FACULTY EXPRESS VIEWS ON ROOSEVELT REQUEST

President Roosevelt's request that Congress enact a National Service Act as part of his five point program excited varied reactions among those Harvard faculty members who could be reached yesterday.

The general consensus obtained among leaders in the Social Sciences departments was that the measure would not be passed. Professor Benjamin F. Wright, Jr., Chairman of the Department of Government, favored all of the President's program, but doubted that the National Service Act would be passed by an antagonistic Congress except in considerably modified form. It would be an unfair solution, he said, to pass part and not all of the program, as the balance the President is aiming at would thereby be destroyed.

When asked whether he believed in the necessity of a National Service Act, and whether he thought there would be one, Professor Sumner H. Schlicter, of the Economics Department, said "No. The government should have authority to call strikes back to work, as an obligation of citizenship, but it should not have the broad powers of shifting men from one job to another."

Dr. Zochariah Chafee, Langdell Professor of Law, agreed with Professor Wright: "I am strongly in favor of the whole program," he said. "It is a just way to settle the problem, but I don't think it will pass. Congressmen will make themselves unpopular with their constituencies if they vote for it, and pressure groups will fight it. Roosevelt's speech was political in large part, but the President sincerely, believes that a National Service Act should be passed."

Lawrence Fernsworth, a Neiman Fellow and formerly a foreign correspondent for the London Times, agreed with the heads of labor "that the time is premature for a National Service Act. Industry, labor, and agriculture are producing at capacity," he said, adding that "the measure is opposed to the American system, and I don't think it will pass."