HALF-BAKED

The conference of American college students for discussion of various problems of political, economic, and educational interest, considered a series of resolutions on war and the present economic system which will undoubtedly arouse new accusations of spreading radicalism among undergraduates.

Three hundred and twenty seven pacifists declared that they would not support any future war, and 740 that they were "ready to support some wars and not others." Only 95 held to the traditional view that any war declared by the recognized authority of their country would receive their active cooperation. Almost all the delegates declared their belief that the "present economic system based on production for profit rather than production for use is wrong" while 592 agreed that the present system should be displaced by "a cooperative distribution system in which the workers themselves would share in the control."

If these resolutions showed though and study on the problems which they attempt to meet they would be worthy of serious consideration. But there is a singular fatuity in all of them. It is interesting that over 300 students should take the absolute pacifist position but one wonders how many of them, for instance, could outline the duties and sphere of action of the Permanent Court of International Justice, or if the 700 odd who would support some wars and not others, know the League of Nations Council definition of an aggressive war, and the details of the Locarno agreement. The resolution on the cooperative system displays a very hazy grasp of economic theory. Do its supporters know the successes and failures in cooperative marketing in Great Britain and the United States? Have they studied statistics? What do they mean by workers sharing in the control, and by the term "workers"?

It is obvious that opinion on international affairs and economic theory is worthless unless it is based on a thorough grasp of the facts gleaned from exhaustive research, and it is particularly the curse of undergraduate thought that its conclusions are usually emotional reactions arising from hasty and superficial reading or discussion. It is nonsense to raise the bugaboo of radicalism in relation to such resolutions as those passed at the Milwaukee conference. They are half-baked, and they could be nothing else. Undergraduates, with very few exceptions, have not studied long enough to subscribe with intellectual honesty to any such statements as those quoted above. The very haziness of their wording reveals the haziness of thought behind them.

The Milwaukee delegates could learn a lesson from the National Student Federation of America which is devoting its attention to college educational problems about which the students know more than anyone else except the professional educators and faculty members. In that field student opinion is worth both expressing and acting upon.