DEFROCKING THE MODEL

Tomorrow evening, initial steps will be taken to organize at Harvard a permanent undergraduate League of Nations. The plans as outlined in a tentative constitution call for a represent from the familiar intercollegiate Model League in that countries will be represented as far as possible by their own nationals. The council embracing representatives of fifteen countries will prepare "agenda" for the larger Assembly.

In instituting such an organization, its founders have avoided most of the objections to the loudly ballyhooed avowedly propagandist Model Leagues. Making no serious attempt at nationalistic representation and wasting a good share of their time in futile bickering over the details of predetermined conclusions, those gatherings have become little other than a social function. The new Harvard League, through its representative character should assure some expression of national sentiment; its permanence will encourage more serious study of international difficulties than does the distant and temporary character of its unhappy prototype.

But one of the chief faults of the Model League system remains uncorrected. Much of the value of the discussion is inevitably lost in the fatuous pantomining of Geneva formality. An understanding of the organization of the League of Nations is necessary, but it can be satisfactorily secured from a cursory study of texts; to utilize this machinery as a means for stimulating an interest in international problems merely defeats its own purpose and, by an unnatural ease in reaching preconveived decisions, imparts a false impression of the activities of the League. If students desire to discuss international affairs, it would be far better to abandon the ridiculous rigamarole of the Model Leagues and to form regular discussion groups. There representatives of various nations would be encouraged to present nations would be encouraged to present their views, and a hearty debate could be enjoyed without the restrictions of ponderous machinery. Embracing nearly all the benefits of the Model League, the informal group would possess none of its disadvantages. Only when freed from all distracting and misguiding puppetry can the discussion of international affairs attain its full value for the undergraduate.