Squabbles Punctuate Young Progressives' College Career; New Membership List Ruling Caused Group to 'Hibernate'

Dean Watson and the Young Progressives may soon be at odds again, but this seems to be a common malady. Trouble has stalked the club throughout its stormy college career; the current recognition problems had their preview back in 1951.

Lack of faculty advisers and insufficient membership lists have constantly plagued the Y.P.'s. Perhaps the worst crisis came on March 7, 1951, when the club defaulted on both counts. No faculty member or alumnus would volunteer to serve as Y.P. adviser, and hence the group failed to comply with the rule requiring two advisers.

Further the president, Lowell P. Beveridge '52, turned in an incomplete membership list: therefore the Y.P.'s failed to fulfill the rule, passed that January, requiring clubs to file with the Dean's Office complete membership lists of at least ten men.

For these two infractions, Watson immediately ordered the club to cancel a talk by Oliver Allen, Chairman of the Massachusetts Progressive Party, scheduled for that evening. He later reversed his decision, when convinced that the club had made a "conscientious effort" to obtain the required advisers. Watson, however, warned that the H.Y.P. might eventually have to disband over the issue.

The Dean's Office did some "behind-the-scenes" checking and found that more than the listed ten men were working with the organization. These associates, Beveridge explained, were afraid of having their names listed in University Hall as belonging to the Y.P.'s. The Dean's Office won the argument; next day five of the "twilight members" joined officially.

Decline of Young Progressive membership during the past two years is mainly due to the University's recodification of the "Rules for undergraduate organizations" in January 1951.

The two groups primarily affected by the Administration membership list ruling were the Y.P.'s and the John Reed Club. The former complied and submitted the necessary lists, but the latter group went "underground" and ceased to exist officially.

Met Once in '51

"It was very difficult to get the ten names, last year's Y.P. President James K. Bouzoukis '52 admitted. During the fall the group met only once. One Y.P. member admitted yesterday that he only joined the club last fall as a tenth man "because I am willing to see such groups on campus ..."

The membership rule would play an important role should the Massachusetts anti-subversive bill be invoked against a student group. The Attorney General may judge a group subversive when it contains more than three persons who advance the overthrow of the government, and he can subpoena a group's membership list if they are held in University Hall. There is a fine of $1,000 and or three years in jail for being a member of such a subversive organization.

This law can be evaded by having only a club's President register, hence a group could not be called subversive since it would not have the necessary three members. With this in mind the Council on December 3, 1951 recommended that the Dean's Office file only the names of club officers and that "should the clubs want to use Harvard facilities, they would have to show, not give, the Dean's Office a list of its members."

The Faculty Committee on Undergraduate Activities, and later President Conant, turned a deaf ear to the proposals.

(Debate on the Organization rules started in 1948 when Watson announced his office would codify the regulations. After much debate, the Council issued a complicated 33-page report in March 1950, and Watson replied with an eight-page booklet the next January.)

Despite their declining membership and the difficulties involved, the Y.P.'s were fairly active in the spring of 1951; only last fall did the club really have to curtail its activities.

Religion Snarl

In the early spring the Y.P.'s combined with other college political groups in a fruitless attempt to save Willie McGee from the electric chair.

Religion and the Y.P.'s tangled that May. Debate over expansion of religion at Harvard split both the United Ministry Groups (six denominations are represented) and the political clubs. The College was then considering having General Education courses in religion and a University chaplain.

"There are other things more seriously lacking in the curriculum--as, for example, a professional guidance system or faculty proponents of Marxism or progressive views," Beveridge said, summing up the Y.P. argument.

Y.P. Platform

If the Young Progressive Club officially regains its feet, it will campaign for the Progressive Party, Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. '55, spokesman for the group announced Tuesday. The principle planks in the platform are:

1.) Immediate cease-fire in Korea.

2.) Halt of rearming and re-Nazification of Germany.

3.) Outlawing the atom bomb and all weapons of mass destruction.

4.) Recognition of the People's Republic of China.

5.) Support of colonial independence movements.

6.) Repeal of the Taft-Hartley law and re-establishment of the Wagner Act.

7.) Effective price and rent control.

8.) FEPC, anti poll tax, and anti lynch laws.

9.) Repeal of the McCarran Act, Smith Act, and McCarran Walters Immigration Act.

10.) Academic freedom and comprehensive program of aid to needy students without discrimination.

Rumors of F.B.L. and armed services intelligence agents plaguing the Dean's office for information on various alumnis' political affiliations while in college seemed to worry college liberal and progressive groups--including the Y.P.'s.

Later in May Dean Watson reassured members that their names will never be revealed to the government or to prospective employers.

A few days later, however, an F.B.L. agent denied that the Bureau would ever specifically ask for a man's college record it seems a glance at a college year book, which normally lists an undergraduate's clubs, is usually sufficient

Charge and Retreat

Perhaps the most horrible mistake is the Young Progressive's history occurred in the fall of 1949 December 6 to be exact. That night the Y.P.'s accused the Combined Charities Drive of "deliberate fraud and misrepresentation" and two hours afterwards had to admit they were entirely wrong. The Club charged that the Student Council in a "deliberate design to misrepresent" has asked the name of one of the six groups on the Combined Charities list.

The charity referred to was "The National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students"; the Y.P.'s claimed that the Council invented the name and the money donated to it actually went to the "United Negro College Fund," which helps private, segregated Negro colleges.

The latter Fund was on the C.C. list the year before, and at that time some students had protested because its group fostered segregation. "It is apparent that the Council purposely changed the name of the Jim Crow Weed this year to deceive students," the club fumed.

But two hours later the Y.P.'s had to confess they were wrong. A letter to the Council, and the Council president combined to cause the mishap.

The United Negro College Fund wrote the Council a thank-you note for its help. "We didn't read the letter carefully, Beveridge explained. "We thought it meant Harvard was supporting the Fund this year." This supposition was aided by the Council president's admitting to a Y.P. member that the money was again going to the segregated "United Negro College Fund."

Non-segragation finally won, however, when a couple of phone calls rectified the error and cleared the Council of any racial prejudice accusations