EMOTIONAL DEMONSTRATIONS

Yesterday's demonstration against war staged by the National Student's League and the resulting display of rowdyism and horseplay is an obvious testimonial to the uselessness of emotional demonstrations to end war. Far from displaying the spirit the National Student's League hoped to inspire, the mob of students that milled around Widener steps heckled the speakers and applauded the successful attempt of certain interlopers.

Students today are almost unanimously opposed to war. The question how to end war is not so universally agreed upon. Emotional appeals, however, can never answer the question. Future wars will be averted only when the young men who are used for fodder refuse to follow the martial music and stubbornly demand that differences arising between nations be settled in a more rational, civilized manner. Anti-war organizations must be enthusiastic about their cause and must be continuously active, but no appreciable good for the cause will be gained by marching around displaying placards or shouting anathemas against war, especially in such a conservative stronghold as Harvard. Constructive action in the form of cultivating intelligent thinking will do more than flinging curses at Mars before a mob who enjoys the whole affair as splendid entertainment. (For if a cause is allowed to be ridiculed, it can never hope to inspire confidence.)

The National Student's League is admittedly sincere in its ardent opposition to war, but if its propaganda is to be effective in Harvard circles an appeal must be made to reason rather than to emotion. Let them conduct zealously a crusade against war, but let the means that are used be rational and constructive.