FREE EXPRESSION

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In the issue of your esteemed paper for 20 February last, Professor George Sarton expresses concern lest the investigations of the Congressional Committee on un-American Activities tend to stifle freedom of expression in our universities. In your issue of 27 February I read of the punishment of two undergraduates for the somewhat childish prank of burning a flery cross. It is evident that this was done as a joke, but, if it had been done seriously, the action of the authorities would seem to be such as to discourage freedom of speech and expression of opinion. In his revealing little book "Geneyre contre la Paix" (Paris 1936) the former French Ambassador to Great Britain, the Comte de St. Aulaire, remarks that the "Liberal's" idea of free speech is, "every right and opportunity for me and my friends to express ourselves but none for our opponents." It would appear that Professor Sarton should have some concern as to repression of freedom of expression at home in Cambridge as well as in Washington. G. Andrews Morlarty '06