To the Editor:

I enjoyed reading Sidney Hook’s very interesting article on “Academic Integrity and Academic Freedom” in the October COMMENTARY. His advocacy of full and free discussion, on the basis of objective evidence and valid reasoning, of the views and teachings of fellowtravelers, seems to me eminently desirable. One could wish that he had taken the same attitude with regard to known members of the Communist party. It seems a much more promising procedure than administrative or state action.

One danger that I see in his proposal is that “fellow-travelers” is an ambiguous term, not perhaps in Sidney Hook’s own mind, but in the minds of his readers, and that, hence, his paper may lead many to attack almost any leftwing view as being primarily fellow-travelerish. Even in that case, of course, little harm would be done if the discussion were carried on in the objective way that Sidney Hook recommends; but, alas, not all faculty members are able to live up to the ideal of truthseeking discussion which he has so trenchantly described.

Charles A. Baylis
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland

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