"The choice facing the United States is now one between a preventative war and negotiation," Robert M. Hutchins, ex-Chancellor of the University of Chicago stated last night at the Law School Forum in Rindge Tech Auditorium.

Hutchins, the principal speaker at the first Forum of the term, went on to say that an educated populace is the key to successful peace negotiation between the United States and Russia.

"Our boys should be in schools rather than the army," Hutchins asserted. The present educational system, with all its faults, is the only means of producing a citizenry with the character and intelligence necessary to achieve and maintain peace. A huge army, he said, is unnecessary in this age of atomic power, for if war should come, it will be a war of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, and not infantry.

Off the Topic

Despite the fact that the announced topic was "Can We Preserve Freedom and Achieve Security," Hutchins spent most of his address proving that numerous weapons and an army of the size called for by the present administration constituted a useless burden and a hopeless way of achieving international security. As for personal freedom, he said only that education was the answer here, too.

William Y. Elliott, Leroy B. Williams Professor of Government, and McGeorge Bundy, instructor in Government, questioned Hutchins after his speech on the validity of his view that an army is unnecessary, bringing up such situations as Korea, which require ground troops.