THE GREAT TRADITION

By inviting Granville Hicks '23 to come to Harvard as its guest speaker, the American Civilization Plan has delivered the most forthright possible answer to the editors of "Social Justice". That magazine in its latest issue flays President Conant for approving an extra-curricular book-list which, it alleges, "bootlegs Communism into Harvard by the backdoor." Although the writings of Mr. Hicks are specifically cited in the article as illegal liquor, the Civilization Plan has gone the whole hog by asking the scholarly radical to lecture here.

If a mere reading list could provoke the vehement comments which "Social Justice" has printed, then this latest action of the Civilization Plan is likely to provoke criticism of the most violent nature. Out of a list of 275 books recommended by the Committee for the Study of American Civilization, four are objectionable to Father Coughlin's publication. Out of a dozen speakers chosen by the Committee, one is persona non grata to that same magazine. Yet withal the Plan stands convicted of but one insidious purpose: the spreading of American culture by the encouragement of self-education. In selecting books and lecturers, the Committee has sought to represent all that range of ideas which merge and mingle together to produce the American intellectual climate. That some of these view- points are inadequate or distasteful to the majority of us, does not make them any the less real or significant. Like other more acceptable opinions, they are entitled to full expression in a tolerant atmosphere.