THE LIBERAL CLUB AND THE N.S.L.

The guard of the Revolution appears to have reached Harvard with the decision of the Liberal Club to join the National Student League. The imminent "purgation" of the club's membership which is resulting ought to put the Club safely at the mercy of the League's "revolutionary" program. It is only fair to say that association with a national organization, however visionary in its aims, will at least give a consistency and backbone to the Club's policy, the lack of which has measurably decreased its prestige at Harvard in recent years.

Whether it will strengthen the Club's position in other ways is more doubtful. Harvard, of all places, is probably the last where a substantial number of students can be brought to join in any radical program. The opinions expressed in the letter printed in an adjacent column of the CRIMSON will probably be endorsed by those who have been interested in, though not members, of the Liberal Club. It presents clearly the case against the Club's decision.

The indictment, however, can easily be pushed further by anyone who cares to examine the program announced by the National Students League. Its preamble, in particular, is an excellent example of Communist doctrine, with the logic of Communism carefully deleted and the idea of the "inevitability of revolution" characteristically emphasized. All the standard patter is there, adopted at second hand from the best authorities. For example, we are told that "pacifism (is) thus revealed as a conscious process of capitalist imperialism,"--by the defection of individual pacifists during the war. This statement is one of many which are all presented, of course, as their own justification.

The Liberal Club, it is to be feared, will not march happily in its regimented goose-step. There was a time, when it meant something in this community, when it was, or was becoming a genuine force. It had the opportunity to establish among the students at Harvard a tradition of liberalism in politics and economics, parallel to the tradition of scholastic freedom which has meant so much to the University. Why that opportunity was lost or neglected is beside the point, but the present evolution of events in this country might well have presented it again. If it is lost by affiliation with a group of doctrinaires, the solidity and coherence of program achieved by that affiliation will be a small compensation. The Club appears to have traded its liberal birthright for a mess of radical pottage.