Two Professors Praise Churchill On Minister's Eightieth Birthday

Two of the College's leading authorities on England last night gave Winston Churchill, the last living member of "The Big Three," their highest praise on the occasion of his 80th birthday today.

The two professors explained specifically why they believed praise of Churchill is entirely justified.

"In a word, courage," Samuel H. Beer, professor of Government, explained. "He is one of the few men never intimidated by England's monolithic party system, by Tory snobbism, by shot or shell, or even by failure. He is particularly remarkable because he has not always been right or free of vices."

David E. Owen, professor of History, suggested that Churchill's birthday "ought to be regarded as a day of special observance throughout the free world. When measured alongside him," said Owen, "other latter day politicians seem tiny. No other leader of modern times has so captured the imagination of his fellow countrymen or could so draw their latent energies."

Asked if he considered Churchill the "Man of the Century," as many have suggested, Owen decided that he would be "a formidable candidate." Beer, however, was not entirely convinced that Churchill actually even belonged in the 20th century. "In some ways," said Beer, "he's not at all a 'Man of the Century' or even a 20th century man. He's got much of the 18th century in him."

Beer thought that it was especially interesting that Churchill, a conservative leader, who did not favor any drastic reforms to speak of, should have survived in an era when other conservative leaders, holding the same views, were being swept aside.

Also remarkable, said Beer, was the fact that Churchill shaped American foreign policy for almost five years after the war. In his famous speech at Fulton, Missouri, just after the war, Beer noted, Churchill coined the expression "the iron curtain" and predicted even then that Russia would become the next threat to the West.