DISINTERESTED ATTITUDE OF COLLEGE MEN TOWARDS POLITICS FAVORS DEMAGOGIC APPEAL TO IGNORANCE

No man who has any interest in Harvard University can fail to feel a thrill of pride when he realizes that practically all of the Harvard men able to pass the physical examinations took some part of other in the defense of their country during the late war, and on one go through the transept of Memorial or on to Soldiers Field without understanding that this is no new spirit for Harvard. It is one of the traditions of the greatest American university, and I am glad to say that it is equally the tradition of all of our leading American colleges. The American college man is today ready, as he has been ready for generations in the past and as he will be ready for centuries to come, to fight and if necessary to die to protect the institutions of his country from the violent attack of a foreign enemy.

It is, however, a great misfortune that this same class of men; educated and supported in the United States and who owe so much to their country, appear unwilling to take the slightest interest in preserving during the times of peace those institutions in the defense of which they are ready to die in times of war. This attitude of a very large proportion of the men and women of this country who are by tradition and education fitted to take a broad-minded and patriotic point of view makes easier the work of the demagogue appealing to prejudice and ignorance. Nine out-often of the Harvard graduates physically able to do so joined the armed forces of the United States during the great war, and yet today I very much doubt that more than one out of ten can even tell the names of the men who represent him in Congress and in the State Legislature.

A great man college graduates feel that they can not afford to give the time necessary to taking an active interest in politics. This, however, is an excuse which is usually made n honest ignorance of the amount of time involved. Any man can join a local political club and take part in the conferences of the party and in the formulation of its principles without in any way sacrificing his private affairs. More than ninety percent of the man engaged at the present time in active politics in this country are professional or business men. This is true, so far as know, of every district leader and country chairman on both sides in New York State, and I believe the same condition exists in other parts of the country.

There are also men who consider that politics in the United States is, far too low and sordid an occupation for men of their noble and refined characters. This attitude is stupid and cowardly; cowardly because if the conditions were as they imagine them to be it would be "The Right to Fight", and finally his latest work, "Everybody's World". These books deal with conditions in the Far and Near East and show also America's relation to the problems of the world.

The speaker has just finished a tour which included 18 of the principal countries of Europe and the Near East. On his various trips Mr. Eddy was made a careful study of the social and industrial problems of different countries, and has interviewed prominent leaders of both labor and capital, recording the impressions gleaned in this manner in his books and articles which he has published.

Besides entertaining Mr. Eddy tomorrow the Liberal Club is giving a luncheon today at which Dr. R. C. Cabot '89 will address the club. The members will also have the opportunity of hearing two students of the class of '22 at Clark University, S. L. Dixby and Stewart pratt. These two men will speak on the "Free Speech Fight" which has been caused by president Atwood's censorship decree