Alger Hiss

Pumpkins and red paint at Princeton cannot obscure the basic principle of academic freedom which the trustees and administration have supported in the past week. Although they made the point very clear that they did not think the Whig-Cliosophic Society should have invited Alger Hiss to speak, they stated with equal strength that they would not succumb to alumni pressures by interfering with a student group's right to have a free hand in inviting speakers.

Actually, one cannot help but suspect the motives of the Whig-Clio Society in asking Hiss to speak in the first place. While his comments on the Geneva Conference were undoubtedly interesting, his own position at Yalta was so unimportant as to make him anything but an expert on international conferences. More than anything else, Hiss was controversial, and all the hoopla surrounding the speech seems to be exactly what the Whig-Clios bargained for.

Even though the Whig-Clios seem to have been more concerned with buying publicity than with selling a speech, they have still given dramatic evidence to a principle that can always use a little bolstering. Happily, the policy of letting student groups invite whomever they choose--even extremists from Howard Fast to Gerald L.K. Smith--has been supported time and time again by responsible institutions throughout the country. The action of Princeton's administration is certainly within the good tradition, and is no surprise.