The News from Nassau

Four principal conclusions can be drawn from the second Battle of Princeton:

1.) The University's reputation was both strengthened and weakened by the appearance of Alger Hiss. Among people who understand the meaning of academic freedom, Princeton's uncompromising attitude won added respect. Among those unaware of the issue's significance, the University's "hands-off policy was seriously detrimental.

2.) Princeton University Trustees showed considerable sagacity in forcefully demonstrating that they respect undergraduates more than the dollars of a few, immoderate alumni.

3.) Neither mild Spring nights, nor encouragement from the clamorous New York press, nor the exhortations of violent American Legion groups, could disturb the composure of the Princeton man. After persuasive appeals from President Dodds and the Daily Princetonian, students assumed an attitude of both responsibility and moderation.

4.) Father Hugh Halton, Princeton chaplain to Roman Catholic students, lost any effectiveness he may have once had as a critic of the University. His near-fanatic harangues on the Hiss controversy, which he seized upon as an issue by which to further his impassioned attack on the administration, have offended many Aquinas Foundation members, as well as most of the non-Catholic student body.

On the academic freedom issue, the row over down when Hiss spoke. They emigrated from the city in droves, corncring reluctant students to voice an opinion on a man convicted when they were thirteen or fourteen. Photographers were so rambunctious when University proctors spirited Hiss into Whig Hall that he arranged an escape through the rear exit, leaving the men of the press taking pictures of themselves at the front. Representatives from Reuters, the London News-Chronicle, and the New Republic, who were left on the door-step, didn't get much of a story on Hiss' actually anti-climactic speech.

Probably the biggest single loser in the whole row was fiery Father Halton who received his first public rebuke, except for previous letters to the Daily Princetonian, from undergraduates at large. In the unique position of a student adviser not on the Princeton payroll, he had previously waged bitter forays into both the Religion and no idea of the implications," he recalled.

The Trustees, on the other hand, were well aware of the engagement's implications when they met April 19. By a vote of 26 to 4, they agreed to allow the Hiss invitation to stand, but voiced unanimously their "disapproval of the students" who offered the bid. In its action, the Board disregarded blasts from several influential alumni, including a north New Jersey group which noted in a Princetonian advertisement that the issue would hurt Princeton's Annual Giving program.

Judge Harold R. Medina, a Trustee, said after the stormy meeting that freedom and responsibility "are the biggest things we have to make up our minds about," and that "the only way to train youth for responsibility was to give it responsibility."

But the level-headedness of undergraduates was just what the newspapermen wanted to see break topics had dwindled, and Whig-Clio wanted to do something to spark sagging attendance at it's lectures. Though they knew that Hiss could impart no special information on "The Meaning of Geneva," they were genuinely curious about what he would have to say. Whig-Clio undoubtedly was interested to some degree in the publicity of a Hiss appearance, but of course had no notion that it would create such an unfortunate furor.

"Bruce probably wouldn't do it all over again if he had the choice," a public speaking teacher said in reference to the choice of Hiss by Bruce D. Bringgold '57, Whig-Clio president. "We all had Father Halton regretted that the initial invition was ever tendered to Hiss. The Whig-Cliosophic Society which sponsored the talk, originally asked a total of seventeen luminaries--including Vice-President Nixon, Generals MacArthur, Ridgeway, and Marshall, Governor Folsom, Senators Eastland, McCarthy, Kefauver, and George--to address undergraduates.

Only Kefauver, and two others, Senator Sparkman and journalist William S. White, agreed, as did Hiss, to come.

Whig-Clio's motives in asking Hiss probably were several. Student interest in current affairs.

The University suffered, however, in its relations with non-academic people who considered that Princeton was giving a soap-box to a convicted perjuror capable of "charming and deceiving" gullible undergraduates. This view, unhappily, was supported by the popular press and two Congressmen who had no connection with the University except that they represented New Jersey districts.

In the final analysis, practically everyone except New York headline writers and opportunist pressure to maintain freedom," according to Vlastos, "and for the people who have a clear understanding of academic freedom, it really strengthens Princeton's reputation."

Vlastos, professor of Philosophy, said that the appearance of Hiss in spite of wide prostest was a great boost to University morale. "There is terrific reaffirmation of Princeton's principles. Gregory the appearance of Alger Hiss was a heartening Philosophy departments. Now his invective became so extreme that practically everyone on campus joined in the ridicule. He met incessant boos and jeers at his anti-Hiss, anti-Princeton talk on the eve of the great event, and caused a minor demonstration when he asserted, "Princeton is in its darkest hour."

The Battle reflected in many ways the difficulty of maintaining academic freedom, and it is a tribute to Princeton that despite enormous pressure it stood firmly on principle.