FOUL PLAY IN WISCONSIN

Machine-minded LaFollette has, apparently, decided to crush all vestiges of individual liberalism within his state. The conflict with President Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin destroys what favorable connotations the label "progressive" may still have in the minds of balanced thinkers. Fragmentary reports indicate the resemblance of this clash to some of Governor Curley's ridiculous excesses on Beacon Hill. Dominated by LaFollette appointees, the Board of Regents has been summoned to dismiss President Frank. The Governor and his adherents, it is said are worried about radicalism at the University. A five man investigating committee has suggested that Frank drive from the campus all "individuals and societies" of a radical tinge. The President preferred to stick to the ideals of academic freedom.

This clash between a pseudo-progressive machine and a foremost educator involves the independence of state universities. If these institutions are to contribute to the welfare of the people they serve they must be free from political control. No University worthy of the name can be constricted to the narrow creed of the politician who happens to be Governor.

Today a wave of reaction challenges the freedom of American Universities. Censorship was clamped upon the "Daily Texan" because of anti-big business editorial policy. Senator MacNaboe has sallied forth to purge Cornell of un-American activities. Dorgan has shielded the youth of Massachusetts from propaganda inspired by Moscow Gold. And now the LaFollette machine resentful of the political prestige of President Frank and in ill-defined personal disagreement with his policies, is hacking at a man whose eminence and liberalism have placed him among the foremost leaders of American education.

The battle must move from the Governor's private chambers to an open forum of free debate. Public opinion should smash LaFollette's attempt to make puppets of the University Regents and to subject the State university to his personal predilections. If an outstanding educator like Glenn Frank is toppled from his post, the cause of academic freedom will receive a stunning blow.