THE DANGERS OF REPRESSION

Several months ago John Strachey, brilliant English author and lecturer, said that he saw evidences of Fascism in this country, including a tendency to limit free speech. He now can shout from the housetops that he has proof, for he himself is to be deported. Although the immigration authorities saw no reason to exclude him in December, the official charge suddenly brought against him is that he is a Communist and that he made an "illegal entry."

Mr. Strachey made the tactical error of always speaking his mind. For example he said of the President and his policies, "He is politically clever, but the inevitable results will be disastrous." With unflagging zeal Mr. Hearst berated Mr. Strachey with the two most condemnatory words in his vocabulary--Communist and unAmerican. Probably the latter adjective should be forever eliminated from the language as totally meaningless. But if anything is typically American, it is freedom of speech. This Mr. Strachey has been denied. Certainly it is not necessary to agree with the author of "The Coming Struggle for Power," but just as certainly all who wish to hear him should be allowed the privilege, for he is a stimulating thinker. If logic were followed, Mr. Strachey's, which are widely read in this country, would all be burned in the Nazi manner.

The ablest exponents of the existing order will cry out at this arbitrary treatment of Mr. Strachey, for they maintain that when they know the critic's reasoning they are better able to refute the accusations. As Villard, a prominent liberal and recent lecturer at Harvard, said "repression was never yet a remedy for anything." Martyrdom and emotionalism, it has been historically proved time and time again, always will be the subvertor's most effective weapons.