THE RADICAL LAW SCHOOL

The result of the mock-trial held yesterday in Langdell Hall to "prove" the fallacy of human testimony of course proves nothing of the kind. If it shows anything it is the uselessness of a college education, and the inaccuracy of disinterested evidence.

No two witnesses agreed as to the details of the riot or even as to the nature of the missile. And the "skill" shown by the jury in sifting the evidence of course only made matters worse by introducing technicalities into a mere case of right and wrong.

But it must be remembered that the circumstances were such that no witness could have been expected to speak accurately. There was very little or no publicity given to the outrage, and none promised to the testimony. And only the guarantee of immediate publicity has been proved effective in making witnesses carefully consider, their statements. There was no large sum of money involved, and so no inducement to fairness. There was no party spirit, and therefore the inevitable lack of the American's time-honored custom of giving his political opponent the benefit of the doubt. What is more all those testifying were honest, had not been convicted or even accused of any crime, and so were without the requisite training in the business of life necessary to the infallible witness.

People knew better in the seventeenth century. The testimony of Titus Oates, religious turncoat, political renegade, all-but felon and a confirmed liar was accepted by the government of England as sufficient to send scores of persons to execution and imprisonment. He was a witness worth having. One on Whom legislatures could rely. And besides, how much more conducive to unbiased statements were the howling streets of London and the death-fires of Peopes in effigy than the stultified academic stillness of Langdell Hall!

It is comforting to think that in an age of radicalism Congress should stick by the old. The Senate can find no better precedents than the actions of the English parliaments of the seventeenth century. It is quite right in not proceeding too fast. The great American people must be educated slowly. They are not yet ready for such startling doctrines as the "infallibility of human testimony" and especially when it is backed by the Harvard Law School, no torious for its dangerously advanced views. "Slow but sure--sure to be slow" is an excellent motto for Congress just now, but it may find a better.

America has hit the up trail. It has graduated from a president who thought "I am the State." It now has one who believes "quieta non movere." It has a Titus Oates all its own. Some think it has been "conquering Japan on the oil-fields of California." Soon there will fly from the top of the Capital the proud boast of the country's state-men: "America expects every man to do (and say) his dirtiest!"