Toward a "closed shop" on the campus

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This report was delivered by Joseph P. Lash, executive secretary of the
American Student Union, to more than 400 delegates to the Union's second
annual convention, held in Chicago in December, 1936.

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Published by

THE AMERICAN STUDENT UNION

112 East 19th Street

New York City

.209

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TOWARD A "CLOSED SHOP" ON THE
CAMPUS

A Report to the Second Annual Convention of the
American Student Union

/"\NE year ago several hundred students met at Columbus,
^ Ohio, to set up the American Student Union. That first con-
vention was dominated by the belief that American students
everywhere, in their common devotion to such ideals as economic
security, peace and democracy, could set out together on the
road toward achieving those objectives. Republicans, Democrats,
liberal students, believed these aspirations compatible with capi-
talism. They held that our common aims could be fulfilled by
the capitalist state if student and public opinion were made artic-
ulate and insistent. They supported the American Student Union
as an instrument of expressing these views. Socialists and Com-
munists, while asserting that capitalism could not ultimately give
us security, peace and democracy, believed that some measure of
these goals might be achieved if sufficient pressure were mobilized
behind them. In addition, they recognized that the mass of stu-
dents would not accept the socialist solution before they were
convinced through inquiry and effort that capitalist society could
not give them the essentials of a decent life. For these reasons
they gave their support to the A.S.U. All of us could unite,
despite political differences, on immediate steps; we would dis-
cover more deep-seated truths in the course of our endeavors.

Unity was the galvanizing word at Columbus. Hundreds of
students travelled in the dead of winter to aid in the realization of
that unity which was admittedly a pre-condition of effectiveness.
Has the past year proven that hope an illusory one? Has the
A.S.U. justified the efforts and sacrifices made for it? Can one
answer in the negative when remembering the anti-war strike of
500,000 students led by the Union, and the establishment of the
United Student Peace Committee to which the strike was so great
an impetus? Examine the hearings upon the American Youth
Act and note the hundreds of students we brought to Washing-
ton to make those hearings a success. Have the students of Amer-
ica ever had so dynamic and colorful a voice as The Student Ad-
vocate? Our paid-up membership is triple that of the now dis-
solved National Student League and Student League for Industrial
Democracy, and our active membership is far greater. So strong

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lu\<- we become in New York — 5,000 A.S.U.'ers marching on
M;i\ Day, election of student councils on A.S.U. programs in all
ll." ■ ity colleges, a Board of High Education divided evenly upon
tli<- 'juestion of recognizing the A.S.U. in the city colleges — that
.. • liave provoked a special investigation by Senator McNaboe
i ml scores of editorials by that ace of reactionaries, Hearst. The
■i. mite workers in Vermont, the elevator boys in New York,
I In- -teel workers in Pittsburgh and the marine workers on the
'ii ■-! will testify to the cooperation and support our Student Union

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!i is -riven them. There is only one answer : The A.S.U. has sue-
■ ■■i-il"sd! No liberal or radical will dare challenge the need for
.i -Indent union. And the protests of the Right confirm us in this
nil- iction.

\\' are not here, however, for self-congratulation. Enormous
\!M.-3 previously shut off from our sight by disunity have now
.ipl- ared. An organization of 20,000 is a real achievement. But
I'n <•■ are 750,000 college students in the United States the ma-
\»i'.:y of whom should be aligned with us. There are 5,000,000
hi -li school students, a territory which we have hardly begun to
■■xi'lore. In the early and divided days of the student movement
an "rganization fancied itself making great gains when a new
i !i ;>ter was founded or when the "vast" number of ten or twenty
ti ii-ferred allegiance from one group to another. The formation
i.f I he Union has confonted us with the real magnitude of our
I i-k. Now we can see all that has to be done if students are to
1m- kept from being the shock troops of fascism as they were in
(.'■i many and Italy. Now we perceive the scope of our task if
I In- American educational system is to be transformed into that
!■• 'Mess of true democracy to which it nominally professes
.lil'-inance.

'I he problem at Columbus was to lay the foundation for a mass
■-lin'-int movement by unifying our own resources. The problem
. t lliis convention is to blueprint a twelve-month plan for build-
in j the A.S.U. into an organization of 50,000 students, enabling
us to become the spokesman for the student population of the
I n Ued States. Last year we built the dynamo. This coming year
w«- must gear it to the hundreds of campuses needing its power.

Our problem is twofold. One is of domestic housekeeping. The
i.lliiT is of policy. I shall merely outline the first since it will
In- ifealt with by others. It is that of building an efficient organiza-
tii'ii.il apparatus, of financial responsibility — every member feel-
imz .i personal duty to help meet the national budget; promotion
nf literature sales, especially The Advocate; the efficient running

4

of a chapter; getting the most out of district organization and the
visits of field secretaries; improving the services of the National
Office; the Chapter Guide; chapter assessments and membership;
inner organizational fellowship.

And secondly there is the question of what policy and the ways
of execution of that policy. This is a separation of convenience.
No policy can be executed without a healthy and functioning
organism as its instrument. No organism can become healthy
without a correct policy.

At the outset I want to say that the basic task at this congress
is not programmatic. In all its essentials our program has proven
a correct one. Our problem is how to carry out our program and
how to integrate its execution with the building of the A.S.U.
Frankly, it would be regrettable if the emphasis'" of this conven-
tion were on the matters of policy that occasioned debate even
at Columbus. Differences on the question of peace, of political
action, will and should be clarified at this congress, but no point
of view is important, no matter how valid, if it remains private
to ourselves. Our job here is to determine how we can win the
majority of students to a program that is basically sound, how
we can make that program significant and inspiring to the
majority of American undergraduates. There are many mute,
inglorious Miltons, possessing great emotions and insights but
lacking the technical skill and imaginative craftsmanship to
create great literature. Similarly there are many little Lincolns
who are motivated by the proper idealism and social insight,
but lack the ability to convert anyone else to their view of

S u Ciety "j° Ur ^° b heTe is one of craftsmanship— how to rally
thousands of students to our program.

The Student and Economic Security

I shall start with our campaigns for the achievement of eco-
nomic security. To many of us has that section in our program
meant merely passing a resolution on the inadequacy of the
National Youth Administration and circulating a petition in sup-
port of the American Youth Act? That type of action can be re-
served tor the president of the National Student Federation We
have more important work to do. Indeed, I should say that what
we do in connection with the N.Y.A. is a lest of our organization
as a real trade union on the campus. It should be said that even
during the past year we did some work in organizing students

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on this issue. At the hearings for the American Youth Act called
by the American Youth Congress in Washington it was the A.b.U.
that most widely mobilized its membership for the hearings. At
several colleges, such as the Universities of North Carolina and
Minnesota, we set about organizing unions of N.Y.A. student
workers which negotiated with N.Y.A. administrators for increased
allotments and for adapting jobs to applicants .interests. Uur
New York district made a notable effort to obtain N.Y.A. jobs
for summer school students. Two years ago, at Brooklyn College,
the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs, after a two-year drive
led by the A.S.U., gave students a voice in the administration of
N Y A activities. A student advisory committee of five elected by
the college's N.Y.A. workers has been established Finally, the
vigilance of the A.S.U. has prevented utilization of the N.Y.A.
funds to intimidate progressive students. .'■-•• .

