Green: "Why Ireland?"
Flynn: "Because I think the Irish are proof against Communism and I want to give him a nice soft job."
Joseph P. Dawson, representing the Baptists of the United States, devoted the bulk of his time to stating that Conant's position on parochial schools is "in harmony with the historic position of the Government" and is supported by the Baptists.
In his testimony on the last day of the hearings President Conant concerned himself almost entirely with the question of Communists at Harvard. He emphasized that the problems confronting the head of the a government agency are "totally different" from those the president of a university, particularly in regard to the problems of loyalty.
He stated that he did not believe professors, by joining certain organizations, had branded themselves as Communists. "Professors as private citizens, particularly in periods of tension, may say many things and take many stands that many other private citizens will not agree with. They are free agents. The woisdonm of their statements is not for me either to condemn or condone as president of a university . . . A university could not undertake the kind of investigation which would find the really hidden Communists without destroying the life of the university. On the other hand if the government has evidence that there are such people there I hope they will ferret them out by FBI methods and prosecute them.
Conant Defends Shaley
Specifically with regard to Shapley, Conant said, "I have known him for a long time. Anybody can be a hidden Communist as was brought out here, but I do not regard him as one. He is an astronomer as you know."
Tobey: "That means he is starry-eyed."
Conant: "Well he has appeared on many public platforms shall we say, over the years."
In explaning why such a man as Shapley would join so many organizations which are called Communist fronts. Conant framed his answer in term of an "hypothetical professor," who "corresponds to a number of people I have known on a number of different university staffs, who might join a great many organizations and make statements which from any point of view are incredibly stupid and not likely to improve the cause of either peace or the security of the United states. It is quite easy for such people to be flittered by certain organizations. They are told they are great. Shall we say for the sake of argument, a great biologist or anatomist or anything you want, is told 'you views must be heard' . . . Politically some of them are naive beyond belief."
Saltonstall Rebuts Critics
President conant was introduced to the committee by Leverett Saltonstall (R-Mass.) who spat back at the criticisms of the day before, "I would rather have a man who had done something and who has built up a record than to have a man who has no record of any kind and who, for that reason will have no opposition or no man in factor of him." . . . Now, of course, he is a controversial figure. These three presidents of Harvard during my lifetime--Charles W. Eliot, A. Lawrence Lowell and James B. Conant--have all been controversial figures and I hope any president of Harvard for as long ahead as we can see will be a controversial fighre; if he is not a controversial figure then he is no good. He is not good as a president because what we want is a leader of men, who is going to think ahead, who is willing to express himself ahead of our ordinary thinking and who is willing to try to show the way not only in educational fields but in other fields as he develops and as his name becomes recognized as a thinker and a leader."
Saltonstall carried the day, not only in the committee with unanimously approved Conant's appointment but two days later in the Senate which officialy confirmed it.
But the Senator's loyalty to an old friend and classmate backfield on him this week. Back in his home state legis-