Learning and Politics The proposal that all lecturers at Italian
Universities shall be required to become active members of the Fascist Party may at any moment be carried into effect. Any such step would be a blow dealt both at- freedom and at learning—at freedom for reasons that are obvious, at learning because the enforced exclusion from the Univer- sities of men who were not prepared to join the Fascist Party would mean that teachers of science or literature or langUage Would be chosen from a narrow circle instead of from the whole range. of scholars, and that they would be appointed Tor reasons entirely extraneous to their compe- tence in scholarship. The decision of two years ago, when an oath of allegiance to the Fascist regime was imposed, mattered a great deal less than this, for that called for mere passive acquiescence, while the measure now said to be in contemplation would staff the Universities exclusively with active adherents of Fascism. It would impose great and undeserved hardship on men who were unwilling to become active Fascists, and deliver an even heavier moral blow against those who conformed despite their conscience for the sake Of the livelihood of their families. • * *
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