(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld. Only letters under 400 words can be printed because of space limitations.)

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To the Editor of the Crimson:

The dismissal of Major General Hagood for criticizing the New Deal is just one more example of the methods employed by the Administration to prevent the public from hearing authoritative criticism. Any person who has access to the truth and tries to inform the people or the Congress of the United States about it is quickly removed from the scene by Roosevelt, or the men who do his strong-arm work for him. No doubt if Major General Hagood continues to criticize the Administration, his reputation will be vilified, just as have the reputations of all those who have opposed the New Deal.

This incident is neither new nor surprising. It provides, however, an opportunity for the newly formed Harvard Students' Union to reveal itself in its true colours to the University and to the country. If it is, as is claims to be, an organization for the suppression of war and fascism, it will protest vehemently against this most fascistic treatment accorded to Major-General Hagood. If, on the other hand, it is a body whose sole aim is to perpetuate New Dealism, or, perhaps, to turn it into something even more socialistic, we can only expect it to refrain from criticizing its master, just as we would expect the N.S.L. and the S.L.I.D., of which it is largely composed, to refrain from criticizing Soviet Russia, and the dictatorship of Stalin.

We must not be hasty in judging the Harvard Student Union. Perhaps it is as sincerely American as it pretends to be, and will therefore repudiate an Administration resorting to this most un-American treatment of an efficient army officer for criticizing the President, not as his Commander-in-Chief, but as the executive head of the country of which he is a citizen, entitled to the privilege of free speech guaranteed to everyone by the Bill of Rights. D. P. Hays '39