Charging that the first steps of Fascism are involved in the Teachers Oath Bill, the Cambridge Union of University Teachers yesterday released a pamphlet stating the arguments for repeal of the bill. The booklet was prepared by a committee including Francis O. Matthiessen, associate professor of History and Literature, and J. Raymond Walsh, Instructor in Economics.
Extracts from the booklet follow which show the trend of the arguments used in it.
A teacher's "duty is to teach the truth as he sees it;"
"The only resemblance between the teachers oath and the oath for lawyers and public officials is one of name."
"We believe in the institutions of our political democracy. We believe that it is important to know and understand the ideas of other systems, and to test ideas of our own system in competition with them. We believe that such a test can be made honestly only by permitting those whose beliefs are different from ours to speak and to write as freely as they choose."
"It is not an accident that among the first steps taken by the dictators of Italy and Germany was the requirement of stringent teachers' oaths."
"The head and front of this (Fascist) element in support of the Teachers' Oath Law is William Randolph Hearst."
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