Faculty's Questions of 'Who Did It?' Followed Snow's First Godkin Talk

When Sir Charles P. Snow delivered the 1960-61 Godkin lectures to an enraptured Harvard audience, he adopted the novelist's approach to illustrate his point that in modern industrial societies a handful of men make secret decision which determine "in the crudest sense whether we live or die."

"Do you think the butler did it?" one faculty member was quoted as saying after hearing the first installment of Snow's narrative about a conflict between two English scientists over the development of radar.

Not all Godkin lectures have been as exciting as Snow's but in its 59- year history the distinguished series has brought to Harvard some of the century's most famous figures in government, education, and public affairs.

Past lecturers have included Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, Luis Munoz Marin, the late Hugh Gaitskell, Chester Bowles, Adlai E. Stevenson, Gen. Lucius Clay, Harold Stassen, Walter Lippmann, and Robert Moses.

Established in 1903

The series was established in 1903 by friends of Edward L. Godkin, founder of The Nation, to stimulate "that spirit of independent thought and unselfish devotion to the public good which characterized his life and distinguished career."

The original $10,000 which formed the principal for the lectureship has grown over the years to over $77,000, making it "one of the best endowed lecture funds of its type," according to Don K. Price, dean of the Faculty of Public Administration.

The faculty of the School of Public Administration each year recommends the selection of a guest speaker to the Corporation, which has the final say.

Although the faculty follows no rigid standard in its recommendations, in recent years it has become customary to alternate between academicians and men of public affairs in choosing speakers on the series' topic of "The Essentials of Free Government and the Duties of the Citizen."

Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York gave last year's Godkin lectures on "The Future of Federalism."