STUDENT LIBERAL CLUBS DISCUSS AMALGAMATION

A plan for a permanent federation of all college Liberal Clubs, and other organizations interested in the study of contemporary problems, is now under consideration. If this plan is successful, there will be one intercollegiate organization of this type instead of the three in the field at the present time. Discussion of such an amalgamation arose at a conference of Liberal Clubs held in New York during the Christmas vacation.

The central organization is being formed to fill a long-felt need for some means of co-operation among college clubs similar in purpose to the Student Liberal Club. The imperative need for just such a body was shown by the reports of the delegates at the New York conference, which revealed evidence of lack of interest on the part of the student body and sometimes hostility to Liberal Clubs in colleges throughout the country.

Of the organizations engaged in presenting for discussion current topics not treated in the college courses, the only two which seemed to have escaped the active criticism of faculty and students were the Student Liberal Clubs of Oberlin and of the University. Yet these clubs and others like them feel the need for a central organization which should aid in the task of securing speakers and circulate information concerning the activities of similar clubs in other colleges. In this way the value of the individual clubs to its members, to the college and to the community at large could be considerably enhanced.

A constitution for the proposed organization was drawn up and submitted by members of the Student Liberal Club. The principles advocated by the University students who attended the conference will be acceptable, it is felt, to students who do not subscribe to radical doctrines but who are nevertheless interested in the impartial study of vital questions of the day.

The entire plan for amalgamation is now under consideration by the organizations concerned and will be acted upon within a few weeks.

Although this conference was called by the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, the majority of the Liberal Clubs represented are not affiliated with the Socialist society, considering its name objectionable and its purpose too narrow.