On the Shelf

The vast void in the serious magazine field at Harvard narrowed two days ago with the publication of the new "Progressive." An outgrowth of the old four-page "Student Progressive," the new magazine is five times as thick and proportionately broader in scope. It boldly intends to "start with the student's daily problems of eating, living and learning, and range through polities, the social sciences and philosophy, not neglecting literature and the arts, both classical and popular." Such a catholicity of interest, while probably not realizable within the confines of a monthly twenty-page publication, at least demonstrates that the editors, by not restricting themselves to polities, have confidence in the as yet untapped resources of the largest and most mature undergraduate body in Harvard's history.

In their attempt to cover a wide range of interest, the editors have not gone off the deep end. Rightly understanding that their proper function is first of all as a student magazine, they have placed as the two lead articles a report on the recent Chicago conference which culminated in the decision to form a National Union of Students, as well as an outline of the methods and ideals of the British National Union of Students.

While the first issue does contain an ill-considered article on the alleged demise of power politics, there are no notable weaknesses among its political pieces. Outstanding are Frederick Houghteling's review of Hya Ehrenburg's recent series of articles for "Harper's" and a report on the current civil war in China, by Allen Barton. Unlike most American reviewers of the Ehrenburg series, Houghteling sees correctly that despite Ehrenburg's criticism of America, his articles contain a message of hope for this country. For, says Houghteling, Ehrenburg could have written as frankly as he did of American prosperity for a Russian audience only if he was assured that the Russian people are not jealous of America, but are contented and happy with their own form of government. Although Barton's attempt to get at the forces which lie behind the present conflict in China draws heavily on Theodore White's book, his article is a great deal more than a book review. He traces the Knomintang from its rise to power in 1927 to the present, showing that the present corruption and reaction of Chiang's party rests historically on equally rotten foundations.

Perhaps it is too much to expect that the "Progressive's" first voyage into the non-political field would be entirely successful. Two short, unsigned poems, "Dream Work" and "Projections," are bright and clever, but a short story, "The Damned," and a review of the French film, "It Happened at the Inn," are both weak. The story, which concerns the revelation of a crime committed by a just-buried and much-respected member of a farm community, is clumsy and underdeveloped. The author, who is anonymous, handles the dialogue with assurance, but otherwise his style is labored and often descends to jargon. A. G. Haas, who reviews 'It Happened at the Inn," seems unable to control a breakaway imagination. In discussing an innocuous, modest film he manages not only to give a short history of French and Russian motion pictures but to drag in such assorted people as Dostoievski, Gogol, Daphne du Maurier, and T. S. Eliot.

Although it continues to publish under the aegis of the Liberal Union, the "Progressive" will express HLU opinion only on its editorial page, which this month contains an impartial exposition of the recent split of the Democratic left. While admittedly the choice between the ADA and the PCA is difficult for any liberal to make, it can only be hoped that the magazine will not in the future hedge on issues. For if the "Progressive" attempts to become all things to all men by declining to fight for its political ideals, its fundamental reason-for-being will disappear.