Hurling a provocative challenge that touches every citizen at all American colleges and universities, the First Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education has cleared the air of Nineteenth Century dogma by announcing that these institutions "can no longer consider themselves merely the instrument for producing an intellectual elite; they must become the means by which every citizen . . . is enabled and encouraged to carry his education as far as his native capacities permit."

Since it believes that our future democratic survival hinges on education, the Report finds that we must provide "education for a fuller realization of democracy in every phase of living." To this end, the Commission urges the following main aims and innovations: free education through the first two college years and a doubling of present college enrollments by 1960; inexpensive and non-discriminatory graduate education with emphasis laid upon tripling teachers, doctors, dentists, and nurses in training within ten years; provision of "general education" to develop "civic conscience" and furnish a "common cultural heritage;" and the elimination of all racial and religious barriers to equality of higher education, particularly as they affect Negro citizens.

In achieving this educational revolution, the Report frankly states that the burden will rest primarily on publicly supported institutions and that the resources "will have to come from the Federal Government." It is clear that the Commission has faced cold facts with honesty; it has recognized that a politically or economically cautious skirting of issues cannot conceivably meet the task. The Report's message is unambiguous; education just as well as defense and social security is the nation's business.

But other national reports have been distinguished for imagination and courage and yet have come to nothing. At best, the Federal Government, as an agent of implementation, can only grant financial aid upon request. For in this case, the spirit of the Report--the philosophy of education as social training for Democracy--can only be translated into action if the institution and individuals, the special groups and areas it appeals to, choose to follow it.

The colleges and universities that fear expansion, the graduate schools that discriminate, the conservative professional groups determined to keep their numbers small, the mis-guided advocates of southern dual education, the born-too-late liberals that can defeat the best intended and most soundly are the diverse elements that can defeat the best intended and most soundly constructed program. It is up to the Commission to enlist the aid of educators and institutions, business, press, and radio, and all interested citizens in convincing these voices of the past that a challenge exists above and beyond the level of private interest that must be met.