Fear and Owen Lattimore

Owen. D. Lattimore, who managed a few years ago to change the political map of the world with very little outside help, has begun a speaking tour. The tour began in Hartford, Conn., where—presumably because Mr. Lattimore is entitled to two or three times as many rights, civil and otherwise, as the average American—he got himself, as a sponsor, the Hartford Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lattimore spoke to an unprecedentedly and unexpectedly large audience of 800. He might have slipped in and out of Hartford comparatively unnoticed had it not been for a highly publicized, highly fortuitous and—to the highly cynical—highly unlikely controversy which preceded his arrival. The Civil Liberties Union, in search of a fitting temple in which to present Mr. Lattimore, first approached (unofficially) the Board of the West Hartford Public Schools, but the Board refused, for reasons it did not go into, to furnish a hall. Whereupon Mr. Robert Satter, the chairman of the local chapter of the ACLU, approached the Phoenix Insurance Company, which gave permission to use the company auditorium.

About the Author

Aloïse Buckley Heath

Aloïse Buckley Heath (1918–1967) was the sister of National Review’s founder, William F. Buckley Jr.

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Owen. D. Lattimore, who managed a few years ago to change the political map of the world with very little outside help, has begun a speaking tour. The tour began in Hartford, Conn., where—presumably because Mr. Lattimore is entitled to two or three times as many rights, civil and otherwise, as the average American—he got himself, as a sponsor, the Hartford Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lattimore spoke to an unprecedentedly and unexpectedly large audience of 800. He might have slipped in and out of Hartford comparatively unnoticed had it not been for a highly publicized, highly fortuitous and—to the highly cynical—highly unlikely controversy which preceded his arrival. The Civil Liberties Union, in search of a fitting temple in which to present Mr. Lattimore, first approached (unofficially) the Board of the West Hartford Public Schools, but the Board refused, for reasons it did not go into, to furnish a hall. Whereupon Mr. Robert Satter, the chairman of the local chapter of the ACLU, approached the Phoenix Insurance Company, which gave permission to use the company auditorium.