Pusey Defends Fund for Republic From Attack by 'Misguided' Zealots

Well-meaning but unqualified protectors of American traditions often make caricatures of these traditions, President Pusey said Saturday night in an address at the John Marshall Bicentennial Dinner in Memorial Hall.

The President referred particularly to the recent attack on the Fund for the Republic as an example of "misguided zeal where violence is done to such central articles in our tradition as respect for evidence and fair play."

Revived Morality

In recent years, Pusey observed, there has been more discussion of moral principles than in the 19th century. But if good is to result from adherence to principles, he noted, we must also submit them to critical examination.

"It is the peculiar mission of the University," Pusey said, "and of all professions which have their roots within the University, to believe in principle, yes--but also to have the skill, the knowledge, and the will to work for increased understanding."

University Work

Encouraging examples of devotion to principle and knowledge working together were available at the University Pusey said. He cited particularly Dean Griswold's writings on the Fifth Amendment, a digest complied by Law School professors of principal judicial and administrative hearings involving the Communist Party, the work of the Russian Research Center, and the book written by Samuel A. Stouffer, professor of Sociology, entitled "Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties."

President Pusey hailed the conference of jurists he was addressing as an occasion where principles of justice had been subjected to searching analysis.