Council of Churches Following is the text of a policy statement on Congressional AS CHRISTIAN Americans we are Free ministers in free pulpits, preaching to free people the liberating truth of Christ, are a chief bulwark of American freedom and the best guarantee of its future. This freedom must be maintained. Certain methods, however, of Congressional committees investigating Communist activities in educational institutions endanger the very freedom which we seek to preserve. Congress has the right and duty to make such investigations as may be necessary to secure the information upon which sound legislation may be based. Conspirators in any area of life who seek the violent overthrow of the Government of the United states should be discovered, tried in American tribunals, and, where found guilty punished. The witness at any investigation should not be denied fair and dignified treatment. Having sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he should be permitted the right of an uninterrupted initial statement of reasonable length, since unlimited right of cross-examination by all members of the investigating committee is allowed. No committee should circulate on its letterheads, over the signature of its members or employees, unsupported charges against individuals or organizations which it has made no effort to investigate or substantiate. The proper and essential function of Congressional investigations must be preserved. It must be jealously guarded against abuse through methods that are bringing it into disrepute. now At this moment when national unity based upon mutual confidence is of paramount importance to our security, men in responsible positions must not, through unsubstantiated charges and blanket indictments, destroy confidence NEW OUTLOOK in our American schools, colleges and universities. To do this would be to play into the hands of the Communists. There should be no encroachment upon the sound American pattern of local control of schools. National regimentation, whether of business, of labor, of religion, or of education, is abhorrent to Americans. No regimentation is more dangerous than that of the mind. The control of our educational institutions, in keeping with the American voluntary principle as oppossed to station, is not a function of Congressional committees, but is properly vested in boards of trustees and of education se lected for that purpose. These boards must exercise the respon sibility of dealing with the occasional subversive within their institutions. Because of these and allied concerns, we authorize and request the president of this council to appoint a "Committee on the Maintenance of American Freedom." with instructions to watch developments which threaten the freedom of any of our people or their institutions, whether through. denying the basic right of freedom of thought, through Communist infiltration, or wrong methods of meeting that infiltration. The committee is requested to make such recommendations to the general board from time to time as the committee may deem appropriate. Meditations Restrain, O ignorant man, the desire of wealth, and become a hater of it in body, understanding, and mind; let the riches thou possessest be acquired by thy own good actions, with those gratify thy soul. The boy so long delights in his play, the youth so long pursues his beloved, the old so long brood over melancholy thoughts, that no man meditates on the supreme being. Who is thy wife, and who is thy son? How great and wonderful is this world; whose thou art, and whence thou comest? Meditate on this, my brother, and again on this. As a drop of water moves in the leaf of the Lotus: thus or more slippery is human life. The company of the virtuous endures here but for a moment: that is the vehicle to bear thee over land and ocean. A Thirsty Problem IN MY CLASS there are many Jewish pupils from Oriental countries. I wanted to test their outlook on life, so I told them a story based on a Talmudic legend. It was the story of two men travelling in the desert until they became very thirsty. One of the men had a little bottle of water which was not enough to quench the thirst of both. Should both drink, they would both die before they could reach a village. On the other hand, if one were to drink it all, he would be able to reach a town, but his comrade would die. What was to be done? I thought that there were only two possible answers: that of Rabbi Ben Petura and that of Rabbi Akiba. Rabbi Ben Petura said: Let them both drink and die, so that one may not see the death of the other. Rabbi Akiba said: Your life is more important than that of your comrade. Drink and live. But my pupils were not satisfied. They were all eager to express an opinion. And each answered as he thought best. The type of education and the community from which each came is revealed in the way By A School Teacher In Israel they answered. Here is what they said: North African child: Let the one who has the water drink. Egyptian child: The stronger of the two should drink. Yemenite child: Let them pray to God and there will be rain and they'll both drink. Gruzian child: Let them dig a well and they'll find water. Persian child: They shouldn't have started out on their journey without a big supply of water. A pupil from Afghanistan: I think they should go to sleep. "Let them both drink," cried a pupil from Tunis. "I believe that they will not die." "Let them both drink," said a Gruzian child. "Why worry about the future." And the pupil from Baghdad said: Let them swallow their saliva and imagine that it is water. The Yemenite: Let them be content with a little water-to each a drop. And a child from Damascus said: Let one drink. The other will (Cont. on page 83) ย give notice to my an Iwright cenyoning vir & play of ideas ant for east. A Miller, that before te sens IF brain-child ac a matte Tat better check in the IT pressure groups inside every state whose border be means to cross. Mr. Miller, the distinguished author of "Death of a Salesman," has brought to Broadway a play Fussun-4 meccan wat tehet. and predict, Mr. Miller hasn't a China called "Crucible." It is a dramatization of the infamous witch-craft trials in Salem, Massachusetts, which were merely the sourest byproduct of the sixty-year theocracy imposed on the Massachusetts colony by those Pilgrim Fathers who are popularly supposed to have crossed the seas in search of religious freedom. Nineteen men and women were hanged, on the word of a couple of vicious Colonia. bobbysoxers. Mr. Miller has restaged 1.42 famous obscenity with amfive pressing power, and be many places, the know! put on without a picked not troubled on the po The American Bar Associadinje v subversion. But some of 3, # " 1 |