CONANT ADVOCATES CLASSLESS SOCIETY

Speaking yesterday afternoon at the Waldorf-Astoria before the first session of the Ninth Annual New York Herald Tribune Forum on Current Problems, President Conant declared, "The perpetual disintegration of hard and fast class lines would seem to me the first aim of an educational system in a country which believes in the desirability of a truly classless society."

Conant discussed the American ideal of a society free of class lines. "Have we reached a point where the ideal of a peculiar American society, classless and free, must be regarded as of only historical significance?" he asked, and then explained why he thought this not so.

"If we as educators accept the ideal of a free and classless society on the American pattern as the premise for our actions, our concern must be at every point in the educational system to provide true democracy of opportunity, to have all careers open to the talented," Conant said.

He concluded that educators should hope that the American ideal is not an illusion and labor unceasingly for a type of education which will create "social mobility."