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today or of a Communist teacher being a competent teacher, but
where people are being dealt with in terms of their function in life, we
should try to stick to the functional question. Communists, of course,
make this difficult to do. For the good of our souls and of our society,
we should attempt it anyway. When a Communist writer writes, we
should deal with what he has written. We should deal with the in–
dividual Communist teacher as a teacher until he has demonstrated
that he cannot be a teacher and must accordingly be treated only as a
Communist. Once that has been shown, we need no longer defend his
right to teach, but we must still defend his civil right to be a Com–
munist and without apologizing for it to anyone. With the Communist
as a political man, however, we have a really serious quarrel. We
have been conducting it quite effectively for many years by debate, by
exposure, and by political counterforce. We have needed no help from
McCarthy, and we have gotten none, though we might, I suppose,
acknowledge a good deal of unsolicited help from Stalin.
(Other articles on the questions raised by Mr. Rovere will ap–
pear in forthcoming issues of PR.)
