H.Y.R.C. Asks H.L.U. Aid on Forum Series

The Young Republican Club yesterday invited the Liberal Union to join with it in establishing a joint H.Y.R.C.H.L.U. forum to bring outstanding Republican and Democratic speakers together on the same platform and debate controversial issues.

The H.Y.R.C. made its suggestion in a letter to the HLU claiming that "men at Harvard have insufficient opportunity to compare the stands which each party takes on current problems." It urged the H.L.U. to name three of its members to a six-man committee which would arrange the forum.

"We realize that your members are individualists, just as we are, and they may not always agree with the stand their party takes," the letter said. "We can well understand how reluctant you might be to identify yourselves with the Democratic Party. We also sympathize very strongly with any reluctance you might have to seeing our self-styled 'Liberal' program tested in debate.

"However, since you did support Truman, since you are the only group at Harvard which supports the so-called Fair Deal, and since your leader, Senator Humphrey, has supported it on every issue except interstate transportation of oleomargarine, we feel that it is your duty to support the Democratic line in a joint forum, just as another Democrat, Stephen Douglas, defended slavery in debates with Abraham Lincoln."

Donald W. Dowd '51, president of the H.L.U., explained last night that if his group accepts the idea, "it would do so not on the grounds of a challenge from the H.Y.R.C. but from a genuine desire to bring the issues before the public."