Clarence Streit, Author of "Union Now," Explains His Proposal for a Federation of the Democracies

A brand new idea in the line of International relations will be aired in Harvard 1 this morning when Bruce Hopper '17, associate professor in Government will introduce Clarence K. Streit as guest lecturer in Government 30. The course meets at 12 o'clock.

Streit's remedy for world unrest is nothing less than a strong federation of democratic people. This idea, which he has expressed in his recent book, "Union Now," (Harper's), has evoked widespread interest in this country and in England. Several hundred "unionist" clubs have already been formed to agitate for the scheme's adoption.

To Replace League

As New York Times correspondent in Geneva since 1929, Streit has watched the League of Nations slip from its peak to virtual oblivion. Likening it to the American Articles of Confederation, he now feels that true democracies need the type of union effected by the 13 States in 1789.

The correspondent uses this analogy to point out the nature of the proposed transition, which is to be from a league of states to a union of citizens. The nations which would band together in such a union would have a common citizenship, defense force, currency and communications system. There would be no customs barriers within the union.

That this is scarcely an extension of Pan-Americanism is revealed by the fact that Canada is the only other state in this hemisphere which Streit lists as one of the 15 prospective "charter members."

The correspondent's recent sojourn on the shores of Lake Leman was by no means his first experience in international affairs. Graduating from Montana State in 1918, he served in France with an engineers' unit and later in the Intelligence Service. With Armistice he was attached to Wison's staff.

Has Remained in Europe

He spent the following year in England as a Rodes Scholar, mixing academic with journalistic endeavor. Leaving Cambridge, he joined the Philadelphia Public Ledger, for which he covered the Greco-Turk War and the advent of Mussolini. In 1925 the New York Times sent him to report the Riff War. He was assigned successively to the Times' Vienna and Geneva bureaus, and after a year on their cable desk in New York he was sent back to take charge of the Geneva office. Although he is now on an indefinite leave of absence, he has been transferred to the paper's Washington bureau.

Although dubbed a "dresser" by many reviewers, Streit has anything but sleep appearance. Tall, sandy-haired with penetrating blue eyes, he has a missionary's seal and a press agent's mastery of organization. From a cavernous briefcase he distributes reprints of the first chapter of his volume and copies 0 of the "Union Now Bulletin," a monthly publication.

Bitterly denouncing the "Munich Method" on the one hand, and isolation on the other, the author holds that his solution is the only one and offers fewer difficulties and dangers than these two alternatives.

Lord Lothian Likes it

The plan won its first battle when I' received an excellent press, ranging from Dorothy Thompson's eulogy to Walter Winchell's laconic, "Swelli" Lord Lothian, who will soon take over Britain's Washington embassy, favors the plan, and the Roosevelt family has bee bombarded with copies of "Union Now" into line.

Although he is a personal friend of Streit's and approves the ideas in principles, Professor Hopper and yesterday that he was not in complete agreement, and in "sponsoring" the newspaperman in order to present Harvard with a provocative idea.

After the lecture, Streit will go directly to New York, where he had a lecture engagement this evening. His junket will carry him into many states in the course of the month