(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications.)

To the Editor of the Crimson:

I do not know with what object the Crimson prints almost daily reports of the number of signatures of the petition for retaining Mr. Hicks as a member of the Harvard Faculty. In view of the fact that the petition bears no official character whatsoever, it would seem better to disregard such childish agitation, all the more since this petition can by no means be regarded as representing a consensus of student opinion.

The 450 petitioners, I dare venture, do not all have very intimate knowledge of Mr. Hicks's "teaching ability," but are more probably "liberals" of the sort whose hearts throb and cheeks flush at the thought of the persecuted communist, and who are enamored of the heroic and dangerous elements in a position which they are unable to defend logically, and which they would be too timid to defend outside of academic spheres.

Those who promote and give publicity to this sort of petition only call attention to the presence at Harvard of numerous "liberals" of this unwholesome type. Their publicity antics serve merely to convince the University that radical thinkers like Hicks constitute a dangerous influence on immature minds. Worse still, these agitators confirm the proponents of the Teachers' Oath Bill in their belief that academic liberties must be restrained. Avery Dulles '10.