But how glowing is this record of accomplishment so long
as tens of thousands of students are being denied N.Y.A. assistance
despite their real need and qualification? How important are
the one thousand organized into N.Y.A, unions compared to the
160,000 receiving N.Y.A. benefits? Has our campaign for the
American Youth Act been sustained and powerful? Aubrey
Williams of the N.Y.A. has just announced through a student
correspondent that N.Y.A. aid will be cut proportionately with
the rest of the W.P.A. There are rumors that it will be com-
pltely abandoned in June as one of the "luxury aspects of
W.P.A. no longer necessary. N. Raymond Walters, President ot
the University of Cincinnati, declares in the current issue of School
and Society: "Forecasts as to future attendance (at college) are
impossible because of the possibility of discontinuance of N.Y.A.
support. . . ." Where are the N.Y.A. unions to challenge these
cuts' Are we in a position to mobilize thousand of students in
the face of these cuts for the Washington pilgrimage on behalf
of the American Youth Act? I want to quote from an editorial,
"The Diminishing N.Y.A.", from the Drake University newspaper
on December 18. There is no A.S.U. at Drake: "Students who
wish the N.Y.A. maintained must get out and work for its con-
tinuance by putting pressure on Congress. Make Congress grant
an appropriation that will in some way cover the desperate needs
of many of the country's young people. Write letters to your
Congressman. Send delegations to your Senators and Representa-
tives. If staggering sums can be allocated to take care of the
nation's munition men, cannot a few million dollars be appropri-

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ated for the nation' youth who are anxious to gain a college
education?" I wish there were editorials of this character in the
newspapers of the schools where there are powerful A.S.U. chap-
ters. In these months, the A.S.U. must make its foremost
task the mobilization of student leaders, editorials, faculty sup-
port and mass student support against the cutting of the N.Y.A.
and integrate this campaign with pressure for the A.Y.A.

Throughout the country there has swept an impression of
prosperity. Our Tory class is turning its loss of prestige in the
elections into a victory by pouring out bonuses in the millions.
This is a prosperity shadowed by the presence of ten million
unemployed, six million of whom are condemned to permanent
unemployment because of technological advances. It is a prosper-
ity reared on the wasteful structure of war preparations. These
facts, plus the resistance of the Tories to all measures of social
security and income equalization, provide the basis for another
depression in a few years. Yet the glamor of tinsel, temporary
prosperity has hit the campus. Students are deluding themselves
into believing that the jazz twenties are returning. They want to
convince themselves that the crisis which descended on the campus
recently has passed. If they could belive this, they would then
feel no responsibility for progressive social action. We reaffirm,
however, that society as presently constituted cannot give us eco-
nomic security. Prosperity is a myth so long as students are com-
pelled to drop out of school because of the cutting of N.Y.A.
It is a myth if students must be pauperized to stay in college. In
the report by Dr. Walters cited above, he declares that the in-
crease of 85,000 students in attendance at universities can be
largely ascribed to N.Y.A. The ending of the N.Y.A. is the finale
to the undergraduate careers of these 85,000. The A.S.U. states
its firm intention to fight the cut in N.Y.A. We declare to Presi-
dent Roosevelt that the mandate he was given in November dic-
tated democratization of educational opportunity, the continuance
and extension of youth assistance. We warn that the students of
this country are determined to interpret that mandate for him in
our mass pilgrimage to Washington in February.

In this campaign a vital social principle is embodied. Our
educational system has taught us to believe that government
assistance is something to be ashamed of, that our demand for
aid reflects an unwillingness to fight our way up from the bottom
as Horatio Alger did. Speaking in opposition to the N.Y.A.
before the Wisconsin College presidents and deans, President-elect

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Barrows of Lawrence College declared that the N.Y.A. may have
started "an educational dole which will lead youth to regard
college education as something the government owes him, instead
of, as we thought, a rare luxury." Society is pampering us, it is
said The same cries were levelled against the establishment ol
free public education in the early nineteenth century Qur
answer must be the same as that of the trade unionists who were
then in the forefront of the battle for public education. Society
has a responsibility to its young people to see that the formative
period of our lives is not twisted by poverty, insecurity, ignorance.
A truly democratic society would give its young people a lull
education, in healthv and inspiring surroundings. These young
people would later repay that society by the intelligence and
sanity that they would bring to the solution of social problems,
by the fulness and happiness of their lives. The N-Y.A. does
not represent charity. It expressed a responsibility of American
society which will not be genuinely fulfilled until Congress passes
the American Youth Act.

The Challenge of Co-Operatives

What else does "economic security" mean to students? During
the past year a new movement has set in on the campus— coopera-
tives. None of us fully recognized its importance. If the A.S.U.,
on local campuses, has established cooperatives, that is because
a volunteer worker in the National Office, Charles Saphirstem,
was so insistent that we could not ignore the cooperative move-
ment. At the present time the A.S.U. has itself established some
ten cooperative ventures and participated in the establishment
of some twenty others. They include book stores, eating houses,
dorms and laundries. They are a concrete service to the student
body. At Temple the establishment of a cooperative book
store increased the membership of the chapter 20 in two weeks.
The vitality of our Dartmouth chapter is due in large measure
to the cooperative eating house it set up. The student cooperative
movement has become important enough to warrant securing a
staff person to cover that field. A.S.U. cooperatives have a
great value in increasing organizational loyalty and fellowship,
in making the A.S.U. more than a discussion group. This is not
to say that we want to turn ourselves into fraternities set apart
from the campus — we must be on guard against such isolation —
but we do want to enrich the internal life of the A.S.U.

8

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The concrete service we render through cooperatives to students
bring me to other local services that chapters can render to
cheapen the costs of college education and thus establish us as
a genuine union. Our Berkeley chapter has undertaken a cam-
paign to lower student activity fees. At the Univesrity of Wis-
consin the inadequacy of firetrap housing and the costliness of
student rents has been the object of a chapter campaign. In
many places restaurant prices are exorbitant. Cooperatives or
direct pressure upon the administration have achieved lower
prices. How many of us have undertaken a survey of the treat-
ment of student workers on the campus as our University of
Oregon chapter has done preliminary to a campaign for a mini-
mum wage for student workers? At Howard University a spon-
taneous strike took place because the football team was not
getting decent meals. Why did not the A.S.U. lead this strike?
lhat is what we mean by imaginative interpretation of our pro-
gram on economic security. We are a fellowship of service to
the student body and no issue is too homely or unimportant for
us to undertake. Only a person without social vision could fail
to see the relationship of these little matters to the larger issues
ot insecurity and poverty afflicting contemporary society.

