Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions

"The Threat to Academic Freedom in California"

8:30 PM, January 21, 1946. Hollywood Masonic Temple. Remarks of the Chairman, Linus Pauling

Ladies and Gentlemen: The meeting which we are attending tonight has been called by the Science and Education Division of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. The Science and Education Division of the HICCASP has just been formed (although the National Committee has had a corresponding committee for a long time), and this is its first meeting. On behalf of the Science and Education Division I welcome you, both the members of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee and the scientists and educators who are our guests tonight.

Later this evening I shall discuss the proposed program of activities of the Science and Education Division. This program includes the subject for tonight's discussion, which is "The Threat to Academic Freedom in California."

Let us first ask - Do we have a subject for discussion? Is there a threat to academic freedom in California? There is, of course, always a threat to academic freedom - as there is to the other aspects of the freedom and rights of the individual, in the continued attacks which are made on this freedom, these rights, by the selfish, the overly ambitious, the misguided, the unscrupulous, who seek to oppress the great body of mankind in order that they themselves may profit - and we must always be on te alert against this threat, and must fight it with vigor when it becomes dangerous. From the headlines and articles in the newspapers during recent weeks we have seen how this threat has grown, directed against the members of the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. These headlines and articles have grown out of the activities of the State Legislature's Joint Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, the so-called Tenney Committee. They have ranged from the headline "Red Disciples at UCLA Face Ouster" in the Herald-Express to the relatively mild article by Timothy G. Turner which appeared yesterday on the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, and which ended with the paragraph, "You may find academic freedom in the Socratic classes of Harvard and Oxford but you are not likely to have it in State universities as much as it might be ideally desirable."

I say that the future of the world depends upon our having this freedom: we must have academic freedom, not only in Harvard and Oxford, but also in the State universities, and not only in California, but in France and in Germany, and in Japan, and in Russia.

Let me review the events which have led to this meeting. In October the picket line at the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank was joined by young people carrying banners identifying them as UCLA students. An investigation of the picketing was made in November by a Committee of the State Assembly, with C. Don Field as Chairman; during this investigation strong criticism was directed against the State university for permitting its students to take part in social and political activities. Provost Dykstra, at a conference on Cultural Relations between Russia and America, sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, answered these criticisms, and presented a thoughtful and sound statement on the principles of academic freedom. This statement was given unanimous approval by the 140 members of the Academic Senate at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The Tenney Committee then began its investigation of the faculty at UCLA. It subpoenaed, among 60 witnesses, eight members of the faculty at UCLA, including Provost Dykstra, and subjected them to examination apparently designed to show them to be Communists. This effort failed: not a single Communist was unearthed; but there was an effort at intimidation by such questions as "Who hires you?" "How long does your contract have to run?"

We cannot permit this treatment of our great State university. We know that the members of the Faculty of the University are thoughtful, able, patriotic men and women, working for the welfare of the people of the Nation and the world, without regard to race creed, or color. A distinguished scientist of this University, Dr. Bennet M. Allen, Professor of Zoology, read to his students a statement on Americanism at U.C.L.A., which he has given me permission to read to you. "To allay your --- --- is dedicated."