Bishop v. Earl

The married life of Bertrand Russell, nobly-born British mathematician and philosopher, has been unconventional. His first wife, Alys Pearsall Smith, a Quaker, divorced him in 1921 because he was about to have a child by another woman, Dora Winifred Black. His second wife, Dora Black, shared his view that people should "indulge in marital infidelity to preserve their homes." In 1933 she announced that she had had a child by British Journalist Griffin Barry. Two years later she divorced Earl Russell, charging him with adultery. Next year, at 64, Earl Russell married his former secretary, Patricia Helen Spence, who later bore him his fourth legitimate child.

The Rt. Rev. William Thomas Manning, plainly born Briton who is now Episcopal Bishop of New York, is an uncompromising moralist. Last week, at the news that the learned Earl had been appointed a professor and department head at the College of the City of New York (TIME. March 4), Bishop Manning got out his snickersnee, wrote a hot letter to the newspapers. Quoting from his Lordship's writings ("Outside human desires there is no moral standard. ... In the absence of children, sexual relations are a purely private matter which does not concern either the state or the neighbors.. ..") The plain-born high-church Bishop asked: "What is to be said of colleges and universities which hold up before our youth as a reputable teacher of philosophy, and as an example of light and leading, a man who is a recognized propagandist against both religion and morality, and who specifically defends adultery?"

Replied City College's Acting President Nelson Prentiss Mead: "[Mr. Russell] has been invited ... to teach courses in mathematics and logic . . . and not to discourse on his personal ethical and moral views."

Added Journalist John Thomas Flynn, member of City College's administrative committee: "He is a man of the highest character, whose morals will compare favorably with those of Bishop Manning."

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