The Ferntent Among Negro Students

To the problem of security is linked the whole problem of the
extension of educational facilities. How closely these are tied
together is apparent in the situation of Negro vouth. Negro stu-
dents are afflicted not only by the most barbarous of livin- con-
ditions m school and college. The problem is an enormou! one.
ine present facilities for Negro education are completely inade-
quate. Hundreds of thousands of Negroes do not attend school
because of lack of facilities. In Kansas only two dollars is
allotted for the education of the Negro youth to every eleven
dollars of education of the whites. Only 25 of every 100 Ne«ro

C the^ ^ "S 001 £ the S T h 3re aHe t0 -ntinue further
than the six h grade. The condition this inspires is eloquently

Norl C^ ^ ™^ *>**«* Hearing of a strike' atTe
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, a Ne R ro

Z £a T •° Uthern field Becietai y visited tWs schoo 1. He de

be Itd^h 10 ; Vf™ " The f0 ° d haS become -tea -

exne'lled A ^ \ V \ oUsst meetin S' and was immediately

expelled, whereupon the whole student body struck, demanding

his reinstatement, better food, a student government, medical care
for students (the latter had been accustomed to waiting in their
rooms when ill for four or five days wihout any medical aid)
and a number of other issues. The strike lasted about five days,
hardly any of the 771 students breaking it. Police were on the
campus all the time. Food was sent the students by a sympa-
thetic Negro community. A committee was sent to the governor.
There were good stories in the papers. However, vague promises
and empty threats induced the students to go back before anything
definite was won. The students are ready to strike again if their
leaders aren't reinstated and the food isn't improved." Our or-
ganizer promised the students all the assistance we could provide.
They urged him to stay and address a meeting to which the whole
school turned out, but the president ordered the meeting dis-
persed and prevented our representative from meeting.

So great is the feeling among Negro students on this lack of
educational facilities that the A.S.U. program when presented
in terms of these needs evokes a willingness to affiliate student
bodies en masse to the A.S.U. Our slight . experience this past
year in working in the South has convinced us that this question of
equal and adequate educational facilities is of more immediate
importance than the campaign against segregation.

There is a desperate need for organizational work, as this letter
shows, in the Negro schools. We need a Field Secretary whose
responsibility will be only to the Negro colleges. And can we
even speak of building a strong movement among Negro students
when we lack any movement whatsoever in the South? I, as
might be expected of a Northerner, have frequently attributed
our failure to make headway in the South to the existence of
powerful reactionary traditions among Southern students. I am
convinced otherwise now. A liberal tradition stemming from
Jefferson is as powerful in the Southern universities as elsewhere.
There are vast opportunities for building the A.S.U. in the South.
Texas is even now planning a state convention of A.S.U. chapters.
Perhaps we can undertake a similar regional convention in other
Southern states.

I want to close this section of my report with a discussion of
our campaign for free city colleges. Philadelphia has long felt
the need for such a college. For many months now the Phila-
delphia district of the A.S.U. has been discussing a campaign
for a free city college. Indeed I have seen, I believe, a bill for
the establishment of such a college drafted by lawyers for the

10

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Philadelphia A.S.U.? What has happened to this campaign?
I am afraid it has remained in the slogan stage. Everybody
agrees there should be a free city college. It is vaguely rumored
that the A.S.U. could get lots of community support for such a
campaign. We are told that this campaign will establish the
prestige of the A.S.U. in Philadelphia. I agree. Where is the
campaign? I concentrate on Philadelphia members not because
they are particularly at fault in this matter, but because that is
characteristic of what happens to A.S.U. campaigns. I empha-
size the free city college campaign because it is a valuable idea
and could cuild the A.S.U. in dramatic fashion. Why was there
no campaign? Because no one would take the responsibility for
its execution. Because the district did not sit down and assign
responsibility, then every week review precisely and carefully
what had been done and discover whether all the assignments had
been carried out. Campaigns do not grow spontaneously. If
they did, we would not have to have an A.S.U. People must do
the dirty work. Plans must be mapped out, jobs assigned, work
reviewed. It is so easy to be careless in collective, voluntary
work such as ours that every campaign must have a time schedule.
There must be no individualism, for if the individual doesn't
carry out his work, it remains undone, unless it is checked by
committees. I speak frankly because I am criticizing myself.
I didn't keep after Philadelphia on this matter. I did not give
them the advice they needed. And the staff did not check up
on me. r

The aspirations I have spoken of in this section of the report
are shared by most of the students of the United States. Indeed
they have universal Sanction because of our American traditions
of equahtarianism. Will these aspirations become realities?
Not so long as our technique is one of shouting slogans, passing
resolutions and avoiding the. detailed work that is imperative

The Student and Democracy

T WILL now turn to another group of problems raised by our
■*■ program and examine our success in meeting them. Political
democracy is one of the deepest traditions in American society.
It impregnates our whole public life. Its symbols dominate the
Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the speeches of
politicians, the textbooks in civics. Some would say that the
widespread use of this word, because of the repression and in-

11

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equality that is, nevertheless, persuasive in American life, renders
the word meaningless. Yet the fact that repression and injustice
must be cloaked in the forms of equality and democracy by the
Tories in order to perpetuate their privileges should demonstrate
the hold that these values have upon the masses of American
people. Our campaigns for the democratization of the university,
for academic freedom, for the elimination of fascist ideologies
and groups among American students have a powerful support
in the textbooks of the very universities and of the very system
that practice repression and discrimination. If the A.S.U. were
to show itself capable of organizing student defense of educational
democracy, it would undoubtedly gain widespread prestige and
support in the student body. It would justify the name of union.

During the past year there were three notorious violations of
academic freedom. Because of his leadership of a demonstration
against sending a Columbia delegate to Heidelberg, and more
generally because of his aggressive leadership of the A.S.U. at
Columbia, Robert Burke was expelled. You are all familiar with
the case through the splendid pamphlet that we published. You
may have read Dr. Butler's annual statement a week ago in which
he declared that Columbia sent a delegate to Heidelberg as a
protest against its debasement under fascism! The A.S.U. failed
to reinstate Burke. Our failure partly lay in the determination
of the Columbia authorities to make an example of Burke^ But
the failure also lay in the shortcomings of our Columbia chapter.
Who can say that the Burke case was less clear-cut than the Reed
Harris case in 1932 in which Harris was reinstated after a student
strike? Who can say that there was not widespread undergradu-
ate sympathy for Burke, a sympathy which never once received
dramatic expression in the case? Why was the climax of the
campaign a strike of only 800 students, then period? This was
the first instance of outfight repression against the A.S.U. A
victory for us would have insured the protection of our members
everywhere. And no union deserves the name which cannot
protect its members. I am aware of the forces that the Columbia
Union encountered in its campaign — threats, intimidation, brow-
beating by the administration on an unparalleled scale.

In an intensified way, we saw exemplified at Columbia during
the course of this the whole apparatus of repression and
intimidation that is maintained by the status quo. Here we saw
revealed all the little methods that are employed throughout the
educational system to silence such movements as the A.S.U. Fear

12

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of loss of job, of loss of diploma, of loss of honors keep literally
thousands who sympathize with us from coming into the A.S.U.
We know how shortsighted is the view of the fellow who says,
"I'm going to feather my own nest, and so I will stay out of die
A.S.U." Unemployment is the lot of his generation, shell holes
and concentration camps. Yet this was the philosophy of our
chapter in the Columbia case. It surrendered its convictions
and the promise of a better life to the immediate pressures of
the status quo. So impressed were our members by the administra-
tion's threat to punish those who supported Burke, that they
magnified and articulated the rumors of repression which were
current on the campus. Like our chapter at U.C.L.A. in a smaller
crisis, the chapter almost talked itself underground.

