University of Virginia Library

Strike On

"Those who won our independence by
revolution were not cowards. They did not
feel political change. They did not exalt order
at the cost of liberty. To courageous,
self-reliant men, with confidence in the power
of free and fearless reasoning applied through
the process of popular government, no danger
flowing from speech can be deemed clear and
present, unless the incidence of the evil
apprehended is so imminent that it may befall
before there is opportunity for full discussion.
If there be time to expose through discussion
the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil
by the processes of education, the remedy to
be applied is more speech, not enforced
silence. Only an emergency can justify
repression...Moreover, even imminent danger
cannot justify resort to prohibition of these
functions essential to effective democracy,
unless the evil apprehended is relatively
serious. Prohibition of free speech and
assembly is a measure so stringent that it
would be inappropriate as the means for
averting a relatively trivial harm to society. A
police measure may be unconstitutional
merely because the remedy, although effective
as means of protection, is unduly harsh or
oppressive. The fact that speech is likely to
result in some violence or in destruction of
property is not enough to justify its
suppression. There must by the probability of
serious injury to the State."

Justice Brandeis penned those words for
freedom in 1927, several years after the
country had experienced violence during the
reign of the "Red Scare" and the Ku Klux.
Klan, and a decade after the U.S. Congress
passed a sedition act to silence those people
who were not "100 per cent Americans." We
believe that those works have great
significance and relevance in our time when
the freedom of speech is threatened and
police reaction is at moments imminent.

The strike at the University appeared to
have reached its nadir Wednesday night when
several hundred students occupied Maury Hall
for a second time. The primary issues of the
war in Southeast Asia and the killings at Kent
State had become diluted with many other
important and related, yet not central,
subjects. The whole strike movement in
Charlottesville seemed doomed to an end as
more and more students were alienated by
actions of only a small minority of the large
number of strikers.

Yesterday reason and responsibility
returned to the strike movement here. Until
Monday's referendum the issues - very real
subjects that deserve the attention of all
members of this community - have been
limited to the Cambodian invasion and the
Kent State tragedy. We believe that the
overwhelming majority of all elements of the
University stand in complete opposition to
the war escalation and in anger with the
actions of the National Guard in the usually
quiet Ohio town of Kent. The results of the
referendum will verify this belief.

Probably there is less consensus on the
other "demands" that were presented to
President Shannon last Tuesday. The Monday
referendum will give all the opportunity to
express their opinion on many vital questions
that face our University and nation. We urge
every student to cast their ballot as their
conscience and mind dictate, but to above all
vote in this crucial referendum.

The strike which seemed all but devoid of
leadership by Wednesday evening now has
taken some productive steps toward full and
uninterrupted discussion of the issues.
Moderation and reason have for the moment
captured the strike from needless moves
toward forceful confrontation. We endorse
this trend wholeheartedly and urge anyone
who in a moment of frustration would call for
a destructive act to be restrained and see the
results of the referendum. The students of this
University have a tremendous opportunity to
register their protests against this most
"insidious" Nixon Administration in a manner
which can serve as a model for other
universities. Polarization is not needed now
and violence can only lead to this and the end
of meaningful discussion and the beginning of
full scale repression.

Free speech, a value that lies at the
foundations of our system of government,
must be protected. We urge the
Administration and the Governor to also
exercise all possible restraints even at
moments when the situation seems almost
beyond hope of reconciliation. Police of
National Guard can only remove all elements
of reason and could only end in tragedy for
the University. Let this discussion continue.

All students must now examine their own
consciences and decide the course of this
University and indeed this nation.

The framers of the Constitution struck the
balance between freedom and order on the
side of freedom. That is freedom for all
without fear of repression. We must remember
that during this strike just as Justice Brandeis
did in dissent fifty years ago.

It would be a shame to give up on the
strike at the point it is now. A great deal of
good can come from it. Let it continue.