SPECTACLE OF THE OATH

To any whose mind is in harmony with the basic ideals of Harvard College, the scene in the State House yesterday afternoon would have been a sorry spectacle. He would have seen a handful of well-meaning but deluded teachers vainly hurling themselves under the juggernaut of Massachusetts politics. He would have seen men and women trained in the highest form of public service discovering at long last that the fate of a law hinged not on its justice, not on its wisdom, but on its probable benefit to the law-makers. Legislating is a form of vote getting.

Far sadder than that, he would have seen public support of the Teachers' Oath Act. A public deliberately misinformed by powerful newspapers, a public deliberately led astray by self-appointed patriots, supporting by a confusion between nationalism and the dictates of common sense an act that outlaws free criticism and perpetuates existing political evil. Massachusetts no longer knows democracy.

Saddest of all, he would have seen a caricature of the Harvard undergraduate, a representative of the "Young Conservatives," authorized by only five men to voice a platform previously drawn up by the same five men. In the name of all the conservatives in Harvard he supported the greatest threat to the University that has been passed in recent years. Thus can one publicity-wise adolescent distort student sentiment.