[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As I am a
citizen of the United States who for several years has been a warm supporter on the Irish question and on Socialism of both the Morning Post and the Spectator, 'I hope that both papers will allow me to record in their columns my vigorous dissent from the original article in last week's issue by an American youth and the editorial founded on it in the Morning Post, " The Return of the Puritan." So many points are raised in that article that lack of space prevents brief refutation of more than one or two. To justify myself in this criticism, let me say that I have been for nearly half a century a secondary school teacher in the city of New Haven, the seat of Yale University, whose whole life has been devoted to preparing both boys and girls for college.
One of the most unreliable statements in that article runs as follows :—
"That there has been more drinking in our colleges and universities and, indeed, in our High Schools, since Prohibition than over before is an unquestioned fact."
Not only do I deny it, but thousands of others in my own country—parents, teachers, ministers, social workers of all sorts--both question it and also deny it, as not borne out by our observation and experience. I belong to an association of head-masters who meet every year, and reporters and the public are excluded from our meetings. We talk to each other with the utmost confidence and frankness on all subjects concerning the moral welfare of our pupils. In all the twenty- five years since the association was founded I have never heard uttered by anyone words that would bear out this statement. The mildest term to apply to that statement Is " that it is unwarranted assumption, not founded on fact." In my own city I know the principal of the High School— numbering four thousand pupils—who is one of the most conscientious and efficient principals of ray own acquaintance in the whole United States. He is deeply interested in the moral -welfare of his pupils, as are his large corps of teachers. Careful parents, friends of mine, send their sons and daughters to that school. Yet I have never heard from any one of these parents, who are deeply concerned, anything that would support the sweeping statements of this article.
The horrible statement about the immorality of a certain High School I believe to be preposterously untrue. But if it be true, it is a gross libel on thousands of upright High School pupils in other parts of the United States, because " one swallow does not make a summer." The writer of the article before printing such a statement as that, should have taken pains to verify that physician's statement by sound evidence. That could have been done in a number of ways. The record of marriages of pupils still in the High School, the record of illegitimate births, the testimony of the High School principal and his teachers, the reportorial
staff of the newspapers in that city, the testimony of pro. minent clergymen of all denominations, who would certainly be familiar with the facts, ought all to have been consulted on this matter before putting such a rash statement as that into print.
The unreliability of the writer to my mind is clear from the grudging way in which he allows that this immorality may not be wholly due to Prohibition, but to other causes. My deep conviction is that the facts are not true, and that if they were generally true, the inference drawn from them is very unsound.
In conclusion, I have one challenge to offer to the writer of that article. I am about to return to the United States, and if the editor of the Spectator will secure for me the name of the " Middle-Western " city where these things are alleged to have occurred I will take pleasure in applying the methods of scientific research to the question whether the statement is true or false. I do not wish to know the name of the writer of the article or of the physician, or even of the High School. If my challenge be accepted, I pledge myself to do my best to be able to report in the columns of the Spectator, within three months, the results of my investigations, without revealing the identity of anybody concerned, except myself. The motto of my Alma Mater, Yale University, is " Lux et Veritas," viz., " Light and Truth." It is a noble motto, and I hope that the writer of that article will help me to apply it in this case.—I am, Sir, &c., GEORGE L. Fox. New Haven, Conn., U.S.A.
Brown, Shipley and Co., 128 Pall Mall, London.
[We strongly urge " Americans " not to accept this challenge, though we are confident that Mr. Fox writes with the best intentions. An investigation such as suggested would cause the acutest pain to the persons involved. Pub- licity of this personal kind could do no good. We have satisfied ourselves that the statement made by " Americanus " was made (1) in good faith, and (2) rests on the first-hand declaration of a medical man of standing. If we said more we should be giving a clue to a discovery which we want to
avoid. We must leave the matter here. We do not propose to allow " Americanus" to answer his critics as we do not desire
a long and bitter controversy in our columns.—RD. Spectator.]
Previous page
