Church v. College

Last week in Manhattan outraged clerics, patrioteers and righteous citizens were busy swatting Bertrand Russell. Reason: the appointment of unconventional Earl Russell to teach mathematics and logic at the College of the City of New York.

Bishop Manning lit the fuse last fortnight with an indignant letter to the newspapers quoting the learned Earl's views on adultery (TIME, March 11). Soon echoes of Bishop Manning's indignation gonged around Manhattan pulpits, and the Hearst press charged that Earl Russell was 1) irreligious, 2) immoral, 3) radical, 4) alien. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Catholic Daughters of America, the Lutheran Society, Inc., the Metropolitan Baptist Ministers Conference, all passed hot resolutions. Last week the Roman Catholic Church went on record. Before 6,000 policemen at a Communion breakfast, a speaker cried: "As [policemen] you have learned the full meaning of what is called a matrimonial triangle. . . . You have seen a corner of one of these triangles in a pool of blood. . . . Any professor guilty of teaching or writing ideas which will multiply the stages upon which these tragedies are set shall not be countenanced in this city. . . ."

Russell, who once wrote, "I am sure that university life would be better, both intellectually and morally, if most university students had temporary childless marriages," placidly continued to meet his classes at the University of California at Los Angeles. He remarked: "A man expects that sort of attacks. It is best to ignore them." Meanwhile, to Earl Russell's defense came City College teachers, the parents of City College students, hundreds of educators, philosophers and clergymen, among them John Dewey, University of Chicago's President Robert Maynard Hutchins, University of California's President Robert Gordon Sproul, Smith's President-emeritus William Allan Neilson, Harvard's Professors Alfred North Whitehead and Harlow Shapley, Princeton's Dean Christian Gauss. In City College's Great Hall, 1,200 undergraduates cheered famed Philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen as he said: "Not a single college authority, parent or teacher in any institution where Russell has taught has complained of the corrupting influence of his teaching. . . ."

Next day the City Council increased the clamor, voted 16-to-5 that Earl Russell's appointment should be rescinded. Cried Councilman Charles E. Keegan of The Bronx: "Any Councilman who reads his mail knows that the great majority of the taxpayers of this city do not want this alien coming in here with his moral code and getting paid from the city treasury. We should step in now and destroy the plot which began three years ago, when the Board of Higher Education set its cap for this man of doubtful moral character."

Retorted Councilman Robert K. Straus: "It becomes a serious question if the churches are going to pick the mathematicians for city colleges. How would they like it if the mathematicians picked the clergy?"

One night last week the Board of Higher Education, which last month had voted unanimously for Russell's appointment, met again behind closed doors to reconsider. Close upon midnight, out marched Ordway Tead, announced that Board had resolutely voted two to one stand by its guns.

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