Burt Ross Replies

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I was both surprised and saddened when I read the Brass Tacks entitled "The Governor's Address." Somehow you "sensed" the I was unhappy during the Wallace talk and you deduced that this so-oalled unhappiness stemmed from my awareness that I had "cheated" the audience. I do not see how you can sense and deduce all that without even having once spoken to me.

Your constant reference to Governor Ross Barnett as "Ross" broke all rules of good journalism and conveniently confused the reader between myself--"Boss Burt"--and Governor Barnett, "Bumbling Ross."

I was also surprised to learn that I engineered a "plot" which "forced" Jeff Fraxier to resign. The alleged plot consisted of Jeff's stating that he would resign if our Club invited Governor Wallace to speak at Harvard alone. The majority of our Executive Committee and a majority of our members decided to extend such an invitation. That this course of events should be construed as a coup d'etat or a plot to overthrow is, at best, an unjournalistic attempt to stretch a point.

You felt Governor Wallace's talk was a disappointment. For some unknown reason, you preferred Governor Barnett. On the contrary, I was not disappointed with Governor Wallace's appearance at. Harvard, nor was my Club, nor was Professor Arthur Sutherland, nor was the vast majority of 1,200 students who heard the Governor, nor were several members of your own staff who told me how much they had enjoyed the talk. The overwhelming support of the Governor's right to talk is a glowing testimony to our University and to the fact that our motto--Verites--lives on.

The words of freedom which surrounded Sanders Theater were more pleasing to my ears, as they were to yours, than the words of racial prejudice which escaped from inside the Hall. As a participant in the Washington March on August 28th, and as a chairman of a civil rights group at my secondary school, I do not find words of freedom alien. But just as I believe that the two sides of the story I am involved in should be presented, so I honestly contend that all sides of the civil rights question should be heard.

We would do well to remember John Stuart Mill: "Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action." Burt Ross, President   Harvard Young Dems