If the chapter had realized the importance of the Burke case;
if it had fought the administration boldly on this issue, it would
have won. The only way to meet the bogey-man of fear is to
challenge it in the open That is what was done at the City Colleges
in New York. Yes, there were expulsions and editors were fired
and students were blacklisted but today the A.S.U. is predominant
in the student councils, runs the newspapers, and Pres. Robinson,
the instigator of this reign of suppression, is on his way out.
Academic freedom is safe in Hunter College, Brooklyn, and
C.C.N. Y. Liberal teachers are protected. The ideas of progress
have free and wide circulation because of the courageous stand of
former classes at these colleges.

The traditions of American life are on our side. The instincts
of the American people are with us. If we challenge the forces of
suppression, we will win.

The second case I should like to deal with concerns Washington
University in St. Louis. Three members of the American Student
Union, before the fall term began, wrote a letter to entering
r reshmen urging them not to enroll in the R.O.T.C. For sending
this letter, two lost their graduate fellowships. The adminstration
used the excuse that the signers of the letter had not consuled the
A.S.U. chapter before sending it out. In other words, the adminis-
tration was protecting our interests! This case received a good
deal of publicity, especially in the liberal Post-Dispatch. Again
student sentiment and public opinion were on our side. And again
we did^not vindicate ourselves by compelling the return of the
fellowships Here the basic reason seemed to be lack of confidence
• it I"! tt r • J me ? lbers m the P<>wer of student pressure and
in the A.S.U. Indeed, so "afraid" of the A.S.U. were our mem-

13

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bers that they tried to keep the National Office even from hearing
about the case for fear we would take action without consulting
them. In this connection I want to say plainly that the National
Office does not go over the heads of the chapter and does not
take action in a local situation without consulting the chapter.
We know the wdiespread "red herring" attack upon local A.S.U.'s
as being dominated by national offices who are "irresponsible
trouble-makers." I want to quote our constitution on this point:
Article III, Section 2, states "that individual members of the
Union may abstain from any action undertaken by it. Chapters
have local autonomy in determining what activities they will
carry out."

Having said this, it should be added that your national officers,
who are elected by you, expect you to have a certain confidence
in their maturity and integrity, a confidence, which is denied when
information is kept from us for fear we may throw a bomb into
the situation. But there is a more basic point involved in this
Washington University case. It is a lack of confidence in demo-
cracy: a fear that student opinion forcefully expressed will not
accomplish as much as "diplomatic negotiations." There is im-
plied an acceptance of the stereotype of the A.S.U. that has been
created by Hearst — a small, isolated group of "noisy radicals"
incapable of effective action. Thus we had a situation in St.
Louis where the community was aroused over the case, and the
student body, because of the A.S.U. remained inactive. Can we
then go to that student body and say we are in the forefront of
the struggle for democratic rights on the campus, when in a
specific issue we do a fadeout?

The Case of Jerome Davis

The other oustanding denial of academic freedom the past
year was the announcement that Jerome - Davis, Professor at
Yale Divinity School, would not be re-employed. I know that the
conservative and especially Republican press believes the issue of
Glenn Frank to be the outstanding denial of academic freedom.
Why isn't this press concerned with the issue of Jerome Davis?
We haven't seen front page stories given to protests on the Davis
case, but every rumor of student protest in the Frank case is a
pretext for headlines. The A.S.U. believes there is a great mass
of evidence to confirm the statement of the chairman of the
Board of Regents that President Frank has not proven himself
a capable administrator and executive. We agree, however, that

14

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President Frank should be given a public hearing and we com-
mend the liberalism of the Wisconsin Regents, unlike the Yale
Corporation, in holding such open hearings. The situation at
Wisconsin has raised the whole problem of university control.
The A.S.U. has written as follows to Commissioner Studebaker of
the U. S. Office of Education:

January 11, 1937.
Commissioner John Studebaker
United States Office of Education
Washington, D. C.
My dear Dr. Studebaker:

The American Student Union is greatly concerned over the
issues raised by the action of the University of Wisconsin regents
on Glenn Frank. We believe it brings to the foreground the prob-
lem of what relationship higher education shall have to the state.

In the last analysis, the university is supposed to serve the
people who have created and supported it. The people of a
state speak through the executive officers and the legislators whom
they elect; yet at the same time one would not want higher edu-
cation to be subject to the whims and waves of popular feeling.
Other principles over which we are concerned are the right of
students and faculty to have some voice in the control of their
universities.

We are not attempting to prejudice these issues. We do believe
that the Frank case has provided a setting for their discussion and
shown the necessity of such a discussion. It is probable that
in the next three years, progressive administrations will be elected
in many states. This will create the problem of the relationship
of these administrations to university regents and administrations
that do not reflect the growing spirit of progressivism. Student
bodies and faculties are becoming organized and articulate. They
will demand more control over the university.

We feel that your office is in the best position to call a confer,
ence of regents, state administrators, educational associations,
student associations, and teachers' organizations to consider the
matters that we have barely delineated. Such a conference could
begin an analysis of these problems. Is it within the province of
the Office of Education to call together such a meeting and would
it be able to?

Sincerely yours,

Joseph P. Lash

National Secretary
15

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To return to Yale — Jerome Davis' utterances on capitalism and
his cooperation with trade unions had displeased the Yale Cor-
poration. Therefore, his contract was not renewed. The last word
has not yet been spoken on this matter. The A.S.U. at Yale
Divinity School has mobilized the entire student body behind
Professor Davis. The faculty has come to his assistance. Public
opinion, especially labor, has come out in his support. A protest
demonstration of New England colleges was organized by the
A.S.U. at which 14 colleges were present. The Yale Corporation
is powerful — so powerful that the New Haven newspapers and
wire services carry no publicity on the support for Jerome Davis.
And Professor Davis may not have his contract renewed. But in
this case the Yale Corporation knows it has had a good fight
and will step gingerly next time.

The Davis case has served again to illustrate the point as in
the Sehappes case at C.C.N. Y. that a strong A.S.U. protects the
rights of teachers as well as students. Conversely a strong teach-
er's union aids in the creation of a strong student movement. We
can be proud of the close cooperation and friendship that exists
between the A.S.U. and the American Federation of Teachers.

These three outstanding cases of academic repression emphasize
the necessity for some democratic instrument of discipline within
the universities such as student-faculty courts or discipline com-
mittees, which being democratic will be more responsive to
students and faculty than to trustees and administrators. These
student-faculty courts should be elected by students and instruc-
tors as described in the December issue of The Student Advocate.
Some of you read the editorial. You said to yourselves, "a good
idea" and then forgot about it. Now in a way I don't blame you.
A chapter cannot carry on too many campaigns at one time,
especially if it has only ten members. Yet a well-planned cam-
paign for student-faculty courts would enlist the interest of new
people and help to build the A.S.U. That is the important point
to remember — activity brings membership.

The issue of student-faculty courts raises the whole question of
Student self-government. Democratization of the university finds
its best focus in the failure of most student councils to serve as
the instruments of that democratization. All of us are aware that
the majority of student councils are dominated by fraternity
cliques and that elections are settled by interfraternity negotiation.
They certainly are not settled by the stand taken on issues by
various candidates. We are aware that student councils are

16

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extremely responsive to administrative pressure and that the pros-
pect of a job with the university or through an alumnus has ren-
dered the councils useless in many places on the vital issues
affecting us. Nationally this is reflected in the N.S.F.A.V ten-
dency to play politics with Washington and the difficulty of elect-
ing N.S.F.A. presidents on their records of student service.

