LIBERALS FLAYED BY ROGERS IN TALK AT LIBERAL CLUB

"The word 'liberal' is curiously ineffective; so are the liberals themselves." Thus Professor R. K. Rogers '09, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology characterized this title and this group in a caustic speech to the members of the Liberal Club last night. "One would like liberalism if it were not for the liberals. In their ranks is a fringe of people which cannot be respected, and whose morals are often of doubtful calibre. As a type they are likely to go to extreme wrath with regard to some things, and then to have absolutely nothing to say concerning others."

'Professor Rogers' advice to be either reactionary or radical, not in-between as are liberals in general, came as a result of his further explanation of the much-talked-of statements, regarding Harvard students as "snobs," which he made last spring before the graduating class of M. I. T., Denying the accusations of many that he had meant the term "snob" in a light unfavorable to Harvard, he explained that the term was one of the highest praise.

"When we speak of a snob, we mean one who can act as an individual, who can deviate from the footsteps of the crowd, and not care what other people think. I admire Harvard for going its own way without trying to curry favor. It is a highly self-sufficient institution, not trying to follow the crowd. It does things as a gentleman. It does not have individual snobbishness in the ordinary sense of the word. Snobbery is one of the oldest Harvard traditions; a genuine snob will be either reactionary or radical, not conservative or liberal."

Professor Rogers added that the lib- erals have a certain "self-righteousness" that he does not like. They believe that they are the only people who see the great light; all others live in the dark. The average liberal is an in-between; and there is a very sharp distinction between him and a radical.

He remarked that "some good reactionaries are needed to settle such all-important questions as censorship, and the freedom of the press." When asked after the meeting to define "conservatives and radicals," he admitted that the average conservative is a man just too lazy to act; he is willing to stand pat, and let things slide as they are. A genuine conservative, however, is a man willing to tinker ahead slowly, experimenting as he goes along, trying to get a working principle, but ever advancing. The radical, on the other hand, is one who works as soon as he thinks, or even sooner.

"Liberal clubs are groups which are neither for one side nor the other. They are composed of people who do not form a definite opinion, one way or the other.