FREE SPEECH

Reprinted below is an editorial from the Boston Post deploring a "restricted Lord Bryce". Why did the Viscount address fifteen hundred Harvard students when he might, have spoken to--well a mere modest million of Post readers? We do not know and it is none of our business. If we were to hasard a guess it would be that he preformed to "confine his words to a limited number of hearers" and just why he would not do so we have yet to discover. "Was it not a mistake?", asks the Post, as if the Viscount or the University were in error. If Lord Bryce wants to talk informally to Harvard students about universities it is hardly the part of a host to direct him to address a million newspaper readers, no matter how much they may long to catch every sentence. In fact even a very famous man is entitled, in common with his less celebrated fellows, to the liberty of choosing what he will say and to whom he will say it. If the Viscount could be made to shout on request, which would seem to be what the Post desires, he would indeed be "a restricted Lord Bryce".

In giving publicity to its entertainments and in other ways the University has maintained the policy of doing what it can for the newspapers. When in one rare case, at the request of the speaker, there was a departure from this policy, an editorial like the Boston Post's seems uncalled for. It may be that it was the inspiration of an advertising man.