Pond-James Exchange

January 25, 1949

Dear Mr. Pond:

I believe that the less Harvard undergraduates see of Harvard graduates the better. And your letter of January 11 advancing the Winthrop Square Club idea strengthens me in that belief, particularly when you say: "There is a strong feeling among graduates that undergraduates are exposed to too much liberal thinking within the College."

What graduates feel that way, Mr. Pond? Not I, certainly, nor a good many other Harvard graduates, I'll wager. You give me the answer in the next sentence--"the conservative element."

During the past twenty years I have formed the opinion, from observation, that the conservative element, in whatever branch of organized society it may serve, never serves intelligently. For a prime recent example, consider the conservative element of the Republican Party, the diehards and the standpatters who listened to the soothsayers and the high priests of their own outworn political philosophy rather than to the people. Apparently they never learn anything, for just a few weeks ago they turned thumbs down on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., a man who could help lead the Republican Party out of its slough of despond, and a Harvard graduate who would probably disagree with your statement "that undergraduates are exposed to too much liberal thinking within the College."

But, returning to Boston and Cambridge, I doubt very much if the conservative element among Harvard's graduates is any-less stupid than the conservative element of the Republican Party. I fall to see, therefore, what possible benefit is to be derived by undergraduates from attending such sessions as you outline--sessions where they would be subjected to attacks on liberal tendencies in Harvard teaching and to explanations of current social, economic, educational, and political problems in the stupidly and dangerously prejudiced terms typical of the conservative element wherever it exists.

No thanks, Mr. Pond, I want no part of the Winthrop Square Club--and you may quote are. Sincerely yours,   Lombard C. Jones