Letters

Some Helpful Facts

To THE EDITOR:

On rereading the letters relative to the Dartmouth faculty members' letter to the California faculty, and the short quotation to the effect that the Dartmouth letter was concerned only with the matter of tenure and not with the issue of communism which was in the background, it seems to me well to call attention to certain facts which may not be known to all readers of these letters.

According to a recent summary of the case "it is explicitly agreed by both parties to the dispute that no one of the dismissed teachers has been accused, or even suspected, of Communist Party membership or sympathy" (italics mine), and furthermore every one of them has taken the standard oath of loyalty required by the state of California. Loyalty is not in question.

These men were dismissed "as a matter of discipline" for disobedience to an edict of 12 out of 22 members of the board of regents. The faculty men who backed them, even though not joining them, and the Dartmouth faculty members who supported the stand, were not expressing the view that the safety of the United States was of minor importance compared with the tenure of faculty jobs, as one letter writer assumed. It is hardly unreasonable for men to be concerned when the principle of tenure under which the university was operating when these men joined the faculty is repudiated by the board of regents, and men are dismissed as a matter of discipline, but it is not just a matter of jobs. The action of the regents implies a declaration that the faculty are not to be regarded as collaborators in a common work and experts in their own fields of research and education but merely as the employees of the regents, to be hired and fired as a contractor might hire and fire casual laborers on the day's job, and that their actions, speech and thoughts are to be dictated by the regents. Faculty members object to this attitude of dictation even when they already think what they would be ordered to think. It is to be noted that Governor Warren and Admiral Nimitzneither of whom is likely to be regarded as a stooge of the Kremlin—were among the ten who did not approve the dismissals.

I have been associated for a long time with the faculty and trustees of Dartmouth College and it has always seemed to me that the pre- vailing attitude was that of partners in a worthwhile enterprise, working together in an atmosphere of mutual respect in spite of the very great legal powers of the trustees. The action of the regents has made this kind of attitude impossible at California for the present. I signed the Dartmouth letter not only to encourage the California faculty in resisting arbitrary impairment of their rights of tenure, but also in the hope that a vigorous stand by the faculty at this time, and encouragement from outside, might eventually result in a better understanding and the reestablishment of conditions more conducive to self-respect on the part of the faculty and better relations between faculty and regents.

Like most faculty members I believe that teachers' oaths and thought control edicts are ineffective measures for combatting disloyalty or subversive propaganda, however worthy their purpose may be, and that they are capable of grave abuse, but it is not because I have any sympathy with the communist viewpoint. I feel quite certain that the members of the Dartmouth faculty who signed the letterand I am informed that only lack of time prevented securing many more than 158 signatures—were not expressing either sympathy with disloyalty or disregard for the welfare of the country. The faculty are neither communists nor communist dupes.

Hanover, N. H.

Still in Agreement

To THE EDITOR:

Even after reading R.P. Momsen's "Sharp(e) Rebuttal" in the March issue, I still find myself in agreement with the spirit of Mr. Sharpe's letter.

In the first place, I don't believe the philosophy outlined by Sharpe supported "McCarthyism" as the term is interpreted by the writer, who, incidentally, abhors the "guilt by association" fad.

However, I am not particularly proud of the fact that a Dartmouth man was imprisoned for selling his country out to communism any more than Mr. Momsen is proud of Mr. Sharpe's letter.

It is my personal contention that if I can surrender a fraction of my freedom by signing a loyalty oath in order to become an auxiliary policeman in New York's Civilian Defense program, surely teachers, if requested, could see fit to sign a similar document. Conceivably, subtle communist teaching in our schools and colleges could be as dangerous to the security of our country as communist infiltration into the civilian defense program.

The danger lies in allowing this academic freedom business to be used as an effective shield behind which communism may vegetate, just as senatorial immunity allows senators to make otherwise libelous statements. We must not relax our guard by withdrawing into the nearest ivory tower, especially since the American communist is difficult to identify and might even be that World War I or II vet with the Good Conduct Medal. Yes, the one who got shot at while he was reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag or whatever.

Bayside, N. Y.

Vassar's First

To THE EDITOR:

In the March issue of the DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE is an article giving among other things a list of Dartmouth men who were wholly or in part responsible for the founding of other colleges. I note the omission from this list of Milo Parker Jewett, Dartmouth 1828, who played a part in persuading Matthew Vassar to endow the College for women which bears his name and who was the first president of Vassar College.

Hanover, N. H.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Omitting Milo Parker Jewett, Dartmouth 1828, from the list of Dartmouth men who were first presidents or founders of other colleges was indeed an oversight. He was the owner and first president of the school later called Vassar. He also "deserves a place among early promotors of educational ideas in America," according to the Dictionary of American Biography.

Jewett was a pioneer in urging the adoption of a common public school system, and while a faculty member of the Marietta Collegiate Institute was instrumental in having the system undertaken in Ohio. In 1838 he established Judson Female Institute in Alabama, which became one of the most successful schools of its kind in the South. In 1856 he purchased the Cottage Hill Seminary at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from Matthew Vassar, upon the death of Vassar's niece, Lydia Booth, former head of the school. Jewett believed in good apparatus and equipment, even for female schools, and persuaded Vassar, who had planned to leave his fortune to a hospital upon his death, to equip and endow Jewett's school instead. In 1861 the charter of Vassar College was granted and Jewett became its first president.

Although Jewett was usually a man of diplomacy, he allowed a disagreement to come up between himself and Vassar, and as a result, resigned from the presidency of Vassar College. He went west, to Milwaukee, where in a comparatively short time he became a leading citizen, active in schools and public health work.