Show Minorities Right to Persuade Defended by Professor Due to lack of interest in the to the a new and undoubtedly more informative department containing guest editorials by various informed authorities will be Letters to the editor will be published whenever but will give over their feature place to By W. HAROLD Associate Professor of History and Political We take pride in the fact that we are a is not a precise there will be several definitions of it in a good The one which appeals to me is in some respects decidedly lacking in decision but ideally its a system wherein the majority but the minority have the right to Most of us would include the first phrase in our own attempt to define the But how many of us without prompting would include the second Yet without it what would we have other than a dictatorship of the proletariat or of the middle or of whatever other major group sufficiently class conscious to act as a The right of persuasion is vital to minorities and its exercise should be salutary to the majority subjected to So long as we have freedom of freedom of the freedom of problems will normally be considered not only from the emotional viewpoint which is that of the class conscious group but also from the rational Discussion will subject conflicting emotional interests to a rational attitude should become apparent in the course of the less selfish element in it is will support and eventually popularize There may be more than one rational approach to a just as there is more than one emotional Beware of the persons who dogmatically attempt to dictate what the rational answer is to the questions facing us either in domestic or foreign The right of persuasion must be used with care so that political discussion is not allowed to degenerate to the point where it engenders class or partisan Too blind adhesion to a par cause is to be Wc must listen to the minority or if we be of then listen to the must attempt to analyze a to see what the other fellow's viewpoint to see if we can reconcile conflicting attitudes by We must beware of the tendency prevalent in some quarters to consider all criticism of an administration or of governmental practices or the social structure as It would be in a But wc class this as a The criticism may well be constructive or at least even though at times it be If false or it may be A democracy is definitely lacking vitality if there be no opposition to call attention to an administration's to offer cautious to offer some obstacle to rash to provide some stimulus when action is too long So important is this fact that the British government has recently adopted the practice of having the leader of the opposition party in the legislature paid a salary from the national function is considered quite as important as that of the leaders of the party in power to whom well paid administrative posts are There is no substitute for All the whitewashing and mudslinging in the world will not destroy but they may obscure it unless one is left free to reveal before final decisions are We should always be searching for the facts and truth and we should change our opinions as new facts are brought to Minorities may often be but they may be left free to express themselves they should be of definite help in the search for |