Young Activists On U.S. Tour Study Politics

Twenty-five young political leaders from the NATO countries visited Harvard yesterday as part of a two-week tour to study U.S. politics.

The delegates said they hoped to find answers to their questions about the low voter turnout in the United States, the ideological differences between Carter and Ford and the unwieldy nature of the country's voting system.

Most of the delegates found Harvard students politically well-informed, particularly on foreign policy issues. But some said they were disappointed by the lack of critical analysis among students.

Per Eggesvik, editor-in-chief of the Norwegian labor paper, said yesterday that though Harvard students will vote, they do not appear to be for any one of the parties. He described the typical student voter as "a little disengaged," voting "mostly for the Democrats because they are not the worst."

David Black, leader of the youth wing of the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada, said that while Americans "always brag about it, we cannot conceive of having a 62 per cent voting turnout as you did in 1962--it would be almost low enough to start a petition for another election in Canada."

But Black added that "with 18,000 elected positions in Illinois and four minutes to spend in a voting booth.