Communication

(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

When a professed Bolshevik was allowed to mouth his doctrines in the precincts of the University, the CRIMSON became indignant and suggested that he ought to have been stopped. It has pointed out that a difference exists between free speech and propaganda, but there seems to be no possibility of drawing the line. Experience has shown that it is impossible to shut up a "Red," as long as there is a street corner and a soap box. If we forbid him to speak, we play into his hands by giving him one more grievance to talk about. Our resistance must be active and not passive.

The radical element is using propaganda to its fullest extent. The logical way to combating this is with counter-propaganda. In plain words, if we want to keep the dirty fingers of the Soviet off our government and institutions we must rap those fingers with a "big stick" of counter-propaganda before they obtain a grip.

Mr. Humphries came at the invitation of a certain radical group in the University. Those men say they wanted "to hear both sides of the question." What they wanted to hear, and have others hear, was their own side. Otherwise, why should they have imported Mr. Humphries?

Are there not enough non-radical members of the University to extend invitations to speakers who hold opposite views?

The radicals say they want "facts." Very well, let us give them facts. They bring forward credulous sentimentalists who have seen the Russian situation under the careful guidance of a Bolshevik Commissar. Surely, we can find men who have lived under the Red Terror and have seen the brutalities of Lenine's Chinese mercenaries and the countless unnamable horrors that have marked the ascendancy of the Soviet.

Then we can say, "Now you have the facts: you see what you support when you advocate the spread of what you term 'evolution'."

There is at present no definite counter-propagandist organization in the University. One is needed to handle the routine of this work. ROBERT CHAMBERS '21.