If students councils actually reflected the interests of the student
body, they would take up the cudgels for student-faculty courts.
They would fight for retention of the N.Y.A. We know they
don't. As a result in many colleges the A.S.U. has put up its own
slate in student body elections on an A.S.U. platform. There is
an A.S.U. bloc at the N.S.F.A. convention that is taking place at
this very moment. It is not enough, however, to put up a slate
once a year and then forget it the rest of the year. I have men-
tioned two issues which, properly raised, will win widespread
support in the student body— N.Y.A. and student-faculty courts.
We must urge our most talented members to take the leadership
in the campaign for student aid and student democracy. Have
them appear before your student council to seek action on these
campaigns. When the student body elections occur, these persons,
our candidates, will be known to the student body, will be identi-
fied with the effort to improve their lot, and will stand a much
better chance of victory. Our efforts in students' councils on a
local scale and in the N.S.F.A. nationally is to win them to forth-
right support for the Youth Act, the strike against war and aca-
demic freedom.

There are many other aspects to the question of democracy
within the university, and civil liberties in general as they affect
students. _We still have. with us the problem of equality of the
sexes and invidious regulations concerning women students. And
in many colleges and universities social life is constrained and
cramped because of university regulations which apply to both
men and women students, these again are issues which the
A.b.U. should champion and make its own.

Many universities are changing presidents and chancellors.
Usually the faculty and student body— the groups most vitally
attected by these changes— have little or no voice in the choice
ot a new president. The matter rests in the hands of Boards of
trustees whose composition graphically reflects hi? business
What better place or opportunity to challenge the whole char-
acter ot American education, than to nominate student choice*
when a new college president is being selected! Syracuse ha«

17

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just undertaken such a campaign. First it raised the general issue
of whether students shall have a voice in the selection of a new
chancellor. Now it is going ahead, not just to nominate its own
choice, hut to involve the whole campus in nominations by a
straw vote.

The A.S.U. and Administrators

Here it is perhaps appropriate to mention a change in attitude
that college adminstrations have developed toward the student
movement. I do not think the wish is father to the thought
when I say that some administrations have come to look upon the
A.S.U. as an ally. This is not strange when we acknowledge the
powerful traditions of liberalism that animate the American cam-
pus. It is true that in the long run college administration are the
spokesmen of trustees. We can sometimes hope for a measure
of liberalism commensurate with the stature of the individual men
and the liberalism of the community in which the university is
established. Our attitude must not be one of "we are the oppo-
nents of the administration," in the sense that trade unions are
opposed to employers. Let us say: we support college deans and
presidents in their efforts ot prevent the patrioteers from turning
our universities into breeding grounds of fascism. Let us take
for granted such administrative liberalism. In our approach
to the administration let us state that its own professed liberalism
dictates support of the student strike, of A.Y.A., of student-faculty
courts. Certainly we must be basically independent of the admini-
stration, rembering that it is subject to pressure from trustees
and the reactionary forces in the community in a way that we are
not. I have been told, however, that especially in the South,
college administrators welcome the A.S.U. as an awakening force
in the campus which gives student opinion and thought as tre-
mendous stimulus.

Democracy in the university brings up another problem which
is of immediate interest to us. That is the right of student organ-
izations such as ours to exist on campus. The ideal situation in
this respect exists at Cornell where any student group which de-
clares its purpose and files its officers with the administration can
utilize the university facilities for meetings. This is the system
that liberal members of the New York Board of Higher Education
are attempting to have adopted in the city colleges and which lost
by only one vote at the last meeting. Many of our chapters still
have not received recognition from their universities and their

18

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work is considerably hampered. This situation prevails at Syra-
cuse and Boston, among others. What a commentary upon those
universities is this blunt denial of academic freedom! What con-
fidence can these universities avow in the ideas they are trying
to inculcate when they fear the vitality of the A.S.U. program?
These are facts which, when brought out wish sufficient drama,
will compel any administration to grant us recognition. An issue
such as recognition of the A.S.U. involves the broad princi-
ples of democracy and enlightenment which command the allegi-
ance of so many people in this country that, if our campaign
is properly organized, no administration can remain adamant.
One fact is clear — without recognition, execution of the A.S.U.
program in a manner to win the allegiance of large numbers of
students is a bleak undertaking. One does not have to speculate
about this. Such has been the case at Los Angeles Jr. College,
U.C.L.A., Syracuse. Such is the case in the high schools.

During the past year two outstanding cases of censorship of
student newspapers occurred, involving the University of Texas
and Lafayette. In both instances almost unanimous student-
faculty condemnation was voiced. Scores of editorials in other col-
lege journals attacked the censorship. Public opinion was articu-
late upon the side of an uncensored undergraduate press. Out of
the campaign against censorship at the University of Texas devel-
oped not merely an A-S.U. chapter at the university, but a state
organization with a state organizer, four established chapters and
contacts in several other colleges. Our members knew how to
build on this issue in Texas and to convert it into a victory for
the student movement. Iknow of places where the clamping down
of censorship would have been met with a fatalistic shrug from
our membership, as if to say "here is an additional burden upon
the progressive movement."

The most disgraceful situation in our colleges and universities
is the discrimination that is practiced against Negro students.
Examine a college near here, Northwestern. The situation is not
unique there. But a student there by the name of William Bell
had the courage publicly to challenge the system. Bell broke
the unwritten law that no. Negro shall be allowed to stay at a
university dormitory. He was the first Negro to use the university
swimming pool. He fought for and won the right to sit on the
main floor of Evanston theatres. Now he is suing Northwestern
for $5,000 damages because it evicted him from the campus beach
last summer. The A.S.U. will suport his suit and has alreadv

19

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undertaken a campus-wide campaign against Negro discrimination
which won widespread support. Who is not aware of a similar
situation in his own school? In the face of these circumstances,
I do not know why our program speaks of a "Southern" system
of oppression. Other A.S.U. chapters made some headway toward
establishing racial equality in the schools. At the University of
Illinois our chapter launched a co-operative eating house when
Negro students were barred from all campus eating places. In the
South our chapters have made steps in the direction of inter-
racial cooperation.

Some of our members in the South have raised a programmatic
problem which is worthy of discussion at this congress. They
state that it is doubly difficult to carry on A.S.U. work in the South
if the major emphasis at the present time is opposition to segre-
gation. While recognizing the correctness of this principle, they
feel that the present focus should be the fight against exploitation
and oppression of the Negro people; i.e. for equality in educa-
tional appropriations. As a northener who has, of necessity, a
somewhat intellectualized approach to this problem, I am diffi-
dent about expressing my personal opinion, and I trust that we
will hear discussion from our members who are working in
southern schools. One can say quite categorically that it is
meaningless to speak of ending Negro oppression without simul-
taneously pressing for complete equality. Racial division is one
of the methods of continuing, not only the exploitation of the
Negro student and worker, but of the white. Nor can we expect
to win the support of Negro students if we do not speak out clearly
and unequivocally our conviction and belief in the complete
equality of races. It is one thing, however, to claim allegiance
to complete racial equality and another to help in its achievement.
I believe that an essential bridge toward ending segregation in
the South, is the building of a sense of self-confidence among
Negro students, is the creation of a kinship between Negro and
white students by the building of the student movement. This
may mean in many cases that we will have to build A.S.U. chap-
ters in the South as a step toward ending segregation. At the
present momsnt I think that the most effective manner of building
a student movement in the Negro schools is by emphasis on
the type of issue that I discussed in the earlier section of my report
— freedom of social life, equal educational opportunities. In the
white schools we cannot make a condition of entrance into the
A.S.U. and the continuance of the chapter an immediate campaign

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on the question of segregation. If the issue arises we must meet
it honestly and boldly in the terms of the A.S.U. program, i.e.,
complete racial equality, but segregation cannot be the paramount
issue around which we build the A.S.U. in the South.

