FUN IN THE HOB

Just as President Conant is warning Harvard in a chapel speech this morning that it faces troubled times and grave decisions, the American Legion yesterday heard a message from its Commander, Raymond J. Kelly, pointing out that this year's convention will have to deal with the most serious problems in the history of the Legion. The current street fiestas in Boston by no means embrace all the doings of the Legion. As one of the strongest pressure groups in the country, it took, years ago, a strong stand in favor of greater armament for the U. S. and against involvement in foreign wars, and up to the present it has maintained that stand.

This is what Commander Kelly said yesterday: "As well as my energies and abilities permitted, I have refused to allow the Legion to become a part in any attempt to lead this country to a second baptism of blood in foreign lands... An unparalleled hysteria gripped America and reached its apex in May when the low countries of France/collapsed/Every agency, Government and private, and the agencies of public information, seemed to have entered into an informant and fatalistic liason to whip the fears of this country to fever heat."

Like Harvard, the Legion today is not unanimously in favor of Commander Kelly's or anyone else's stand. It may change its policy drastically this week, or on the other hand it may stick to its tradition of some 23 years' standing. But whichever way it moves, the Legion well do its country a service by thinking its problems through to the end and stating its position clearly enough for all to grasp. Its influence is great, but no greater than its responsibility. Let the thousands of delegates shake staid old Boston like a toy rattle, led them tic up traffic in knots the Boy Scouts never heard of, but still the eyes of the nation will watch intently for the outcome of this convention.