"GETTING" THE HARVARD RADICALS

The demand for the removal from office of Immigration Inspector Henry J. Skeffington is but a natural result of a steadily growing intolerable state of affairs. The government officials, the country at large, and the press seem possessed with a fear of a "red revolution" an impossible and entirely remote contingency in this country. Anything liberal, or to the slightest degree unconventional in political and industrial theory, is being branded as revolutionary. Doubtless in times of over-fast development there are very real dangers incurred by the idle patter of "parlor bolshevists." But in times of reaction from liberalism such as the present there are still greater dangers in applying the epithet "parlor bolshevist" to anyone who dares assert an independent opinion. If this nation and the whole world do not watch their step carefully, the next decade will usher in a period of suppression on such a scale that in comparison the age of Metternich will appear as a mad whirl of anarchy.

It is of moment that Mr. Skeffington claims he did not speak of the Liberal Club in particular, but that he merely said he would "like to get some of these Harvard radicals." The fact remains that he represents a point of view which cannot be allowed to prevail in the administration of our government unless we desire the rule of an intolerant aristocracy representing the ideas of only one class.

The Immigration Inspector, perhaps unconsciously, is attacking the entire system of higher education. Colleges do not exist for the purpose of storing a prescribed amount of knowledge in the heads of students. Their excuse for living lies in the fact that they are places where men, after an unhampered view of facts, can formulate unprejudiced ideas.

The action of the federal authorities in deporting and making an example of the first lot of particularly violent "reds" was perfectly justifiable. It not only ridded the country of dangerous characters, but it also made these same characters ridiculous. The spectacle of wild-eyed radicals objecting vociferously to being sent to the "Free Russia" they had been praising was ludicrous. But the continued "round-ups" of radical aliens makes the government itself appear ridiculously afraid of their activities. Mr. Skeffington, by threats against the "Harvard radicals," is perhaps one of the ablest instruments in building up this none too enviable reputation for those in charge of the nation's welfare.