Group to Issue Critique of Ec 1

A group of students is planning a critique of Economics 1 -- the largest course in the University -- in which they will attack its "conservative bias."

The campus chapters of the Young People's Socialist League and Americans for Democratic Action will hand out their study at the March 6 lecture.

The as yet unwritten report will criticize only the reading list, and not the section men or the lectures, Steven J. Kelman '70, president of YPSL, said yesterday.

Among the issues under fire will be "the anti-labor union flavor" of the reading list, it's "failure" to explain under-lying assumptions of price theory, and its "confusing" treatment of socialism, Kelman said.

Articles by Milton Friedman, former economics adviser to Barry Goldwater, are not rebutted by liberal material covering the same field, Kelman said. But an article by liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, is refuted by a conservative stand on the same issue.

In addition to criticism, the report will include a bibliography covering the "omissions" and a proposal for changes. YPSL will solicit signatures for a petition backing the proposal at the lecture of March 8.

Richard T. Gill '48, lecturer in Economics and head of Ec 1, laughed yesterday when told of the plan and said, "The usual criticism of Ec 1 is that it doesn't adequately represent the conservative stream of thought. This is a refreshing change."