The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1963-05-31
Somewhat Academic
BY EDMUND FREEMAN, Missoula
State Universities-Left or Right?


ist in the Montana Standard-Post
has been watching the left-right strug.
gle in the west and southwest states.
Last month she reported that the
activities are different in the various
states but some facts are common.
There is always" she says, "the eff
fort to get the biggest and best state
institutions under right-wing con-
troll
lam no longer surprised that many
people think-if ''think" is the word
that our state institution in Mis-
soula is under left-wing control. 7
have been surprised this week at the
number of thoughtful persons I have
heard express fear that the institu-
ton may come under more right-wing
control.
Facing Both Ways
In his brilliant essay on Henry
James some years ago, w. H. Auden
engaged with the confusion he found
in the American mind over the rela-
tionship between liberty and equal
ity. He thought that Americans failed
to realize that social equality was not
necessary pre-condition of signifi-
can't liberty, and that liberty itself
was not prior to virtue. The conse-
quence was that we were in danger
whenever we faced a situation in
which inequality must perforce seem
to us a stubborn fact.
ssEnr - A,,Jo,, o,.J -
distribution of intellectual
gifts is a fact; since they refuse to
face it, the institutions of higher
learning in America cannot decide |
they are TO be Liberal Arts
Colleges for the exceptional few or
vocational schools for the average
many, and so fail to do their duty by
either"
If we do face the fact of the I'M
equal distribution of intellectual gifts
and | think we do not face it often
it mean that we should
make each of our higher institutions
INTO either Liberal Arts College or
| vocational school? 1t seems to me
hey can be both, that the same insti-
ution can be both and very profitably
20, and that we must do our duty
~ both.
The Cost and the Profit
The cost of this is high. We must
'ay for widely varied education and /,
raining for ordinary youth and for
uperior education for the more gifted
outh. 1t will be an expense of spirit l
o cultivate the youth with greater t
Intellectual gifts to their full capaci-
les and still not regard them as we'll t
ducated until they have learned to l.
ct, without being alienated, in our
society. We need this diff f
lcult social training in college be- a
ause it is for a role our modern So v
iety needs the gifted person to play. il
Fifty years ago George William "
ussell (AE) told his fellow country o
len, eve shall succeed or fail in d
leland as we succeed or fail to make
emocracy prevail in our economic !,
fe, and aristocratic ideals to prevail 81
our political and intellectual life." q
nd only the other day James Reston l.
I'D us, 1.-THE greatest potential force
II common sense in this country lies .,
18th the detached, unorganized and q
'ually inarticulate moderates nj
e moderate lawyers and doctors and r
achers, so many of whom reserve If
cir opinions for the drawing room.
lis country is not as divided as it n,
unds. 1t only seems so because the he
tremists organize and speak out and
e moderates do not Wi
We Can If We Will B.
State Universities, where there are pr
ry unequal intellectual gifts in co
ed can teach the very gifted to or wi
nize and speak out, if they care. Re
ee this democratic-arist pro- Be
IS going on more promisingly each
,ent year here ON our University &C
npus. see it right now in the ac- ms
ity of our biological scientists and Coz
ir friends struggling to make the mo-
conscious of the dread tn;
the inventions of the Tn
vsical sciences can bring on us if APP
do not mind more than we do. l sci
it in the growing perception in SEQ
student newspaper of the prob
Of