Evening star., 1949-01-25
Freedom Must Draw q Line

ACADEMIC IFeeQOH-UQe IreeQOm TO pur-
sue and teach the truth as effectively as
posSible-is far too important to our
democracy to be treated cavalierly. With
out it, our educational institutions would
be likely to degenerate into mere propa-
gandistic mouthpieces, serving vested in
terests of all types, making virtue of
conformist mediocrity, and in general put
ting a dangerous bride and blight on the
intellectual life of the Nation.
With that said, however, 1t is necessary
to add that academic freedom is not
boundless. 1t cannot accurately be defined
as the right of teacher to use the class
room for distorted special pleading or
subtle and unwarranted crusading in be-
half of any particular group, theology or
cause. In the case of the three professors
who have just been dismissed by the UNI
versity of Washington, the implied charge
is that they have been guilty on that score
because they have been or are Communists,
or closely associated with Red-front Or
ganizations, and hence UNFIT to teach
that is to say, unfit to teach with fair,
even and objective balancing of facts and
opinions on both sides of a given issue,
especially one with social, political or
economic implications.
Apparently the American Association of
University Professors is going to make q
thorough investigation of the dismissals to
determine the degree of their justification.
Two of the three men-a teacher Of Eng
lish and q teacher of philosophy
frankly avowed their membership in the
Communist Party. The third-t aching
psychology-has not said whether he
belongs or not, but the Board of Regents
has identified him with q number of
fellow travelling organizations. The ques-
ton that the AAUP must consider is
whether the trio's theological position auto
matically disqualifies them for objective
classroom work or whether academic free
dom is so broad and unlimited that the
State of Washington, through its univer-
sity, is not justified in firing them as
teachers suspected of using their relation
ship with students to spread the Moscow
line.
Speaking as President of the University
of Washington, DR.. Raymond B. Allen has
defended the dismissals on the ground that
"a Communist is incompetent to teach the
truth" He has declared, further, that
university must protect its integrity against
professors who would abandon objectivity
'in favor of a propagandistic mission en-
tirely unrelated to real educational and
scholarly effort" and he has emphasized
that an important function of the class
room is to promote good citizenship-a
fact which makes it absurd to turn the
classroom over to men "who secretly belong
to an organization advocating the complete
overthrow of the American system" Pre-
sumably, like other educators, DR.. Allen
is wholly in favor of teaching what COM
munism is, for an understanding of it is
essential to any intelligent effort to cope
with it. What he is against is not the
teaching of it, but the preaching of it,
subtle or otherwise-the kind of preaching
that would fill impressionable young minds
with an oversimplified, distorted or alto
gether untruthful picture of the theological
realities.
Communists in this country, as we'll as
in Russia and elsewhere, have repeatedly
demonstrated that that is how they handle
the truth If the three professors at the
University of Washington do In fact sub,
scribe to the Marxist philosophy-a phi.
losophy that justfies terrorism, suppress
sion, distortion, lies and all other means
serving the ends of the Soviet system
their dismissals can be justified readily
enough. Academic freedom, like freedom
in general, must draw line against abuses
that would destroy it.