Those individuals who attended the anti-UMT rally in Sanders Theater on Saturday with the express purpose of shouting down the speakers used tactics that are almost too unoriginal to warrant censure. They have been used repeatedly by Communists to prevent the opposition from being heard; they are also darkly reminiscent of pre-1933 Germany. But unoriginal as the boo, shout, and catcall may be, whenever used to stifle free speech, they demand public denouncement.
Last summer demonstrators prevented Gerald L. K. Smith from speaking in Boston. Political considerations aside, there is an unpleasant parallel between these two demonstrations. At that time this newspaper stated: "The worth of ideas is to be tested in the marketplace of political discussion . . ." There are without doubt worthwhile ideas to be heard on both sides of this issue. It is essential that "the marketplace of political discussion" in which to hear them be kept open.
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