Editorials, Restraining or Jingoistic, Advised College During Three Crucial Wars

The history of the Crimson national and international editorial columns is a strange blend of the popular mood of the day, and the very real individuality of each board. If the former did not lead the Crimson into inconsistencies, the latter certainly did, and for such meandering the editors were occasionally taken to task by older, wiser, and more static journals. But, as the editors in the spring of 1917 replied to a criticism of this kind in the old Boston Transcript: "We could not, for the sake of consistency, maintain a policy which in conscience the majority of the board could not support." Three wars, and the aftermath of one of them, are presented in highlight below.

Remember the Maine

"Not only does the country need patriotic support, but she needs that support which can plan for the future, can discipline and prepare itself for the discipline and service to come . . . The truest patriotism is after all that which lays aside self-gratification in any form and seeks intelligently the path of greatest usefulness." (April 27, 1898)

Tolerance

". . . Here we are still tolerant . . . it is well that one of the world's centers of learning rejects partisanship when many others are blinded and we can only hope that post-bellum patriotism will not affect Harvard's internationalism." (October 6, 1916)

The Harvard Regiment

". . . If war should come, us we feel it will, may those men face their flag who talk so valiantly now of peace . . . Today is the chance for you. No self-interest, no shuffling of the demands of conscience should shake you. Be true to your manhood, to your education, to your youth. The time is now. In three months it may be too late." (February 17, 1917)

Wilson's Message

". . . The Allies have had our sympathy and moral support for the last two years, but the righteous opportunity has come for us to change our attitude. From now on every element of strength should be concentrated on the task of suppressing a military power that has long lost regard for the most fundamental and human rights of other peoples. Sacrifices . . . must be made readily and joyfully . . ." (April 3, 1917)

Letters

"Hereafter, the Crimson will print no more communications of a pacifistic nature. If there are any members of the University so blind or cowardly in spirit as to clamor for neutrality when all hope of neutrality is dead, they should commune with themselves in private and find reflection in the definition of traitors as those ". . . adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." (April 4, 1917)

>War

". . . We have entered on the road which can have no turning . . . Imperialism will perish before without fail and inevitably the day of the failure of the imperialism of Germany was forewritten from that time when she made her enemy in the greatest democracy in the world." (April 6, 1917)

The Army Routine

"The time for inflexible military discipline in the University is past . . . The University has done its part. It is the duty of the military authorities to do their share in bridging the gap by relaxing discipline as much as possible . . ." November 29, 1918)

The League

". . . (Complete opposition to the League in any form) means that the United States withdraws from the Society of Nations and throws away all chance of paying dividends on the capital in men and ideals she invested in the war . . . A tremendous majority (in the College straw ballot) for a compromise between the Senator Lodge and Democratic reservations in order to facilitate the ratification alone can show that college men have appreciated the issue. It must not fail." (January 13, 1920)

Roosevelt - I

". . . The first duty of the new administration is obviously to restore confidence in the banking system . . . first of all ... a national bank holiday of about a week ... Whatever solution is put into effect, the era of incompetent banking, banking that exists in so many cases for the maximum of private gain and the minimum of public good must be forcibly brought to a close." (March 6, 1933)

Roosevelt - II

". . . Harvard wants recovery fully as much as its distinguished graduate; its vote yesterday (a straw ballot) damning Roosevelt policies) does not signify that it wants to return to the old deal of the twenties. It does mean that undergraduates do not want the type of recovery which can only lead to chaos through uncontrolled expenditure and through the substitution of opportunism for a definite program." (October 25, 1934)

Ethiopia

". . . History seldom offers, in its tragedies, so clear-out a role for the villain of the piece as is now occupied by Mussolini. We westerners dismissed his warlike utterances as mere sabrerattling for mass consumption. We will soon pay for refusing to face the facts." (September 25, 1935)

Neutrality

". . . This country wants a program of strict and workable neutrality in which all exports whatsoever to a country at war shall be forbidden, and it is the duty of Congress to put this through ..." (December 5, 1935)

The Crimson Fence

"Like Janus, the two-faced god of the Romans, the Crimson is looking in both directions during the period preceding its straw vote (on the Roosevelt-Landon election) . . . editorials will appear by . . . two Crimson editorial writers of opposing views. The former tends to look in the general direction of Kansas; the latter veers toward Washington." (October 3, 1936)

Munich

". . . Pressure for the repeal of the Neutrality Act has been tremendous, and Congress should act on this demand at its first chance. Then Germany and its cohorts will have been warned that America will not watch one man steal, without chastisement, the whole of Central Europe." (September 24, 1938)

Intervention

". . . Given a choice on the one hand the sure and immediate horrors and costs of war, to ourselves as individuals and to our nation as a social democracy, and on the other hand, peace now but the possibility of a German victory and some future threat to the United States as a result, we choose the latter alternative. And we think that here stands with us the vast Army of Americans." (May 17, 1940)

Handwriting

"The Crimson's stand on American Neutrality this spring has not been an easy one to uphold . . . This June morning we can still declare that coercive militarism in America boars no different stamp from militarism in Germany . . . But next September we may well be Americanized . . . and youth will be freed by definite action from skepticism and disillusionment." (June 12, 1940)

Pearl Harbor

". . . it will be no campaign of heroics and no lightning victory. We realize that we are the ones who will be manning the ships and the guns and facing the bombs and destruction of the enemy . . . We sincerely believe that we will be able to win our war . . . Then we will be the ones to face the manifold problems of establishing a just and honest and stable peace. We believe ourselves capable of accomplishing what our fathers failed to achieve. We have starry-eyed and idealistic hopes of a peace not just in our sons' time, but for all time . . ." (December 3, 1941)