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Communication

A Graduate's View of the Discussion Over Mrs. Pankhurst.

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

As one of the New York alumni who are fairly aghast at the University's closing its doors to Mrs. Pankhurst, may I not have the privilege of your columns to urge all the undergraduates who can, to hear her speak at Brattle Hall, for the double purpose of thus making amends for the University's lamentable blunder and of hearing one of the ablest orators of the day? As one who has, professionally, listened to most of the leading American public men, I feel that her address at Carnegie Hall last year was one of the very greatest from any source it has been my good fortune to hear. I doubt very much if there are more than three or four living Americans who could speak for an hour and a half on political questions, and hold the audience in deepest interest and handle their subject with such complete grasp and skill. More than that, Mrs. Pankhurst is a woman of rare charm and of the highest idealism. How could Harvard be so lacking in courtesy, chivalry and good taste as to refuse to let her have our finest lecture hall?

It is quite beside the mark whether one approves of her cause or of all her methods--those who do not altogether, like myself, must admit that thanks to the publicity these methods have obtained for the cause it has been quickened and vitalized the world over and has been advanced with unprecedented speed. The point is that Harvard is closing its doors to one of the great leaders, thinkers and orators of the day--yes, I am inclined to say, to one of the world's great minds. Plainly it is not Mrs. Pankhurst who has been injured but Harvard. Must our University assume towards this newer phase of the battle for political freedom the same blind, reactionary attitude to which it held--to its disgrace--throughout the struggle for the abolition of human slavery in America? OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD '93. The Evening Post, New York, Dec. 1.

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The above communication is printed in spite of the announcement made Saturday, having been written and mailed to the CRIMSON the day before.

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