Читать книгу The Goose-step: A Study of American Education онлайн

136 страница из 178

The moral, oh ye masters, is, without a doubt,

Stop infection early; kick the first one out.

And here are more verses, addressed to our unpopular professor:

As you sit there, growing prouder,

With your skillful tongue awag,

As your piping voice grows louder,

Preaching Socialistic gag—

Stop a moment, let us warn you,

Nature’s freak,

That we loathe you and we scorn you, Bolshevik!

Harold Laski was scheduled to give a lecture at Yale, and when he got there he found this copy of the “Lampoon” on sale all over town, together with a reprint of an editorial in the “Transcript” denouncing him. He was young, and rather sensitive, and naturally it occurred to him that he was wasting his talents upon Harvard. He would be allowed to stay there, he told a friend of mine, but he would never be promoted, he would have no career. On the other hand, the University of London offered him a full professorship at a higher salary, in a part of the world where men may think what they please about the capitalist state. Laski resigned; and so cleverly the job had been managed—he had quit of his own free will, and the great university could go on boasting that its professors are not forced out because of their opinions! As a commentary on this story, I am sure you will be interested in an extract from a letter from Laski, dated August 16, 1922: