HONORARY DEGREES

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Professors Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and John K. Galbraith should be congratulated for their remarks concerning the awarding of honorary degrees at Harvard University. It is indeed strange that only four avowed Democrats have received degrees as opposed to twenty-three Republicans. Yet, the word "discriminatory" does not really apply to the situation., "Hypocritical" is more fitting. Although Harvard consistently ridicules the Eisenhower administration, Secretary of Defense McElroy was awarded an honorary degree in 1958. Why? Although Harvard has turned its back on Christianity--one suspects that even President Pusey began to learn this as he had his angelic wings clipped in the Memorial Church furor--an honorary degree was awarded to no less a personage that His Eminence Cardinal Cushing in 1959. Why?

One receives the impression that Harvard is too timid to proclaim before its alumni and the nation that which it really represents. All that one knows for certain is that each year during graduation, Cabots, Cardinals, and, yes, even Republicans are brought out of mothballs and then, a week later, promptly forgotten for another year.

By being loyal to the traditions of its past, Harvard has forfeited greatness. Yet, one would still braith, along with Professors Schlesinger and Galbraith, that the college would have the courage to stand of forthrightly and on principle behind its convictions. John R. Anderson '58