The Rindge Lockout

Every three or four years, the Cambridge School Committee goes on the war-path against freedom of speech and axes a speaker that some Harvard group has invited to talk in Rindge Tech.

What sets the Committee off is not easily discovered. Madame Nhu, Floyd McKissick, and a host of other controversial speakers have passed muster with the Committee. But in 1959 the group balked at Fidel Castro, and in 1963 a few members suggested informally that Gov. Ross Barnett of Mississippi should speak elsewhere (he did). Last week, the Committee vetoed a speech by Stokely Carmichael.

It is simply outrageous that the School Committee should feel it necessary to decide which speakers are fit to address Harvard audiences--or anyone else. The Rindge Tech auditorium happens to be the largest one around Harvard. If a Harvard club asks to use it for a speaker, the reason is obviously that the group believes a great many people will want to hear the man's views first-hand. They should be able to.

Respect for the free exchange of ideas--if not the simple courtesy of letting students use a convenient facility--should be enough to dissuade the School Committee from barring a particular speaker whenever it feels the urge. The Committee should reverse the decision on Carmichael, and refrain in the future from making another like it.