COLLEGE AND PRESS: FRIENDS OR ENEMIES?

In an article appearing in today's Crimson, Mr. Arthur Hays Sulzberger has called attention to the kinship that exists between academic freedom and freedom of the press. The New York journalist and publisher of the "Times" thus turns the spotlight on the most dangerous threat to the American ideal of free thought. For awhile the publishing world is led by men who believe in free investigation and research, the press plays the part of a helpful guide, forming a public opinion that is devoid of prejudice and mass hatred and tolerant of things it cannot fully understand. But today a militant section of the publishing business stands ready to throttle the academic liberty which is the lifeblood of the press itself, as well as of schools and colleges.

A glance at the Teachers' Oath legislation, for instance, shows what can happen when newspapers start blasting free education. Without the agitation of Hearst papers throughout the land a mean, suspicious, and scurillous attack on the teaching profesion might never have occurred. The utter vacuity of the oath does not matter. What we have is a potent group of papers attempting to gag discussion of controversial subjects by teachers, but demanding that very privilege and power for itself alone.

In the modern "era of communication," universities and university trained men must grasp the responsibility of guiding public opinion more and more. But unless the universities can keep clear of governmental interference and maintain the right to think and speak what they believe regardless of popular prejudice, training men to guide the people will become little more than a mockery. To preserve their vital liberties, universities depend on the support of the press. It is encouraging to find a leader of the newspaper industry awake to the need of guarding academic freedom and dedicating at least one section of the press to the accurate recording, "without fear or favor" of "all the news that's fit to print."