MOSCOW, WISCONSIN

"The Student Union is finished." So proclaims the Herald Tribune. "At Madison, the Union . . . turned from pink to bright red." So declares Time. Even the New Republic, publishing an article by Harvard's Irwin Ross, admits that the recent national convention may result in "isolation of the ASU from the main body of students in the country."

Such is the general reaction. Liberals are rightly indignant that the Union should have so knuckled under to its self-seeking, intellectually arid minority. By refusing on grounds of "strict neutrality" to censure Russian aggression, an organization which was not afraid to support a boycott of Japan and which gave its approval to strong condemnations of German and Italian aggression, has now acquiesced in Hitlerism when practiced by the Kremlin. Under such circumstances, the only self-respecting action for the Harvard chapter, which fought the Communist dictation of policy, would appear to be resignation. There may, however, be an alternative.

In America there is need for a truly liberal student organization, sincerely devoted to the preservation of a constructively pacifist point of view in foreign affairs and a progressive, socially-conscious one in domestic politics. Such an organization the ASU has never sincerely been under Stalinist and Socialist leadership. Since 1935, when the national body was founded, a series of high-sounding declarations of principle have gained for it liberal support and camouflaged what now appears so clear: that radicals have been in the driver's seat.

But the Communists' tactics have been more successful than they could have wished, and the overwhelming majority of rank and file ASU members are now liberal, not radical. In their hands is potential control of the organization. First steps toward such control have already been taken: a National Liberal Caucus, headed by Alan Gottlieb, was formed at Madison, and under his leadership a referendum is being sought on the defeated resolution condemning Russian aggression.

If Harvard men can lead a successful rout of the Communists from control of the Student Union, then they can be of far more service to their principles in the national organization than they would be out of it. Observers sympathetic to their aims can only wish them success in their venture, with the reservation that if they fail, they should no longer stay in the Union. In the nation's eyes, an overwhelming repudiation of the packed Madison ballots would repair a badly damaged reputation and lead the way to establishment of a reputable student liberal front.