Bertrand Russell is here. With a tacit nod of satisfaction from the Corporation and perhaps a few grimaces from Boston's Thomas Dorgan to greet him, he arrived yesterday. The presence of this eccentric but learned Britisher marks a timely victory for the freedoms which are so much endangered today.

His presence is now a fait accompli, and not all the courts in the Commonwealth can drive him from his sanctuary in the Faculty Club. But his arrival means more for the University than victory over a loud-mouthed Boston politician. It means that academic freedom is still the guiding principle of the men who control Harvard.

Last winter when the University clamped down on the John Reed Society and refused to allow Communist Earl Browder to speak before a student gathering, a chorus of crititcism was sounded from academic pulpits throughout the country, as well as from professors and students in the University itself. Recalling that Harvard had grown on a diet of freedom of conscience and liberty of thought, critics wondered whether that tradition were to be shattered forever.

But now the situation is different. The ability of State Supreme Court Judge McGechan to prevent the English philosopher from teaching at the College of the City of New York demonstrated quite succinctly the ever-present threats to the cause of freedom in any public institution. From Manhattan the spotlight turned to Cambridge. Would the Corporation disallow the Russell appointment on the grounds of his immoral beliefs, no flimsier excuse than that used to prevent Browder from speaking? Or, if not that, would Dorgan and the Massachusetts courts prevail? The answer came only with Lord Russell's arrival yesterday. Harvard stands justified again in the eyes of her peers and her children.