THE MAIL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

May I clarify my position on the question of communists on our college and school faculties? I cannot help feeling that the CRIMSON'S account of the Friday night Law School Forum misses my essential point.

I do not feel that communists are especially desirable on a faculty. My faith, if there is any left to me, is in the undogmatic mind, the mind free to exam data without pro-conclusion and to aim for the conclusion implicit in the data itself. No party-liner--communist, catholic, bible-fundamentalist, shintoist, or what you will-is wholly free to observe this process, and to the extent that he is not free he is undesirable as an instructor in most courses, particularly in those courses where the nature of the material seeks to discover questions rather than mechanical answers.

The selection, however, must be left to the administrative discretion of the college presidents. I doubt that the assistance of the Massachusetts General Assembly is necessary for the survival of the free mind in our schools. I rather suspect, in fact, that our administrators are better qualified to determine a curriculum, than are our representatives at the State House. I must certainly continue to insist that attempts to legislate controls upon our schools are more dangerous than a communist here and there could hope to be. John Clardi