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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 951 



series laid thereon, showing conclusively that 

 the bottom was leveled preglacially and that 

 there has been no " erosion." 



In view of these facts, which anybody can 

 check, it is germane to the subject to ask 

 Mr. Leverett to kindly be specific and state 

 exactly where this " great erosion " occurred 

 over the " upper Alleghany region." 



Edward H. Williams, Jr. 



academic freedom 

 To THE Editor of Science: The dismissal 

 of Professor Willard C. Fisher from the chair 

 of political and social science at Wesleyan 

 University, which has now been made formal 

 and definitive by the acquiescence of the 

 trustees in the action of the president, is an 

 occurrence that shows the need of constant 

 effort and discussion in order to maintain the 

 right of freedom of speech and of teaching. 

 The correspondence between President Shank- 

 lin and Professor Fisher, as published in a 

 recent number of Science (February 14), is 

 on its face sufficient evidence that a teacher 

 who had served the institution for twenty 

 years was summarily removed on grounds that 

 are absolutely trivial and puerile. From vari- 

 ous sources which seem reliable the report 

 comes that Professor Fisher's address at 

 Hartford was not the cause of his dismissal, 

 but that the real ground is to be found in the 

 objection felt by the president and some of 

 the trustees of the college to his political and 

 social views. If this is so, it only emphasizes 

 the fact that there has been a serious infringe- 

 ment of the principle of academic freedom. 

 The matter is too serious to be allowed to 

 drop : it seems desirable that there should be 

 protests from universities, learned societies 

 and individuals so numerous as to arouse 

 public opinion and render any similar occur- 

 rence impossible in the future. Physical 

 science has fortunately no longer to fear any 

 direct interference from outside authority. 

 It is a long time since Galileo ; and even the 

 doctrine of evolution now calls out no protest 

 from any quarter. But the representatives of 

 these sciences will not fail to recognize that 



their own cause is bound up with that of the 

 economists and social philosophers who now 

 furnish the chief grounds of offence to the 

 " interests." For freedom of speech and of 

 research can not be limited to certain subjects : 

 science can not exist half slave and half free. 

 I conclude by quoting an extract from an 

 address of President Schurman as reported 

 in the Cornell Sun for September 24, 1897, 

 which seems to me a fine statement of prin- 

 ciples of which we should never lose sight. 



If it is asserted that the business of the college 

 or university is to teach that which the average 

 man may believe, or that which is acceptable to the 

 university, or that which the board of trustees may 

 assert as the truth, the answer must always be that 

 such a course contravenes the very principle on 

 which the university was founded, and however 

 true it may be that the majority must rule in the 

 body politic, the motto of the university must be, 

 one man with God 's truth is a majority. There is 

 also a second principle involved in what has been 

 said if all this be true. It is perfectly clear that 

 every teacher must be free to carry out his inquiries 

 and to announce and proclaim if he wishes what he 

 has observed, or in dealing with the individual 

 student the teacher must be free to present all 

 phases of the question as they occur to him — other- 

 wise he has missed his great vocation as a teacher. 



Money is ne«ded by universities. I know it well. 

 I know that our board of trustees is constantly 

 wrestling with the problem of how to make both 

 ends meet, how to meet the legitimate demands of 

 the heads of departments and colleges, yet if money 

 is to be got for the institution by the suppression 

 of the truth, by setting any limitation whatever 

 upon the freedom of the teachers to inquire or to 

 announce the results of their inquiries, better a 

 thousand times that the institution should go out 

 of existence. The end of a university is truth and 

 the promotion of truth. Money may be a means 

 to that end, and as a means it may kindle a great 

 light; as an end it can only produce total darkness. 

 Hence any attempt to set limitations upon the inde- 

 pendence of the teaching staff must be resisted, 

 must be unwarranted. We need for the advance 

 of civilization the striking out of new ideas or the 

 application of old ideas to new fields. Where are 

 such ideas to be urged, if the business of the uni- 

 versity is to teach what is acceptable to the com- 

 munity? All science would be impossible on this 

 theory. 