"Shirts" on the Campus

No discussion of the student and democracy would be complete
without mentioning some more spectacular efforts to suppress
liberty in the educational sphere. I refer to outright fascist
groups in the universities, to gag legislation, and to red-baiting
investigations. The "Student Americaneers" who proudly
launched their organization by stealing our credentials at our
Columbus meeting have not found any widespread support among
students. Although they have been the recipients of some finan-
cial assistance, they have failed to expand. They are in touch with
a small group at the University of Minnesota, but so far our
vigilance has prevented them from making any real headway.
At Columbia the "Blue Shirts" netted only a newspaper story, then
fading out with the publicity. At Johns Hopkins, despite Duce's
claims to the continued existence of an organization containing
R.O.T.C. officers and others, the group has been forced into such
secret activity that no one can find it. The American Liberty
League campus groups, which might have been more potent cen-
ters of fascism, have been destroyed by the Roosevelt landslide.
The Anti-Reds belonging to the University of Chicago's Civic
League do not seem to have been successful, since our chapter in
Chicago is the largest in the country. Another source of fascist
infection, the advanced R.O.T.C. still finds it expedient publicly
to deny and excoriate fascist intentions. Secretly, however, in
common with other patrioteering organizations it carries on an
intensive campaign against, the A.S.U. When we began to set
up a chapter in San Diego high school the local P.T.A. received
a mimeographed letter from the local Reserve Officers' Associa-
tion warning it against the "subversive" and Moscow-inspired
activities of the A.S.U. All this testifies to two things: one, the
success of the A.S.U. in smashing campus fascism hard when it
shows its head; two, reaction still does not have to resort to the
uglier tactics of fascism. We must, however, remain alert to the
dangers of a fascist movement in the schools, remembering the
fine collection of racial and snobbish prejudices that are bred in
the ordinary undergraduate by some of the aspects of the fraternity
svstem, by our press and educational system.

21

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Two legislative investigations of radical activity in the colleges
during the past year ended as boomerangs to those who initiated
them. In Texas, the investigation of the state university dis-
credited the red-baiters, while in New York the McNaboe investi-
gation appears destined to end without holding a single session be-
cause of the intense opposition it met, an opposition organized
chiefly by the A.S.U. and the Teachers Union. Eight of the nine
chief sponsors of the teachers loyalty oath in Massachusetts were
defeated by the action of student groups and trade unions in the
recent elections. The Nunan loyalty oath in Albany legislature
failed of passage for the second year, because of the prompt action
of our student groups. Nevertheless, more than a score of teach-
ers oath bills remain on the legislative books.

These are the more overt forms of curtailing democracy and
freedom in our educational system. They should represent dan-
ger signals of the path American democracy and education can
traverse if we do not build our movement quickly and powerfully.
It is important, however, not to allow these more dramatic dis-
plays of reaction to blind us to the continuous repression and
intimidation which exists in our school system because, control-
led by bankers and coropration executives, it must defend and
uphold the status quo. May I close this section on democracy in
the schools by pointing out that it is a comparatively simple mat-
ter to recognize an oath bill as being contrary to the ideals of
American life. It is far more difficult to see the seeds of fas-
cism in the very failure and absence of honest discussion by our
instructors and schools, of the contemporary world, of the drive
toward war, of the existence of poverty.

We must constantly bear in mind the simple truth that higher
education today is in the hands of an interlocking directorate of
trustees who represent that very oligarchy of high finance, indus-
try and politics which we assail in our program. Because these
interests dominate our educational system a Jerome Davis is
fired, a Bob Burke is expelled, our chapters are denied recogni-
tion American education cannot educate its youth for democracy
Perhaps the ultimate solution for all of us may be the one that
has been posed by Harold Lunger of Yale Divinity School:

"If corporations and boards of directors of secular universities are
going to continue to exercise veto power over the considered pol-
icies and actions of their related divinity schools, then the time
will soon come— perhaps it is now here— for theological faculties
and student bodies to secede from those universities. This may

22

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mean the sacrificing of comfortable buildings and adequate libra-
ries; it may mean that faculty members and students alike will
have to divide their time between study and manual labor. But
at any rate our souls would then be our own. . . ."

The Fight for Peace

1NOW come lo a point which has been enthroned in the very
forefront of the A.S.U. program — namely the fight against war.
If my comments are brief, it is not because of lack of interest or
through underestimation of its importance. Indeed in the present
world situation it is of cardinal importance. Your chairman has
already discussed it and there will be even fuller review later on.
I do not want to say, however, that some clear line must be set
down at this convention. The coming anti-war strike, involving one
million students, will speak with no single voice and thus lose
much of its effectiveness, if we ourselves cannot emerge from
this convention with an unequivocal and consistent position. I do
not view the anti-war movement as an educational forum or an
arena in which rival concepts struggle for mastery. Our strike
and anti-war movement are practical instruments for combatting
war preparations and a declaration of war. They are educational
instruments only in a parallel sense. Basically they are instru-
ments of political pressure; To retain their effectiveness they must
be capable of rallying thousands of students in a united fashion.

A movement such as ours must be able to adjust itself promptly
to the varied and unforeseen ways in which general principles
assert themselves in concrete life. For many years we have de-
cleared that fascism means war. During the summer a fascist
insurrection broke out in Spain, an insurrection backed by Ger-
many and Italy. What situation did this precipitate within the
A.S.U. ? I want to commend those chapters which recognized the
deep sympathy that American demoracy should have for Spanish
democracy, utilizing the issue to inspire their membership and
wide groups of students into support of Spain. Cornell, Smith,
Bennington and some of our New York City chapters are especi-
ally to be commended in this respect.

I think, however, we can justly criticize ourselves for taking
for granted that the American campus would sympathize with the
loyalist cause. We were confident that the A.S.U. would be of
one mind on this issue. Because everything we abominate is
represented by Franco and his cohorts, because every ideal to
which we are passionately committed is represented by the loyal-

23

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ist cause we have been impatient with those whom the Spanish
struggle has confused, or whose idealism has been contradicted
by the methods of struggle in Spain. Many absolute pacifists
have been shocked because our Union has taken sides in a situa-
tion in which both groups were employing force. This raises an
extremely ethical problem.

