Radcliffe Political Clubs Form, Flourish, and Fold

Every time there's a world war on, Radcliffe gets interested in politics. Three years of peace in each case have proved enough to bring widespread interest to an end.

With the outbreak of each of the great wars, students felt they should get together and mull over the pressing issues of the day. It was not long before the interested parties found they disagreed, often fundamentally; whereupon the one basic organization split into up to ten subgroups, which enjoyed brief lives and then expired.

The zenith of Radcliffe political activity came in 1948 with 11% of the student body enrolled in partisan clubs. The nadir stretched from 1920 to 1939 when there were no political clubs at all.

It all began in 1914 when the Student Government decided that the Socialists, Suffragettes and Anti-Suffragettes could be recognized officially if they combined into a federated club. The result was called the Civics Club.

The Splintering Process

As the war progressed and Radcliffe became increasingly aware of it, the membership of the Civics Club also increased. But the three original chapters were no longer able to contain all the shades of political opinion, so by 1917, two new groups were formed. These were the Women's Peace Party and the International Polity group (pre-historic World Federalists). To these were added the Anti-Militarists in 1918, and the Radicals in 1919. For those girls who were only mildly concerned, there was a Current Events division, and a debating group.

In the line of action, the Suffragettes distributed pamphlets for the National Women's Party, and canvassed Cambridge for the suffrage cause; various other divisions heard speakers and held round table discussions, and the entire Civics Club endorsed Liberty Bonds with a triumphal march down Massachusetts Avenue. Those were the days.

But when the troopships came back, and the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, something happened to Radcliffe political feeling. Eight of the nine divisions of the Civics Club promptly folded (the debaters remained) and only one new group was added--The Consumer's League. The Consumer's League lasted scarcely a year.

Disinterest Sets in

Women had won their vote and promptly forgot about it. Harding moved into the White House, and the Dark Age of 'Cliffe politics began. They expressed no organized opinion on prohibition, no opinion on Harding, and apparently accepted prosperity as their lot. Even the depression failed to stir the girls back into action.

On September 3, 1939 war broke out in Europe again. Once year later the Annex Student Government set up a committee called the Radcliffe League for American Democracy. Its primary purpose was "to bring the point of view of aid to Britain before the College." From the very beginning, the girls cooperated with such organizations as the Harvard Student Defense League. They considered themselves "liberals and moderates."

In 1942 the League set itself up as an Independent non-partisan club and with the Harvard Liberal Union devoted some attention to "postwar problems" in jointly organized study groups.

The first postwar year found them back on the domestic scene, soliciting petitions and funds for the Anti-Lynch League and urging the appointment of David E. Lilienthal as Atomic Energy Commission Chairman.

Splinter groups meanwhile formed in the ranks. The United Nations Council, the World Federalists, and the Students for Democratic Action all organized within the League for Democracy. The entire League concerned itself with the Cambridge elections, the Marshall Plan Rally, and the activities of the meat packers' union.

Birth Control Too

In the spring of '48 more splintering occurred. The American Youth for Democracy, the Young Progressives, the Young Republican Club organized outside of the League for Democracy, and in the fall of that year the SDA pulled out of the League, taking with it the majority of the membership. The Young Progressives and the AYD endorsed Wallace for president, the Republicans Dewey and the SDA supported no one.

The SDA was for the labor referenda, getting out the vote, and birth control. They also wanted to raise teacher's pay, were usherettes at a Roosevelt Day dinner, and dispatched delegates to various conventions. The SDA would have little to do with the HLU and refused the latter's offer to hold a joint dance. The other partisan groups did nothing without Harvard.

On November 3, 1948 disintegration set in. There was no Democratic Party group to celebrate.

AYD and GOP Fold

In the spring of '49 the AYD chapter lost its charter for refusing to say who its members were. This fall the Young Republicans lost their charter because they didn't know who their officers were. The skeleton League for Democracy, despite a summer extension before rechartering, could not win back enough members to do so.

The Council executive board, in an attempt to revitalize 'Cliffe politics, suggested that all remaining groups combine in a non-partisan organization, reminiscent of the 1914 Civics Club and the 1940 League for Democracy. While the Progressives approved the proposal, SDA rejected the entire idea.

The picture of the Radcliffe political scene is exemplified by the fact that in 36 years of activity, only one non-presidential candidate has ever found organized support at the Annex. He is one Jimmy O'Dea, candidate for the Massachusetts legislature in the spring of '48. He won.