COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

The Pursuit of Freedom
 

"7 FREEDOM has been pursued variously through the ccii-
L^ turies—not least in the universities, as articles in this issue
Ji testify. In the Middle Ages, it was the liberties of sciiolars
themselves which were safeguarded—as Pearl Kibre relates—from
unscrupulous booksellers, or from presumptuous civil authorities
(see illustration opposite). Later, the universities became the stal¬
wart guardians of national freedom, and this is the theme of the
French exhibition now at Columbia, as described by Pierre Donze-
lot. Madame Pandit's address to the Friends suggests that the uni¬
versity must now be a defender of freedom in tiic international
sphere, by helping to fortify the judgment of the public against
propaganda, and promoting the study of international problems.
It was the exhibition from the universities of France which
stimulated a Frencli theme for this issue—a theme further explored
in articles by I'.lsie Griesbach and Jean Hytier. But Columbia's
association with France is an old one. In 1784, Benjamin Franklin,
our Minister in Paris, offered to send French books to the King's
College Library, " as I think may be serviceable in America, where
I think that Language, which contains abundance of useful Learn¬
ing, will be more and more cultivated." In this, our last issue in the
Bicentennial Year, we respond to the tributes paid to Columbia by
saluting, in turn, our sister institutions in other countries—in India,
and particularly in France—which are as vitally concerned as we
with "Man's right to knowledge, and the free use thereof."
 

3