You are watching a portion of a prime time ABC television special from 1958 which weekly presented the one hour public affairs program, “Answers For Americans. The show took a generally politically conservative point of view and was supplied with the subjects that it presented and the people who appeared by an organization called Facts Forum, a conservative think tank. The think tank was subsidized by H. L. Hunt and generally criticized the liberal political point of view.

Facts Forum presented conservative perspectives at that time. Basically they included 1930s isolationism. Staunch and strong anti-Communism. Strong States Rights, and support for academic freedom in schools so that religion and God and Jesus could be freely discussed in high schools and on college campuses.

The two people speaking on this program speaking are Professor Hodges, a pastor and Bible scholar, and Godfrey Schmidt, on the board of The National Review, a conservative lawyer and outspoken critic of liberalism.

The moment when this is taking place on national television is important to consider. This is just months after the Russians – the Soviet Union – launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite in space. It was seen by many, especially political leaders, as a great threat to America and many from all political stripes began to criticize American education as stodgy and not able to produce the kinds of scientists needed to fight and beat the Russians with rocketry and in efforts to reach "outer space."

The debate over America's educational failures and how to change them was broad reaching. Meetings were taking place in every town, at every PTA, in most local and national newspapers, and in our religious institutions and in the media. 1958 was the time when President Eisenhower created a commission to study science and a commission to study how to improve education. American Senators and Congressmen visited the Soviet Union trying to understand why their system may have been better.

It was fascinating for me to have this clip in my collection because what Godfrey Schmidt is saying reflects a strong point of view presented by many today about what is happening – cancel culture – on American colleges and universities.

Please excuse the MacDonald watermark. He was a friend of mine who have all this wonderful content transferred to digital. He gave me footage to use time and again but included his watermark.

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