War Couses Turbulent Two Years

Harvard has defied all its traditions as a cloistered ivy tower in its multifold reactions to the war during the past two years.

Almost from the first shot the Yard was split into two opposite groups which can easily be classed into the rough distinctions of "isolationist" and "interventionist". Each side has formed a succession of student and Faculty committees, the number of which has grown so large that it is doubtful if any one person can remember them all.

When the war broke out in September of 1939 the "isolationists" were far and away the more numerous of the two groups. The CRIMSON, which with the "Progressive," the Student Union magazine, has been a spokesman for the isolationist camp since the beginning, urged all aid to the Allies short of war as a means of keeping American soldiers on this side of the ocean. For if England and France should begin to loss the CRIMSON declared, pressure on this country to enter the war would become too great to resist.

First Committee Formed

Early in October the first of the succession of committees was formed under the title of the American Independence League. In four or five days the A.I.L. sold 600 buttons at a dime apiece. The members wore their badges for a week at the most, put them away, and forgot them. Except for one brief and poorly attended meeting in the winter, the A.I.L. never raised its head again. It was the prototype of what was to follow.

However, the speed with which members were found is significant of the strength of isolationist sentiment in Cambridge at that time. For the last year no one organization could hope to get more than 100 members even without a $.10 tax because opinions have split into so many varied channels.

By the end of the fall a Faculty vs. students lineup which was to last for the rest of the year was apparent. Under the distinguished leadership of President Conant, the majority of the Faculty came out vehemently first for the repeal of the arms embargo and then for all aid to the Allies. The majority of the student groups remained in the isolationist camp and only a few sided openly with their teachers.

Student anti-war agitation continued through the winter and spring despite the disadvantage of having no tangible enemy. Nothing was happening "over there" and no visible efforts were being made by the Allies to draw America into the war. But with the invasion of France things began to pop around Cambridge as well as around Paris.

Isolationist Front Wavers

At that time the general student attitude can be summed up as a disinclination to fight simply to preserve and restore democracy in Europe when there is no direct threat to America. When France fell, numbers of students began to see a direct threat to America and in the late spring of 1940 a realignment took place. The isolationist front began to waver.

The second came at Class Day when the capped and gowned Seniors rose to boo the 1915 Ivy Orator when he said "We were not too proud to fight," hinting that perhaps the Class of 1940 was not so humble.

Faculty Forms

During the summer of 1940 the Faculty organized its pro-aid members into a well-knit body known as American Defense-Harvard Group. The Group followed roughly the Conant Line, which at that time consisted of "all aid short of war now; all aid later if necessary." Faculty members spent last year speaking, writing and acting on behalf of Aid to Britain.

Leaders in the Group have been Ralph Barton Perry, professor of Government, who has written a bi-weekly letter to the New York Times which has overshadowed the regular Times editorial in length; William Yandell Elliott, professor of Government and lecturer in Gov. 1, who made the claim last year that "the last war wasn't much worse than crossing Harvard Square"; and James A. McLaughlin, professor of Law.

The Group argued active defense measures and aid to Britain on two grounds: that democracy must be preserved and that America could not be ideologically isolated and still preserve democracy; and that it was to the direct military interest of America to prevent an Allied defeat. It was also on this basis that several hundred undergraduates formed themselves into a Student Defense League as soon as they returned in the fall.

At the beginning of the last school year neither the Faculty nor the student interventionist group would admit that it wanted immediate American participation. Both came out simply for "All Aid to Britain." It was not until President Conant had declared in March of this year that the time had come to enter the war that the Harvard Group and the Student Defense League actually advocated military intervention.

There was still a strong student isolationist opposition. The CRIMSON took up an "aid short of war policy" but shifted at Thanksgiving time to a "no aid" policy, only to change back to "short of war" when a new board took over in January. The Student Union split on the question of aid and half the organization split off to form the Liberal Union, which started life as an "aid short of war" organization and ended the year as an affiliate of the Student Defense League. The H.S.U. maintained its line of "no aid; no involvement."

The war was forgotten in the early months of the fall thanks to the political campaign. A strong Willkie Club gathered so much money that it had to appeal to its supporters to stop donating. The Roosevelt group, less numerous by a 60-40 ratio, was also organized and held two extremely well-attended meetings.

After November 8 attention turned back to England. Professors Elliott and McLaughlin were the center of the most prominent disturbance when they addressed a meeting of one of the new organizations, the Committee for Military Intervention. The peace groups combined to form a picket line around Emerson Hall where the meeting was to be held early in December and the interventionists formed a picket line to break the peace picket line. There was no actual disturbance except for a rendition of "There'll Always Be an England" by a group of Cambridge High School youths.

Early in February the CRIMSON polled the College on its war sentiment and discovered an almost even split between those who were willing to go to war if necessary to defeat the Axis and those who said they would not fight in Europe in any case. Only a small minority were opposed to sending aid and to declaring war immediately.

The battle went on all spring. When one side held a meeting the other picketed it or attended and booed. When President Conant went to England on a scientific mission for the Government, the H.S.U. picketed his office. At Commencement more peace sympathizers picketed the gates to the Yard, wearing their caps and gowns.

What College sympathies will be this year there is no telling. The Student Union, most violent of the isolationist groups, has always been accused of Communistic leanings, but whether it will adopt the Daily Worker switch remains to be seen.HARVARD SOLDIER, 1916 VERSION, heaves a hand grenade out of the trench near Fresh Pond.