Destruction of Confidence

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science last week at Berkeley, a dramatic circumstance set the stage for an emphatic speech. Retiring president of the A.A.A.S. is Edward Uhler Condon, former chief of the National Bureau of Standards : for years he has been attacked as "a security risk," and last October his clearance was canceled by Navy Secretary Charles Thomas. Incoming President Warren Weaver is director of the Division of Natural Sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation, which has been attacked as part of a "subversive conspiracy" by Congressman Carroll Recce's investigating committee (TIME, Jan. 3).

With Condon beside him on the platform, President Weaver rose to speak.

"There is at present," he said, "a sickness in our country--a sickness of rumor and anxiety, of suspicion and distrust ... In part this sickness is due to overemphasis on caution ... In part it is an anti-intellectualism, a strange and dangerous lack of faith in scholarly competence . . .

In its worst part it is the horrid result of political pressure, of personal selfishness, and of the pathological arrogance of demagogues with small and nasty minds.

"One of the most dangerous and wicked results of this disease is the destruction of confidence -- confidence that honest, capa ble and devoted service will be rewarded as such . . . confidence that the precious Anglo-Saxon tradition of due process will be observed . . .

"The time has been reached . . . when it is no longer defensible to fail to take a stand. We must use all our wits and our patience, all our reasonableness and cour age ... In particular we [must] not fight fire with fire. Freedom is too precious to deserve rash or stupid support.

"There is some encouraging evidence that this past year may have seen the worst of this disease. There are promising signs that at appropriately high levels in our government a concern now exists to improve the whole loyalty-security-secrecy setup ... If so, then there is a poetic appropriateness to this occasion. It is my very great pleasure, and my special honor, to present to you Edward Uhler Condon, the retiring president." As crew-cut Dr. Condon got to his feet, the normally undemonstrative scientists cheered for three minutes.

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