“The policy of the repression of ideas cannot work and never has worked. The alternative to it is the long difficult road of education. To this the American people have committed.”

To this the American people "were"committed. Nowadays though, the Governments policy is the dumbing down of the masses.

Real 'education' must remain independent of government control. There is a difference between an 'educated' person and a 'learned' person -- to be 'taught' is not necessarily to learn.

As much as I hate to get into a grammar war, "have" is acceptable, though I would have chosen "are." "Were" would be, too, but it doesn't make sense in context (past tense conclusion of a present tense idea).

Active policies repressing ideas are being perpetrated on willing American chattel in an ever-accelerated fashion. By way of extremely terse example: The occupying statist theocracy infesting this land with its seminaries (government schools), forth branch of propaganda (MSM / social media, etc.), socialist financiers (fascist, neocon, corporate, communist, progressive, etc.), book writers and publishers (dictionaries, texts, etc.) are either changing the meaning of words and concepts (law, justice, equity, mercy, freedom, liberty, inalienable rights, etc.), chiding or otherwise ridiculing those that are not theocratically PC, burning and removing books (written, electronic, etc.), outright censorship, AND! - etc., etc., etc.

Hutchins, a secular perennialist, and founder of the Center for Study of Democratic Institutions. Chicago is showing its roots of socialism.

The 'progressives' used such rhetoric to introduce the corrupting influences of socialism/communism.  Freedom of speech has always been the foot in the door for political swindles.  Once 'progressive' policies take hold, speech is restricted to the 'party line.'  Yale Law and U of Chicago have served the political interests of socialists, whether on the left or the right.  The take-over is happening within — via 'education.'