Schlesinger Attacks National Belief In 'Institutionalized' Presidency; Simpson Urges Role in Evolution

At the Chicago conventions of the American Historical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science last week, two Harvard professors spoke out against alleged fallacies in their respective fields.

Queried at the A.H.S. meeting about the qualities of a good President, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, professor of History, asserted that "the greatest fallacy is that the Presidency can be institutionalized."

Schlesinger disagreed to an extent with Walted Johnson, professor of History at the University of Chicago, who claimed that a good President should "achieve the dignity of being chief of state, a unifier of the nation," and that a new dimension was introduced into the American Presidency by mass media.

His view of the President is not that of a Great Compromiser, Schlesinger said. It is fallacious to believe that "the President's job should be to bring about unity at any cost." The price of any positive program, he argued, is opposition and bitterness.

Although he agreed with Johnson on the importance of mass communication, Schlesinger maintained that it has brought about no major change in the nature of the Presidency. Every President since Jackson, he said, has understood the need for communication with the people.

Man Not Darling of Gods

At the A.A.A.S., George G. Simpson, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, assailed the myth that "man is the darling of the gods." Unless man takes a decisive role in shaping his evolution, he stands no better chance to survive than the tapeworm, Simpson said.

Although man can store knowledge beyond his individual capacity and pass it on beyond individual memory," his culture evolves not in replacement of but in addition to his biological evolution, which also continues," Simpson said.