Princeton Conference Calls for Research On 'Peace Corps'

Proposals for a "Peace Corps" of U.S. youth got a boost last weekend at a Princeton conference of students, educators, foundation and government officials. Establishing a steering committee, the conference urged President-elect Kennedy to set before Congress legislation concerning a youth service program, and called for research, in cooperation with foreign leaders, on those needs of newly developing countries which a U.S. youth corps could help meet.

There was a great deal of dispute before the conference decided upon a statement to represent it. One clause of the first resolution submitted for consideration empowered the steering committee to set up a "pilot project," probably under private rather than public auspices, which would send 100 to 200 students to one or more foreign conferences as soon as possible.

The conference overwhelmingly rejected this clause, however, agreeing that a privately run project might come into direct conflict with the legislative efforts of the Kennedy Administration, thereby damaging the entire "Peace Corps" program.

Returning to Cambridge from the conference yesterday, three undergraduates organized a Harvard-Radcliffe Committee for a Youth Service Program. In its constitution, which the Student Council approved last night, the Committee proposes to "sponsor research and public discussion, in conjunction with experts, on plans for youth service abroad, particularly as a possible alternative to military service in peacetime."

Immediate Purpose

The Committee's immediate purpose is not to arouse broad student support, which its officers believe already exists, but to discover where American youths--both teachers and technicians--are needed abroad. The Committee also wishes to find out how participants should be chosen and trained, what bodies should administer and support the program, and the sort of political opposition it is likely to meet in Congress.