Arizona sun., 1950-01-27
Bv ROBERT N. HUTCHINS


persons will suffer for acts that
they did not commit, or for acts
that were legal when committed,
or for no acts at all. Far worse
is the end result, which will be
that critics, even of the mildest
sort, will be frightened into silence.
Stupidity and injustice will go un-
challenged because no one will dare
to speak against them.
To persecute people into con-
formity by the non-legal methods
popular today is little better than
doing it by purges and pogroms.
The dreadful unanimity of tribal
collaboration was characteristic of
the NaZi state. It is Sedulously foS-
tered in Russia. 1t is to the last
degree un-American.
American education has not been
constructed on such un-American
principles. In general, the prac-
tice has been to give the student
the facts, to try to help him learn
to think, and to urge him to reach
his own conclusions. It is not sur
prising that the heart of American
education is the same as that of
AmericaniSm: it is independent
thought. American education has
not tried to produce. indoctrinated
automatons, but individuals who
can think, and who will think al
ways for themselves. The basic
principle of American government,
and one that accounts for the i'm
portance of education in this coun-
try, is that if the citizens learn to
think and if they will think for
themselves, the Republic is secure.
The basic principle of the Russian
dictatorship is that the people can
not think or cannot be trusted to
think for themselves.
The American doctrine rests on
/ the proposition that it is the in
dividual in himself that counts. 1t
is not who his father was, or how
much money he has, or what his
color or creed is, or what party he
belongs to, or who his friends are,
but who and what is he? So the
test of a teacher is whether he is
competent. The. professional COM
petence of teacher is hardly a
question on which lay bodies, or
even administrators or trustees,
would wish to pass without the ad-
vice of persons professionally COM
petent in the teachers field.
If we apply any other test than
competence in determining the
qualifications of teachers we shall
find that pressures and prejudice
will determine them. In 1928 it
was said that AL Smith could not
be President because he would be
Subservient to foreign power;
and today in many places, and if
not today it may happen tomorrow,
anti-Catholic or anti-Jewish cam
paignS may mean that teachers who
belong to those churches will not
be able to practice their profession.
Teachers may be expected to
obey the law of the land. But it
is still permissible, I hope, to ask
| WAlCC11CA q law ID WlSCs LIZ OlS-
criminate against teachers-to act
as though they were all disloyal-
and to put them under special legal
disabilities seems injudicious if we
want able, Independent men to go
into the teaching profession.
The assumption appears to be
that American education is full of
Reds, an assumption that is the
precise reverse of the truth. All
the excitement Of the last few
years, all the hearings, investiga-
tions, and publicity releases, have
not turned up more than four or
five Communist professors, even
though membership in the party
has been perfectly legal up to now
To require oaths of loyalty from
all because of the eccentricity of an
infinitesimal minority is an unnec-
essary and derogatory act. And of
course it will not effect any useful
purpose; for teachers who are dis
Il