GRADUS AD PARNASSUM

THE DARTMOUTH DEFENSE GROUP, through its central committee and also the rather extensive sub-committee organization of the faculty and staff, has announced support of a policy of "vigorous action for the destruction of the Nazi tyranny." This is something different from its pledge of ten months ago to support "whatever action is necessary to prevent the Axis Powers from winning the war." Advocacy of a policy of holding Hitler at arm's length and of letting him strike all the first blows has ceased. "There can be no half-way measures, no compromise" says the Group's statement. "If this means entering the war, then let us enter it."

GIVE THE DARTMOUTH PROFESSORS credit for a humility that is not always found among the nation's intellectuals. They speak thoughtfully "as men of Dartmouth College, as citizens of our country" who have the right, and obligation, of concern about the survival of education and of the things for which it stands. They simply state principles on which the liberal college has been built and upon which its continued existence depends. If there are other answers to the gigantic problem of freedom from fascist force, they should be given.

IS THIS THE CONCERN OF THE COLLEGE? The history of Dartmouth College, and of higher education in the United States, is the history of the country. The earliest settlers on the eastern seaboard founded the Colonial colleges. In the surge of westward expansion there were established schools, colleges, and universities before state governments came into being. Our forefathers first constructed halls of learning, and houses of worship. Their forebears, through earlier centuries, had created great centers of learning in Italy, France, Germany, England.

The Nazis have extinguished every light of learning within reach of their everwidening tentacles. The National Socialist party in a few years has defamed and destroyed the historic culture of its own land. Lest the power of the word of truth be their undoing, the tyranny cannot permit a trace of liberal education to survive.

We asked last month for a determination and unity of thought and action among alumni, faculty, officers, undergraduates, and friends of the College. We want this unity to distinguish Dartmouth in a time of critical emergency, threatening freedom of education as it menaces every worthwhile element in this country's way of life. It is this common concern that should bind us together. It is on these grounds that leadership of such spokesmen as the Dartmouth Defense Group is welcomed.