A NATIONAL MENACE

The greatest evil that can befall higher education in America is for a clique of dramatists, no matter of what complexion, to dominate the colleges. In a recent report upon the "Freedom of Teaching in Science, presented before the American Association of University Professors, it was shown beyond all doubt that the one-eyed pedant, Intolerance, is tightening his grip upon American education.

Though referring specifically to the theory of evolution, the report sets forth the general principle that professors must have the right to teach the truth as they see it, regardless of the opinions or beliefs of any group. In a number of colleges, professors of biology have been dismissed for advancing evolutionary doctrines. Several states have passed laws forbidding the teaching of evolution in the schools. In brief, "public opinion in several quarters of the United States is considerably less enlightened than had commonly been supposed."

Harvard is singularly free from the evils the report deplores, and may smile at the manifest absurdity of attempts to promulgate special beliefs under the guise of dispensing truth. But if Harvard has escaped, it is no less true that many American colleges and universities have not; and their plight is a matter of national concern.

By all the rules of the game, the anti-evolutionists should be the first to welcome a free and open presentation of the evolution theory. They set up as worshippers of truth; but the worshipper soon becomes a bigot and claims a monopoly. Such bigotry deadens thought and is fatal to the student. His curiosity must be content with the crumbs his instructors tender him.

The true student cannot be bound by such restrictions. He will see in Emerson the model of what his attitude should be. "If there are conflicting evidences, why not state them? If there is not ground for a candid thinker to make up his mind, yea or nay,--why not suspend the judgement? . . . . I neither affirm nor deny. I stand here to try the case. I am here to consider."

That intolerance which denies free discussion was more befitting the Middle Ages than the twentieth century. In intellectual outlook there seems to have been little progress. "Difference from me" is still the measure of absurdity. The Sanhedrin and the Spanish Inquisition proceeded according to the same theory as the modern dogmatists who think they can limit truth by official mandate.

The only subject upon which intolerance is justified is intolerance. All enlightened people must muster their powers of ridicule and action to blot out this contemporary blight.