Page:Free thought and official propaganda.djvu/29

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OFFICIAL PROPAGANDA
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it illegal, during the War, to teach the doctrine that the Kaiser's Government should be overthrown by force; and, since then, the support of Kolchak or Denikin against the Soviet Government would have been illegal. Such consequences, of course, were not intended, and result only from bad draughtsmanship. What was intended appears from another law passed at the same time, applying to teachers in State schools. This law provides that certificates permitting persons to teach in such schools shall be issued only to those who have "shown satisfactorily" that they are "loyal and obedient to the Government of this State and of the United States," and shall be refused to those who have advocated, no matter where or when, "a form of government other than the Government of this State or of the United States." The committee which framed these laws, as quoted by the New Republic, laid it down that the teacher who "does not approve of the present social system……must surrender his office," and that "no person who is not eager to combat the theories of social change should be entrusted with the task of fitting the young