talk, "the White House
and the State Department have
made available to their approved
writer's secret information which, if
safe to reveal at all in the public
interest, should have been issued as
official documents for the use of
everybody concerned. Furthermore
high authorities in Washington have
allowed journalists to make money
out of publishing such information. "
DR.. Beard made no mention of it,
but he has been in a controversy
over the opening of World War II
documents to Prof. William LANCER
of Harvard University. Prof. LANCER
was selected by the Council of For
eign Affairs, which will pay for the
study and which is financed by the
Rockefeller family. The council
ruled out Journalistic debunking. :"
DR.. Beard says he has no objection
to Prof. LANCER, who wrote the his
tory of American relations with
Vichy from information supplied by
the State Department., but thinks
the material ought to be made avail
able to all.
Cites officials Actions.
"This is only small part Of the
story" DR.. Beard continued. RE
firing officials, as private persons,
have carried off official papers or
digests of official papers containing
vital secrets, and for their own sat-
isfaction, if not glory, they have pub
lished such parts as they, in their
own wisdom, have deemed it fitting
for the public to buy and read.
only few months ago a retired
official, who had told one story in
l941, gave a contradictory version
of it in 1947 in a popular magazine
(at price,, and blandly announced
that he was then publishing for the
first time a part of a top-secret
paper from a collection which, if
opened at all, should have been
opened to the public.
Still more recently we have wit
messed the strange spectacle of an
Undersecretary Of State, retired
denying the truth of statement
by a Secretary of State, retired
based on papers or notes which he
had carried off as private citizen
on his retirement"
The speaker named no names, but
he was apparently referring to for
mer Secretary of the Treasury Nor
genthau in the first instance and
the controversy between Sumner
Welles and James F. Byrnes in the
second.
Says History Is Neglected.
AS to what's wrong with political
science, DR.. Boards answer is its
divorce from history.
Il think" he said, that many of
our neglects, overstresses and super
fatalities, are due to the divorce of
political science from history, and
the almost frantic specialization in
university education, journalism and
other professional pursuits.
Although this specialization, In
which present interests and excite
ments are divorced from time, has
increased knowledge respecting par
ticular matters, its tendency is, in
the nature of things, to restrict the
vision, narrow thought, sever all
branches of learning from their lv-
ing sources, and, in the words of
A. N. Whitehead. 'trivialize the
mentality of the teaching profess
Sion'
Yet powerful forces called prac-
tical serve to strengthen rather than
diminish its drive in the direction
of moral and intellectual disorder.
Our faith in a commission of ex-
perts is among the wonders of the
universe-especially If the commits
sion has been properly 'streamlined'
by overall 'know-how.
Not only Is politics not an exact