H.S.U. Starts Button Campaign To Prevent More War Hysteria

An attempt to acquaint student opinion with the danger of a repetition of the precedent of 1917 was started yesterday with the birth of a "No Wilson Promises" movement, conceived and delivered by the Student Union.

"If our president were not so tragically following the same path pursued by President Wilson in a similar situation a quarter of a century ago, his campaign promises might be taken at their face value," a statement from the Student Union Executive Committee said last night. The movement is based on the idea that spontaneous action from the student body may help to serve as a check on President Roosevelt's foreign policy.

Four Committees Formed

Four committees to further the movement were formed, in the first day of its life, according to Robert G. Nasau '42 of the H.S.U. Executive Committee, and approval was obtained form Raymond Dennett, graduate secretary of Philips Brooks House; Russell Nixon, instructor of Economics and secretary of the Massachusetts Branch of Labor's Non-Partisan League; and Tudor Gardiner '40, Class Day speaker of the commencement last June.

The Student Union expects to allow the movement to grow of its own scored, and its only part will be to serve as a reservoir of the blue and white buttons bearing the legend "No Wilson Promises," the slogan of the movement's supporters.

Extensive Support Expected

Houses, dormitories, classrooms, and extracurricular groups are expected to from the network of committees which will carry on the program of the movement with individual programs, carried on independently of each other and of the Student Union.

Committees have been formed in Lowell House, Winthrop House, the Architectural School, and the Advocate, according to Nassau.

The H.S.U. statement in full follows:

"In the midst of this war so rapidly spreading we have witnessed an election in which the successful candidate appealed to the American people for support on the basis of promises of peace. If our president were not so tragically following the same path pursued by President Wilson, in a similar situation a quarter of a century ago, those promises might be taken at their face value. If President Wilson had not made those very same promises and yet brought us into the First World War but six weeks after his inaugural, there might indeed be reason for deeper security among our population.

But the bitter experience of a disillusioned people has taught us to demand guarantees more secure than promises. That Roosevelt promises hall not become Wilson promises is a measure the people must enforce if they are to achieve their goal of peace.

"At Harvard the responsibility for enforcement of those peace pledges rests on you. No name alone can do that job. Rather from the dormitory, from the classroom, from the club, and from the team must come that resounding activity which will chart for America a course more fortunate than Wilson's."