. Can , the / alues ° f love ' P eace and to lerance ever be advanced
through the means of force? Have not the last five years given
us a brutal and_ horrible answer to that question in Germany'
What agonies might mankind have been spared, what agonies of
war and suppression are still to come, because the forces of
democracy and idealism in Germany did not resist with all the
means at their command the illegal actions of the fascists? The
triumph of fascism in Germany has brought us to the brink of
world war. Can anyone say that the ethical values, so nobly
and courageously cherished bv the pacifist, are enhanced by the
hkehhooc! of world war? What ideal that men of good will
cherish has not been desecrated under Hitler and Mussolini? Ye«
the people of Spain who today are fighting against fascism will
pay embly because they have been compelled to resort to armed
resistance. They will pay not merely in the obvious sense of
destruction of lives property, and art, but in the sense of religion
in terms of distorted characters and embittered souls. The victory
ot franco, however, would condemn, not merely this generation
to such destruction and embitterment, but also their children and
their children's children. The victory of fascism in Spain would
prolong and extend the conditions which bring war closer to the
whole world 1 say that the absolute pacifist, whose highest
principle is love and the dignity of the human personality, mu
get down on his knees before the Spanish people who are sacri-
ficing everything to save that principle from oblivion.

"Neutrality It Is Not!"

Does the Oxford Pledge commit the A.S.U. to absolute pacifism
and therefore to silence on the crisis in Spain? I believe it ha*
always been understood that the element which made the Pledge^
a united front" slogan of pacifists and others who are against
war, was the fact that it represented a pledge taken in the face of

LXted SILT " " ^ Unite / Stat69 ' na ™ [ y> one ^ -hich
the United States was preparing for an imperialist war. It is our

dramatic answer to the war preparations of the U. S. government

Pacifists, being opposed to all wars, would natur a lly S pp 0se the

24

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war for which our government is preparing, with its billion
dollar armaments budget, its M-Day plans, its Pacific bases. The
Oxford Pledge is not for the A.S.U., although it may be for
pacifists, an ethical absolute.

Another source of confusion has arisen out of the deep desire
for neutrality on the part of American students. Keep America
out of war is their prayer, and we can certainly echo it. And yet
those who raise the cry of neutrality as an excuse for not aiding
Spain, are confusing the issue. Neutrality as a national policy
means the prevention of American involvement in war because of
financial and commercial stakes in that war — stakes which are
magnified by the heavy sale of war materials. But that is not
what we must give to Spain. We have been asked for medical
fcupplies, for food, for understanding and sympathy. We have
been asked to prevent American recognition of the Franco junta.
Such actions, some declare, are an opening wedge to those com-
mitments which will involve us in a European war. But those
who want to avoid all risk and peril in the present era will find
such security only in the grave. To be alive is to be in danger.
What is our alternative? Neutrality — complete and absolute?
Such a policy plays into the hands of the fascists, for Germany
and Italy observe no such neutrality. The victory of fascism in
Spain increases the danger of world war, a war which would con-
tain far greater risks of II. S. involvement than the kind of sup-
port we are extending to the loyalist government. The present
world scene presents a complex problem. There is no simple
slogan or answer to that complexity. Today the answer is —
l'ight the war preparations of the U. S. government; Support
Spain. Tomorrow there may be another situation. Let us hope
that we can meet it in a way that will uphold the aspirations and
ideals of our Union. In that spirit the A.S.U. has sent the follow-
ing protest to President Roosevelt:

w ^ January 7, 1937.

Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt
White House
Washington, D. C.
My dear Mr. President:

We are writing this letter to you in a moment of deep shame
and outraged conviction because of the hypocritical misuse of
America s desire to stay out of war, expressed in Congress's pas-
sage of a law banning arms exports to the legal ly-constituted
and democratic government in Spain.

25

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The American Student Union is dedicated to peace. Last year
we led a strike of 500.000 students against war. One of the rally-
ing points of that strike was the demand for passage of genuine
neutrality legislation. We now feel that the whole concept of
neutrality has been tainted by an unneutral measure passed in
its name. Why the unseeming haste to pass this bill in respect
to Spain although in the case of the Italian aggression upon
Ethiopia, action was stalled upon an oil embargo? How do you
in your conscience differentiate the action in Spain from your
refusal to act in a similar manner in respect to the civil wars in
China?

You are making the concept of neutrality a pretext and a cover
to aid fascism. You do so at the same moment that you preach
piously about cooperation among democracies. What are you
doing to preserve democracy in the world when at the place where
it is being most directly attacked, namely in Spain, you make
haste to play into the hands of Germany and Italy? What are
you doing to preserve democracy in the world when you over-
strain yourself to pass a fake neutrality measure with respect to
Spain but have done nothing to prevent the rearmament of fascist
Germany? What confidence can we have in your protestations
of hating war when the moment comes to act you aid and abet
the chief war makers in the world?

_. We are asking for an explanation, Mr. President, an explana-
tion not in terms of fine pharases but in terms of realities of the
world situation; an explanation that you owe to the millions of
American citizens who want peace, who want to keep America
out of war and who want to see democracy enthroned in the world.

Sincerely yours,

Joseph P. Lash

National Secretary
I have spent a longer time than I anticipated in this discussion,
because on the issue of peace there are legitimate differences of
policy. They should be discussed at this convention. That dis-
cussion should not transcend the basic problems of the A.S.U.

how to develop our Union into a mass student movement. And even
our discussion on peace policy will have much more realism if it
bears upon campaigns on the campus. In the round table on the
R.O.T.C. we should examine the reasons for our failure to carry
through local campaigns against the R.O.T.C. In our discus-
sions of the strike we should plan how to integrate it with building
our Union and building local United Student Peace Committees.

26

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Reconstruction in Education

A section of our program which has been completely neglected
in our work, despite its enduring importance, is the actual content
of our education. A friend of mine once placed this matter
graphically when he declared that "there is a striking and picket-
ing that must be done within library walls." He meant that the
curriculum itself offered a challenge to those who wanted to create
a society in which there would be peace, economic security and
liberty. The subject-matter of our courses in economics, history,
psychology, anthropology, law, embody a defense of the staus quo.
No one knows the extent of this orthodoxy because no effort has
been made to study this matter on a widespread scale. I would
recommend that every A.S.U. chapter form a curriculum revision
committee which would undertake an analysis of the onesidedness
of the present curriculum and make recommendations for new
courses, the broadening of existing courses, and similar steps.
The National Committee should be instructed to inaugurate such
a study on a national scale. Chapters will find some suggestions
in War Our Heritage, in planning a peace course, in Lewis
Corey's articles in The Advocate, relating to economics, and in
old issues of the Student Outlook in a series of articles "Research
Jobs for Students" by Lucy Kramer and Felix S. Cohen. Indeed
we could make a genuine contribution to American education if
our collective research along these lines would culminate in a
pamphlet on the subject of higher education.

Harvard has undertaken an interesting experiment in its govern-
ment department which we recommend to other chapters. Periodi-
cally the whole department— students and faculty— comes to-
gether for an exchange of criticism and advice. Students criticize
methods of teaching, what is taught, textbooks, while professors
in turn criticize and make suggestions to the students. Indeed
the A.S.U. might challenge the faculties and administrations of
our universities to meet on the basis of equals their student
bodies to discuss what's the matter with our education.

