Buckley Decries Professorial Conformity

An influential liberal conformity exists among the vast majority of professors at America's leading colleges, William F. Buckley asserted at a Law School Forum last night.

Speaking with James A. Wechsler, editor of the New York Post, Buckley asserted that this conformity "is created by a series of axioms planted in the academic world that govern both teaching and the writing of books."

The editor of "National Review," a conservative weekly, Buckley said that "the liberal is very liable to believe, for instance, that Owen Lattimore was unjustly treated, that the Bricker Amendment is bad, that civil rights were nearly destroyed by the right wing, and is completely adjusted to a society where Walter Reuther and George Meany have more power than Rockefeller or Vanderbilt ever had."

Wechsler, editor of the New York Post, disputed the common viewpoint that the press is controlled by liberals. He named the Hearst, Scripps-Howard, and Gannett papers and the Chicago Tribune as examples of powerful right wing newspapers.

Quality, Not Quantity

Buckley agreed with Wechsler on this point, but said that quality, not quantity of readership, is the true criterion of an author's impact. "Drew Pearson certainly has more readers than Alfred North Whitehead ever had, but who will say Pearson has more effect on our society?"

"A ripple today in an intellectual community such as Harvard will have a great effect throughout the United States," Buckley commented. Wechsler answered that he had the "highest respect for Harvard professors" but doubted that they have that much influence on the national scene.

Buckley said he did not think that professors had ever been "seriously threatened by either McCarthy or Velde," and added that he was "disgusted" at the way "professors now pat each other on the back and congratulate themselves on their dauntlessness."