Brown and White Vol. 59 no. 4

              by the editor nation's newspapers laud decry nea in boston's historic mechanics hall early this month his tory was made when the national education association voted almost unanimously to bar communists from its membership we want no commies teaching in america was the forthright cry of the 3,000 delegates and only five persons stood at roll call to protest the vote representing 825,000 american school teachers principals super intendents and other elementary and secondary school officials the nea representatives made it perfectly clear that theirs was no wishy washy decision asked by dr john k norton of teacher's college columbia uni versity should there be freedom to destroy our freedom — and by using the school as a means of doing it " the delegates thundered no and the echo of their will reverberated throughout the country — pleasing to seme ears displeasing to others so long as the communist party is a legal political party affilia tion with it should not be regarded as a justifiable reason for exclu sion from the academic profession organizations like the american association of university professors in which lehigh has 27 active and 2 associate members refused to go along with the nea decision its committee on academic freedom has issued the following statement louder voices were raised pro and con in the nation"s press from the party organ the daily worker to the hearst-mccormick em pires to cite extremes opinions ran the gamut shedding more fire than light on the controversial topic some members of the fourth estate did neat verbal acrobatics on the fence while others ignored the issue the st louis star-times in an editorial july 11 feared that aaup was butting its head into a stone wall of public opinion but that its statement deserves sober reflection that organization the liberal newspaper feels has challenged the nation to lay off the teaching profession until it has met the communist problem at other levels in another editorial four days prior to its pronouncement on aaup the same newspaper declared so long as there are limita tions on what a teacher may say about communism there is a danger that anything he says may be misconstrued and goes on to quote co lumbia's henry steele commager that in the confusions of circum scribed teaching teachers will find safety not in orthodox ideas — for they will never know which ideas are orthodox — but in no ideas in the opposing camp sat philadelphia inquirer columnist john m cummings he lifted the debate to the personal p t ane condemn ing nea president miss jean wilson for her opposition to the loyalty oath requirement which nea censured as being discriminatory cummings couldn't understand why all the excitement over the loyalty oath because some of our educators treat the three r's as a three-way salute to russia the country is getting an overdose of hogwash dealing with aca demic freedom columnist cummings avers and asks rhetorically why in the name of common sense is it discrimination to ask the teachers to take an oath without requiring the same pledge from citi zens in other lines of activity his newspaper contradicted him next day by insisting that the scope of the loyalty oath be extended to all those who have a direct influence on public policy continued on page 2 col 1 top engineers to hold panels lectures in aug highlighting next week's product design seminar will be a series of panel discussions and a number of lectures by prominent men in various fields panel discussions for the fifth week of the seminar begin on august 1 and end august 6 the topic for discussion on august 1 will be consumer research in product design this panel will be followed the next day by a study of magnesium presented by the dow chemical company on august 3 the subject will be brass copper zinc and titan ium presented by the new jer sey zinc company a panel discus sion will follow august 4 subject welding forging casting and deep drawing the seminar will feature a lecture surfaces of materials by dr joseph f libsch august 5 8 a.m to 12 noon dr libsch is an assistant pro fessor of metallurgical engineer ing he received his doctorate at m.i.t and has served in the army ordance department as a captain working on metallurgical develop ment and research in small arms libsch is an authority in the field of physical metallurgy specializing in heat treatment he is metallur gical consultant for the lepal high frequency laboratories and is a member of sigma xi american society for metals and the ameri qan institute of mining and metal lurgical engineers from 1:30 p.m to 4:30 p.m aug 5 a lecture by the standard varnish works 1 entitled finishes for products will be conducted from 7 p.m to 10 p.m raymond spillman will lecture to the group on consumer reaction to surface finish spilman is a member of the education committee of the 5.1.d and conducts courses in de sign at new york university saturday august 6 8 a.m to 12 noon has been scheduled for de sign project work spilman studied at kansas state college and has been sta designer for general motors product de signer for walter teague and chief of design staff for johnson crush ing and nevell prof elmer c bratt „ lehigh university nounced that he is currently en gaged in studies for the bethlehem steel company dr bratt who is nationally rec oggnized for his articles on busi ness forcasting will assist the com pany in studies on longe range planning the project is under the division of commercial research and will continue through the summer dr whitaker explained high schools cut to 1277 by consolidation as a result of the consolida tion of school districts and the closing of small rural schools the number of high schools in penn sylvania have steadily declinded from 1,277 in 1940 to 1,143 today dr edwin w cruttenden chief of the division of secondary educa tion pennsylvania state depart ment of education told members of the curriculum workshop this morning the speaker also pointed out that there has been a steady in crease in th number of schools in the junior-senior high school classification calling attention to the steady increase in the number of joint boards operated by neigh boring townships he attributed these to improvement in educa tional services and increased state reimbursement dr cruttendan told the group that it is not the policy of the pennsylvania state depart continued on page 2 col 5 volume 57 — number 4 thay look what i did . . . lehigh university's summer brown and white friday july 29 1949 bethlehem pa majority of lu profs approve nea move in barring commies by pete lamana the minority opinion emphasized that legislative action will merely force the communistic teacher underground and that the foremost consideration in teacher selection should be a person's ability to teach not his political affiliations of 19 lehigh faculty members queried as to their stand on the recent nea ruling barring com munist teachers from elementary and secondary schools 16 expressed their unwillingness to see the minds of the youth of america infiltrated with communist ideals and propaganda the question arose as a result of the recent national educa time the group voted to bar all communists from its ranks b & w photo by chisholm editor bobby pully 4 left upbraids 15-month-old johnny mc fadden hisi ace reporter and son of the brown and white faculty adviser for mistakes which appeared in last week'si b & w mcfadden who recently joined the staff had a clean record at his last place of employment the diaper hourly ion association meeting at which communism in education has been the topic of conversation in many schools throughout the country for example in a recent move washington state college expelled two faculty members for communist party affiliation terming communism sub versivepropaganda wray h cong don dean of undergraduates stated it is my opinion that the nea did not go far enough in its position barring communists from membership no active supporter of subversive propaganda what ever the particular brand has any place in the classroom of schools below college level on the college level the issue is one of presenting all sides of a controversial issue it is unwise and undemocratic to give an evan gel of any ism full sway in a course where all sides of the ques tion are not given an equal oppor tunity for presentation ( continued on page 2 col 1 even then it takes a very level headed instructor to train even the serious student to sift out the de monstrable facts from the unsup portable propaganda the inquir the name of elmer c bratt professor of economics was added to the list of faculty members en gaged in special summer work to day when president whitaker an steel appoints bratt as aide average check to be 175 in 50 va insurance payoff approximately 16,000,000 veterans will each receive a share of 2,800,000,000 which will be available aug 29 as a result of gov ernment life insurance payments due them carl r gray jr administrator of veterans affairs said today that application forms for the special divdend would be available to present and former policy holders of national service life insurance by the end of next month the government printing office is running off 70,000,000 copies of the application blanks gray said they would be available on aug 29 in every postoffice veterans administration offices and veter ans service organization all veterans of world war ii who applied for service insurance and kept it intact for three months or longer will receive a check even though his policy lapsed three months a veterans will get a refund gray predicted that first checks would start flowing out sometime in january with the maximum mailing rate estimated at 200,000 payments a day about 22,000,000 policies of services life insurance wer issued between 1940 and 1947 about 16,000,000 policy holders or their dependents will be eligible for the dividends the average payment to the policy-holders will be 175 presi dent truman has order d that the special dividend be paid back to its contributors by june 30