Vassar traditionally has published a Journal of Undergraduate
Studies. This year it was announced the Journal would be discon-
tinued. The A.S.U. undertook a campaign to have the Journal
reappear, winning widespread support from the student body.
Why should not all colleges publish similar pourmls? It would
stimulate undergraduate scholarship and originality.

Harvard A.S.U.'ers wanted to establish a society which would

27

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bring film classics to Cambridge. The project was vetoed as too
ambitious,. An independent group of students then undertook
the plan, enlisting the support of prominent professors and stu-
dents, and have carried through the project. We mention these
as types of services which flow from our program, but which our
chapters usually overlook.

Until we achieve the type of curriculum revision which will
gear the subject matter of our classes to contemporary society,
the A.S.U. must set itself forward as the organization which sup-
plies those ideas and discussion now ruled out of classrooms
and textbooks. One of our most essential services to the campus
has been the bringing of unorthodox speakers to the campus. In
this^ connection I want to underline the appreciation that the
National Office has of the need for a central speakers bureau which
will route prominent speakers through the .chapters. The problem
is primarily a budgetary one.

The Smith College A.S.U. publishes a mimeographed bulletin
containing reviews of radical and progressive books which might
otherwise escape the attention of undergraduates. Many of our
chapters have small study groups. This convention should con-
sider whether the A.S.U. should not act as patron to such groups
rather than have them completely independent of us.

These latter considerations raise another type of problem which
the A.S.U. must solve as it grows. Many of our members be-
come completely bound up in the work of the A.S.U. They de-
vote their undergraduate lives to it. We believe that they want
no special thanks. The work itself, the sense of fulfillment that
it gives them is their reward. Yet these people demand and we
should provide an inner life that would be richer and diversified.
This inner life covers such matters as social affairs, the forma-
tion of string quartets— the New York district has spoken of
forming a band— songfests, and all those things which will build
a sense of camaraderie among us.

Some members seem to feel that there is an incompatibility
between work for the A.S.U. and a rounded undergraduate life.
I think it is truer to state that the A.S.U., by imparting a serious
and responsible approach to life amongst undergraduates, makes
them take their education seriously. Indeed our opponents, with
their trivial values, their conception of college as a four year
escape from life, their contempt for studies, for scholarship and
culture, are those who make philosophers declare that only the
elite should be allowed to attend institutions of higher learning.

28

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We repudiate those who consider that true scholarship can only
be pursued in an ivory tower. We also recognize that our critical
attitude toward the curriculum must not be used as a pretext for
failing courses or being indifferent to grades.

International Relations

/~\UR record of international student solidarity is one of which
^-^ to be proud. We are closely linked with the Cuban student
movement, after having toured one of its leaders through Eastern
universities. At the present time we are touring both the heroic
Loh Tsei, leader of the Chinese Student Union, and an equally
valiant Spanish student who comes to us direct from the battle-
field. We have sent some funds to aid the underground, anti-
fascist work in the Austrian universities.

During the summer we were represented at two important stu-
dent conferences — the International Socialist Student Congress
at Oxford, and a left wing anti-imperialist student conference in
Mexico. Emerging from the latter has been an Anti-Imperialist
student federation with control centering in Mexico, but which
is in contact with most of the important student organizations in
North and South America. I would recommend that we continue
our cooperation with this organization, since it will certainly
be the nucleus for any progressive Inter-American student organ-
ization, and we can help them with our experience.

At Oxford our experiences in the A.S.U. contributed toward
bringing about Socialist and Communist student unity in Europe.
I have just heard from England that the unified University Labour
Federation, which is affiliated with the Labor Party, has increased
its membership from 2,000 to 3,700. It has determined to fight on
immediate student issues. There has been similar growth in the
unified student movement in Belgium. The Oxford unification
proposals are now being discussed in the various countries. There
are two possibilities— that the unity will be achieved on the basis
of a revolutionary program which would exclude the A.S.U.
On the other hand the international may be so broadened to be-
come a World Student Union with national groups having the
competence to determine their relationship to the progressive
political parties in their countries. We have been invited to
attend the unity conference which will take place in Paris the
first week in July. The sixteen students who acted as observers
at the A.S.U. at the Oxford conference contributed greatly to its
success as well as to their own self-education. I would recom-

29

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mend that our delegation to Paris number not less than fifty.

The first A.S.U. European tour recruited fourteen students and
was splendidly successtul. We built up great goodwill for us
among not only European students but among American students
travelling in Europe. It is planned to have another tour this
coming summer which will benefit by last year's experiences.

Our international work has become so varied that it is becoming
necessary to set up a department of foreign affairs. The National
Committee should appoint a resident subcommittee to work with
the National Secretary on these matters. Even more important
is the creation of a fund for our international work. Frequently
we receive urgent appeals for aid from student groups abroad. At
the present time the call comes from Spain. Or else it is desirable
to tour a person such as Loh Tsei. Or we hope to send a delega-
tion to China. I would propose that we create an International
Student Solidarity Fund into which we might deposit money
raised, for example, during Loh Tsei's tour, or perhaps you would
sanction a nickel assessment a year for this purpose. It is impera-
tive that such a fund be created and sustained.

At the end of the Summer I attended the Geneva Youth Con-
gress as a delegate from the Union. It was a very broad con-
gress and consequently it was difficult to obtain as militant a
stand as some of us desired. The American delegation, although
broad in its composition was distinctly to the left of the Congress.
That should give you some idea of the Congress's broadness. The
Congress has become a permanent body. An American section,
which has been meeting during the past few months, has interested
many youth groups in peace work, such as the Girl Scouts, which
previously have not displayed any concern for these problems.
In that committee the A.S.U. has been a galvanizing force.

Before I close this report, I want to say a few words about
high school work. It will be dealt with more fully in Miss Strack's
report. I cannot omit expressing my apreciation for the courage
and persistency of our high school stalwarts who work under con-
ditions much more oppressive than are found in colleges, who
are experimenting, trying to find the techniques whereby we can
approach the millions of high school students. If any part of
our work demands honest thinking — thinking without dogma, it
is the high school work. Meanwhile hats off to our high school
section !

In the presence of Loh Tsei and of our Spanish friend, in the
work we have done to establish a world student union, we are

30

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demonstrating that students everywhere are faced with common
problems and have common aspirations. This fact— that students
the world over are groping toward the same solutions as we our-
selves indicates a vista in terms of which the A.S.U. achieves a
grandeur and purposefulness that we might overlook in our daily
work Ours is no small, confining movement occupied with the
details of achieving a more smugly comfortable life. Our move-
ment, extending around the world, represents the outposts of a
new way of life and a new breed of men and women. Ours is a
generation of men and women who will not be dodged bv the
spectres of poverty, of war, of intellectual bondage. We are
tnen and women who will instead live in a free society, who
» I have the chance to live the full lives that our economic and
SS ? reS ,°T eS ^ W P 6 ^ 1 - For lhis vision ° ur f «"ow stud-

mT IT, Cd m fi Chin u' - Cu , ba ' Spain - For this «"«"> ™ny more
may have to sacrifice their lives. Whatever the outcome/all of

us know that in our movement is the greatest sense of adventure

m our movement is the only true comradeship, in our movemen

alone can one feel at peace with one's conscience

31

IIIK?-'"-".'-?!!!-^*' -'r-J-'-v

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