It is not my fault or responsibility that your visum has become a
matter of public magnitude and importance. I fully agree with the
American government that it is necessary to screen every single person
very carefully. We simply do not want Stalinists around here. We are
still breathing the air of freedom which grants citizens the right to bear
arms by constitutional stipulation. And our fight against any type of
dictatorship and totalitalianism is seriously meant and goes to the
bottom of our existence. We here still maintain that government is an
administration and responsible to the people, and this we live practically.
America is not a capitalist land. These old terms do not fit any
longer, and it is quite obvious that it is socialism and not capitalism in
America which provided the homestead for authoritarianism and dicta
torial social procedures.
May I say, Neill, that it is of the utmost importance for your lifework
as well as for the yet unborn babies of the future that you revise your
basic attitude in this struggle for freedom in our times.
Once your visum question is settled, we shall be the ones here to
publish an account and a criticism of the whole procedure. Don't worry
about that; and our influence here is now quite great.
The Convention was a very great success, so was the cancer course.
The work is rolling full speed ahead. There was a lively discussion after
your paper was read. Nearly all the papers and major discussions will
be published in the Bulletin.
Please keep in touch with me. Everything will be all right. Let me
know how you are.
Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk
My dear Reich,
- ••
September 15, 1950You tell me that I must revise my basic attitude in the struggle
for freedom in our times. I simply don't know what you mean by this.
Of late you have appeared to me to be pretty close to the Americans
who are witch hunting, and at least in part, on the side of the consul
who so far hasn't had the good manners to tell me if I've got a visa or
not. You have written as if I were rightly suspected, instead of seeing
that Mr. McIntosh was a fool and a hater. In fact you sound as if you
think communism can be halted by keeping reds out of U.S.A. or by