The Dayton Citizen

SATURDAY. MARCH 18, 1950

THINGS THAT COUNT

By MILTON S. J. WRIGHT

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Views expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily express the editorial opinion of this newspaper.)

It counts for much that students at the Ohio State University, through an editorial in their official campus daily newspaper, "The Lantern," boldly and forthrightly questioned and challenged the policy and practice of that state-supported institution of higher learning regarding the undemocratic composition of its faculty. (See the Feb. 11 issue of The Dayton Citizen). The fact that students of that well-known institution would dare bring to the attention of the administration and the general public the apparent "Jim Crow" policy and practice of excluding a certain group from its teaching staff is certainly worthy of mention and commendation.

Such democratic editorial observation and thinking on the part of American college and university students should not go unnoticed. In vain we searched the pages of our daily (and for the most part, our weekly) press for some mention of, or reference to that editorial. But, so far as we have been able to discover, only The Dayton Citizen gave it any space. What surprises your writer is the fact that neither the editors nor the editorial were labelled "Communistic."

Your writer does not believe in the so-called "Negro" nor "white" pattern of life in this country, nor in any other country. Rather, he firmly believes in the "Human Pattern." Go right ahead and call me "a Communist," whatever that might mean. Recently I heard the Honorable Mayor Lohrey of Dayton interpret the current and popular conception of a Communist as "anybody who disagrees with anybody else about anything."

CERTAINLY THE RACE, CREED OR SEX of a person should not be the basis upon which a person is accepted nor rejected as a teacher or student, most especially in a tax-supported institution. This should be true, particularly in a state which, by statute law makes such discrimination illegal. In a democratic state, the person best prepared to hold a position should be allowed and even urged to hold it. His race, nor his religion should make a difference.

Under the Nazi regime in Hitler's Germany, no Jew, however brilliant he might have been, could teach in a German university. Inferior teachers who were not Jews were preferred to superior ones who happened to have been Jews. That backward philosophy was forced upon the institutions of learning under that totalitarian regime. The Hitler policy was, that "no Jew could teach 'Nordics.'" That is not the democratic American policy. In the good old USA, we believe in the American Way. Pupils and students of our public schools, our city and state-supported colleges and universities are supplied with the best possible teachers, regardless of race or creed. That is the policy and philosophy which we are offering to Europe and to the world; in spite of the current situations in such places as Xenia City and Xenia Township, Wilmington, Springfield, Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, Ohio State University and other Ohio public school systems and universities.

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THERE ARE SEVERAL PRIVATELY-SUPPORTED colleges and universities in Ohio which apparently seek to secure and actually employ the best possible teachers for their students, whether such teachers happen to be Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Negroes or Indians. Apparently that same policy cannot or will not be followed in Ohio tax-supported institutions of learning. Our tax-supported institutions not only insist upon the infamous "quota system" of admitting students, but apparently draw the line racially when it comes to hiring faculty personnel. Administrators and officials of our Ohio state and city schools, for the most part, insist upon the Nazi pattern, in so far as teachers are concerned. They try to place the blame for that pattern upon the pupils, students and the general public. "The general public just will not accept Negro teachers," some of them explain. The editorial in "The Ohio State Lantern" belies and repudiates that explanation. Those students at Ohio State University want to know why it is that private schools in Ohio and state universities in some other states can and do employ what they consider to be the best teachers they can find, without reference to race, while in Ohio's state universities the "lily-white" pattern must be strictly adhered to?

IS IT UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN OHIO for the principal state and city schools to employ a Phi Beta Kappa or a doctor of philosophy, should he or she happen to be a Negro? Must such persons be restricted to teaching in certain schools, if they want to teach in the State of Ohio? Those are some good and pertinent questions to ask and seek answers to, especially in this election year. You pay taxes in your local community and in the State of Ohio. You have the right to vote. Ask the state and local candidates for public office about their stands on those questions. Are they in favor of the Nazi policy, or do they favor "The democratic policy?"

The fact that students at Ohio State University are intelligently and democratically alert enough to see and to question that undemocratic policy at their Alma Mater is certainly among -- "The Things That Count."

"To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it."--Plato