The superintendent of buildings and grounds, or other competent authority, calls upon Mr. Newton.
Supt.: Your theory of gravitation is hanging fire unduly. The director insists on a finished report, filed in his office by nine A. M. Monday next; summarized on one page; typewritten, and the main points underlined. Also a careful estimate of the cost of the research per student-hour.
Newton: But there is one difficulty that has been puzzling me for fourteen years, and I am not quite ...
Supt. (with snap and vigor): Guess you had better overcome that difficulty by Monday morning or quit.
How can dull men, absorbed in dull routine, hold the attention of large groups of wide-awake youngsters? The answer is that they do not, and that is the failure of our colleges. The situation is summed up in a delightful anecdote, which was solemnly sworn to me by a college professor who dares not let me use his name. He was doing the customary “glad-hand” stunts at a reunion of the “old boys,” and one of these successful sons came up to him, beaming with pleasure, and clasped his hand in a hearty grip. “Professor Smith! Well, well, Professor Smith, I sure am glad to see you! You have no idea what a good time I had in that English class of yours. We read ‘Hamlet,’ you remember, but we only got halfway through. I often find myself wondering how that play came out.”
Or, if you cannot believe that story, take the testimony of Professor C. T. Titus of Whitman College, who tried the experiment of asking college seniors in what state the city of St. Louis is located. There were guesses as far apart as Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee! No wonder that Bertrand Russell remarks that “Education has been one of the chief obstacles to the development of intelligence.”
CHAPTER LXXIX
THE WORLD OF “HUSH”
Knowing as I do the economics of our plutocratic empire, I had a general idea of what I should find in my tour of the colleges; but I had little idea of the details, and went with an open mind, prepared to follow the facts where they led. After I had visited a dozen colleges, I began to be struck by a peculiar circumstance[circumstance]; not merely was I encountering similar incidents—I was hearing the same phrases over and over! Certain expressions became familiar, and I would wait for them; if they did not come, I would suggest them, and note the instant response: “Yes, that’s it exactly!”
I go over my note-book and cull out these phrases: “It is a slow strangling.” “It is the wearing away of a stone by drops of water.” “It is an intangible thing, an atmospheric pressure.” “It is a question of good taste, of loyalty to the institution, to one’s colleagues.” So ran the story, over and over, all the way from California to Massachusetts and back again. I came to realize that the important fact about academic freedom in America is not the extreme and dramatic cases I have been narrating; it is the whole system of class prejudice and class repression, which operates for the most part without its victims being conscious of it.
I quote other statements from my note-book: “Our young instructors are weaklings, selected as such. They seek a comfortable berth, sheltered from the storms of the world.” “They find that promotion depends upon conformity, and they conform.” “There is a tremendous absence of freedom, but the victims don’t realize it; they think they are merely being polite; before they know what has happened to them they have become small men.” “No man who thinks can tell just when he will become a victim, or how he will be tripped up.” “I can count an indefinite number of friends to whom I would express myself—up to a certain point.” “You may stay in the place for years, and then some day discover one man to whom you dare to talk.” “Those who go out have adventures, but pity those who stay.” “The plow-horse does not feel the rein until he tries to step out of the furrow.” “Yes, our men are free; they are horses that stand without hitching.” Such statements, with varying phraseology, were made by scores of men, in as many different colleges and universities.