WOULD LET RADICALS SHOW THEIR STUFF

"Little as I agree with the sentiments of men like Debs, Nearing, and Foster, I believe they should be allowed to come here and state their positions", said Professor Zechariah Chafee Jr., Professor of Law in the University, when interviewed by a CRIMSON reporter yesterday.

Considerable opposition has been manifested by the Board of Governors of the Union over the activities of the Undergraduate Committee in seeking to bring to the Union as speakers men with recognized radical viewpoints, and feeling is intense over the matter.

"We must assume that students in Harvard are mature enough to hear all points of view," said Professor Chafee, and the best place to hear these expressed is the Union, where a man doesn't speak to a purely radical group. Here the speaker may be subjected to questioning and criticism, and if he is unable to stand up under this, people who may have permitted their opinions to be formed through reading articles by these men, may be disillusioned, or may think less of him.

No Risk Either Way

"On the other hand" he continued, "closer inspection may prove that there is more to his viewpoint than we had at first imagined. I don't see any risk in either case, since these speakers merely present ideas. It seems to me there is much more reason to allow them to speak to a group of trained men than to permit them to talk on street-corners.

"I believe we should let any person speak at Harvard, and drag their ideas out into the open. If you will not allow a man to speak it shows you are afraid of him. The thing to do is let them talk and subject them to criticism. I have never found that students were over-ready to accept everything that was said to them as true."

"Dr. George B. Cullen of Colgate, speaking before the National Republican Club in New York City on February 16, said he was perfectly willing to have any radical come there to make an address, but he would not want to have him on the faculty."

Hard To Draw The Line

Commenting on the difficulty in deciding just what views should be presented, Professor Chafee said, "It would be very difficult to determine the exact shade of redness which bars a man from speaking at Harvard. Scott Nearing was acquitted under the Espionage Act, and I can see no specific objection in his case. Debs, convicted and recently pardoned, is a man who has several times been a candidate for President, and is a man who amassed many votes. While I don't necessarily approve, I can see a reason for drawing a line in his case. Mr. Debs has been a perfectly orderly person for the last 30 years. Bertrand Russell, convicted on substantially the same charges that Debs was, has been taken back on the Faculty of Cambridge University, England", Professor Chafee concluded.