Remarks of Elmer Davis at Bennington College
Date
1934-10-22
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Bennington College
Abstract
This lecture was given by Elmer Davis as part of the "Liberalism" Lecture Series at Bennington College. Davis was a reporter, author and Director of the United States Office of War Information during World War II. Davis describes himself as a "conservative by temperament and a radical by opinion." Liberalism was a "controversial topic" at the time of his remarks and a topic whose definition has morphed from past (early 1900's) and at this paper's present time (1934). Davis also compares the differences of liberalism in Europe and the United States. At times, his remarks are somewhat lighthearted when read through today's present lens. Davis ends with a moving conclusion: "This spirit of accommodation, of tolerance, of persuasion that is the flower of liberalism; this willingness to admit that perhaps you are wrong, and that anyway you cannot be sure enough you are right to shoot everybody who disagrees with you--it may seem a tender plant, unfit to survive the rough weather that may be expected in Europe, and possibly in this country too. In theory, it can be upheld only by a flat denial of the authoritarian and totalitarian creeds, that are not so attractive to those who are spiritually too weak to stand on their own feet. Even as a purely tactical consideration, it will hardly appeal to anybody who thinks he has more machine guns than the other fellow, or at any rate that he can start shooting first. Yet without it no civilization really deserves the name; and one may hope that perhaps it is still strong enough, in some nations, to save the human race from having to put up, for some centuries to come, with inadequate substitutes for civilization."
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Keywords
Liberalism, Hamilton, Alexander