Harvard League of Nations

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To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Under the title "Defrocking the Model", an editorial in yesterday's edition of the CRIMSON dealt with the "Harvard League Of Nations", which is going to have its initial meeting tonight in Phillips Brooks House. As chairman of the preparatory committee, I would like to say a few words in reply.

To correct at first a mistake: the League is not to be, as wrongly stated, an undergraduate organization, but a body in which all branches of Harvard will be represented.

In answering the criticisms made against the "Harvard League of Nations" as a body unpractical to deal with the international cause at Harvard, I agree fully with the part stating the failure of the "Model League of Nations" meetings.

I want to state clearly again: The "Harvard League of Nations" has nothing in common with those Model League meetings, which from my own experience seem complete failures. While at those meetings American Students have to represent the official point of view of the government of the country they represent, often even misinterpretd into a far too nationalistic sense, on the other hand, they do not have the feeling of responsibility which a student will have representing his nation in a foreign country. In the Harvard League of Nations the opposite will be the case. Students, conscious of the honor of representing their country, but not bound by any official politics have ample chance to arrive at new and constructive solutions.

The organizations will be as informal as the orderly conduct will allow. We do not try to copy any of the Geneva formalities. I cannot agree with the statement that informal discussion will serve better the international cause at Harvard, the opposite having been proved again and again. Discussions never overcome the primary step of political thought, criticism, without taking the next step of constructive thought. Furthermore international politics are today not any more a hobby, but a vital matter to us students, the world depression developing into a world catastrophe through governments not living up to the greatness of the problem, and through a public opinion indifferent or misled. Only an organized body is able to take the steps necessary in such a situation. Universities must strive once again to take the responsible leadership. Let the Harvard League of Nations be a start.

I can afford to be brief, as the preparatory committee will offer its plans tonight on a large scale to the students of Harvard. Wolfgang Magnus.