PROGRESS TOWARDS WORLD PEACE

While international organizations and tribunals debate the problems of world peace and security, a more visible step toward that goal will be reached next Friday when President Conant welcomes 160 members of the Italian student group visiting American colleges and universities, to Harvard. Their reception, tour of the buildings, and the track meet with the athletes of this country will be a step towards establishment of a close bond of friendship and understanding between the two nations.

It is upon such youths that the security of the world depends. Today they are the material that feeds cannons, in a few years they will be the leaders of business and government in their respective countries, men of influence, who direct internal affairs and foreign policies. When men who occupy these positions of leadership have a broad view of the world, understanding for and friendship with other nations, international problems may be dealt with more rationally and for the greater welfare of those involved.

The informal atmosphere of this meeting, the friendly contests, the mingling of men with ideas derived from different environments, will give the youths of the two nations an understanding that would never be gained in formal discussion or diplomatic exchange. We trust that they will carry home an understanding of our life and institutions such as only this kind of meeting may give. This example is a fitting one for other nations. Groups of students from every nation would benefit greatly from such opportunities, and the understanding received by their contact with other peoples would tend to bind all nations in bonds of understanding and sympathy, so rare in world politics today.