Trouble Ahead

In a speech before the Cornell Club of Buffalo on February 27, President Livingston Farrand, after having soothed the fears of those who believe the universities of America to be "hot-beds of radicalism," is reported to have declared further: "If we had not had a few communists and radicals in Cornell I would have gone out and found them. If we did not have Faculty members who could not see something wrong in our economic system, I would go out and get some." This of course was simply President Farrand's method of emphasizing the need for a spirit of nonconformity and free inquiry in education.

It also brings up the interesting question of how the colleges are to insure a constant supply of revolutionaries. Suppose the sources should dry up, the crop fail: must the colleges fertilize the ground with scholarships? Would it be ethical for alumni groups to subsidize promising candidates? Might the colleges themselves solve the problem by setting up a clearing house for the exchange of material? And, if so, what of the rate of exchange? (Radical opinion is known to vary widely in complexion, from rose-blush to fire-red.) No doubt this could be equitably arranged on the basis of, say, two parlor pinks for one socialist, two socialists for one guaranteed member of the Comintern, two communists for one anarchist, and so on. Nevertheless, it takes little imagination to see trouble casting its ugly shadow ahead. The day would come when some canny dean (keeping a member of the C.I.O. in the hole for bargaining) would upset the market by offering a couple of convicted agitators for a triple-threat quarterback. Then what? The entire exchange system would come crashing about our ears. Results Would be, in editorial language, dire.