Tocsin Shifting Emphasis to Politics

Last February the students participating in Project Washington were challenged to "get your feet wet in politics." The initial reaction of the assembled students was a distasteful shudder. Then it was curiosity. Now it is an established fact: the "peace movement" has gone political.

Tocsin members and sympathizers have been canvassing the Boston area for signatures to put H. Stuart Hughes, professor of History, in the Senate race next November. Hughes is running as an Independent candidate for the seat now held by Benjamin A. Smith '39.

Two weeks ago Tocsin sent 20 students to Waterbury, Conn., to aid the campaign of Rep. Frank Kowalski, who is challenging Abraham Ribicoff and the Bailey machine in the Democratic Senatorial Primary.

In New York City, students are very active in Rep. William Fitts Ryan's campaign for re-election; in California, students are backing Democrat Richard Richards in his bid for the Senate seat now held by Republican Thomas Kuchel. The list is growing all the time.

To many observers this flurry of interest in political campaigns is not merely a passing fancy. There is a widespread realization that the old tactic of peace marches and demonstrations are too easily dismissed as "kid stuff" or "pinko" by the public.

Even more important, student "peace" leaders are beginning to see the traditional political process as the only means by which they can effectively present their ideas to the government.

This sentiment was expressed by Christopher A. Sims '62, organizer of the Tocsin group that worked for Kowalski in Connecticut. He said that although Project Washington did confront Congressmen many Tocsin members feel the public demonstrations only identified the students with stereotyped "ban the bomb" campaigns and added nothing to the constructive criticism they had hoped to offer.

The trip to Connecticut was an enlightening one. "On the way home one girl said 'politician isn't a dirty word any more,'" Sims said.

Another important result of the interest in the Kowalski and Hughes campaigns has been a general abandonment of "fuzzy" or extreme radical policies. Lee Webb, a Boston University junior working for Hughes, said that students circulating petitions and talking to voters have gained a "new sense of political reality."

This is not to say they have made a wholesale shift in policy, Webb said. But they have realized "you have to go political" and make an appeal the average voter will at least listen to.

With a number of key Senate and all House seats to be decided in November the prospects are that Tocsin will make a major shift in emphasis next year in favor of political activity. Meanwhile, students are being urged to get active in political campaigns in their home states this summer, Sims concluded.