Aye or Nay?

Every leader knows that to fight a war, whether for conquest or in self-defense, he must give the young men of his nation a cause so good and just that they are willing to be ripped apart by shrapnel, choked by gas, gored by bayonets without losing the will to fight.

German youth was long ago convinced that Nazi destiny is more important than death; French and British youth have found their cause in Hitler's aggressions. But last week as 1,250,000 U. S. students of military age assembled peaceably on the grounds of 1,500 colleges and universities (see p. 46), they were still quite sure they had nothing to fight for, and some of them doubted whether any cause was worth the unpleasantness of dying".

Like their elders, whose passions and opinions they reflected, the young men of the U. S. were bewildered by war, undecided how they should react to it. In their campus newspapers they brooded on such problems as encirclement and invasion, debated how the U. S. might be kept neutral. One thing only they agreed on unanimously: they did not want to take up arms in Europe.

Most emphatic undergraduate journal in the East was The Dartmouth, only daily newspaper in the town of Hanover, N. H., and a member of the Associated Press. Wrote Editor Thomas Wardell Braden Jr.: "In the last great war men of our age died:1) for democracy, 2) to crush German Imperialism. These words don't always mean what they say. We need to remember that there are ideals of truth and realism stronger than the fake ideals which are battering at us from Europe."

"We hardly feel justified," said Editor Braden, "in terming Mr. Roosevelt's party a peace bloc."

Other student papers were more restrained, contented themselves with warnings and prayers. Said the Yale Daily News: "Secure from a military and economic standpoint, America will only become involved in the present war if she again heeds propagandist pleas to preserve democracy and stamp out Hitlerism. Let us be on guard against being persuaded to fight for the economic interests of England and France."

The Harvard Crimson, under Blair Clark's supervision took its stand with one leg solidly behind the Allies: "The best chance of our remaining neutral is the success of Allied arms." But in the next breath the Crimson added: "Americans wishing to remain neutral must make a new resolve to stay out of this war at any price --Allies win or lose."

Ralph Hinchman Cutler Jr., returning as a senior to Harvard after a summer abroad, wrote in the Crimson: "In the present European war there is only one thing at stake: the supremacy and preponderance of the British Empire. The war appears to be merely a clash of rival imperialisms."

The Daily Princetonian had nothing to say editorially about war. But Editor Robert P. Hazlehurst admitted: "There's not much doubt as to how Princeton men feel about the war: we are naturally biased in favor of the Allies." Meanwhile at Vassar College, in the Miscellany, Editor Nancy Mclnerney of South Bend, Ind., spoke for young womanhood: "We don't want our husbands shot. We favor the cash-and-carry act because it is more neutral."

Southern colleges were almost unanimous in their sympathy for the Allied cause, but they too leaned toward isolation. Said the University of North Carolina's Daily Tar Heel: "We Americans still are for the most part unaware of the ever-engulfing holocaust of screaming bombs, earthy blastings, and flying shrapnel. We are out of range." In the Rollins College Sandspur Editor John Henry Buckwaiter III exclaimed: "President Roosevelt is absolutely right. ..." The Daily Reveille of Louisiana State University thanked God for 3,000 miles of ocean.

One of a handful of college publications with the bulk and attitude of a metropolitan newspaper is The Daily Texan, published by students of the University of Texas at Austin. War news (by International News Service) was played down in the Texan, Editor Max B. Skelton noted an increase in student registration, added as an afterthought: "The people of the U. S. should be thankful that the youth of college age are beginning to worry about mathematics and physics instead of watching for the approach of enemy bombers."

At Northwestern University in Chicago, brilliant, political-minded Stanley Frankel, editor of the Daily Northwestern, founded a College Front for Peace with the platform: "We will not fight in Europe." He sent letters to editors of 250 other college papers, inviting them to join; at week's end some 50 had accepted.

In the Northwestern Stanley Frankel wrote: "The countries of Europe have found an interesting pastime for their youths. They give them guns and airplanes and cannons and bayonets and nice uniforms! We youth in America don't want to play soldier. We want the U. S. to keep out of war."

Like the Texan, The Daily Illini at the University of Illinois in Urbana is weighty and professional; it leases an AP wire, carries the syndicated Washington Merry-Go-Round. Unlike the Texan, last week it played the war to the hilt. Editorial Writer Wallace Dooley was judicial, weighed the factors favoring neutrality.

Midwestern students on the whole were wary of U. S. intervention in Europe's war, for any cause. But in Isolationist Senator Robert M. La Follette's own back yard at Madison, Wis., the Daily Cardinal ignored the sentiment of its readers (expressed in a poll), and urged repeal of the embargo act. Said the Cardinal: "The question that we have to deal with is whether or not we want to aid the democracies. Another victory for Hitler cannot fail to strengthen the forces of fascism and reaction in all countries. An American Hitler is not out of the question."

Isolation reached its ultimate degree on the Pacific Coast. At the University of Southern California the Daily Trojan (with United Press coverage) put its war news in two front-page columns, giving equal prominence to dispatches from Germany and Britain. The Trojan said: "What we want is the assurance from those in whose hands our fate lies that no matter under what political or economic pressure they are put, they will not send us to Europe to take part in a quarrel which should be of no concern to our nation."

Both the Daily Bruin of the University of California at Los Angeles and Stanford University's Daily were taking polls of student opinion. The Bruin poll covered 465 major U. S. colleges, was not yet completed. Stanford polled only its own students, found that, while 57% favored repeal of the arms embargo, only 16% were willing to fight if the Allies should face defeat. Asked whether they would volunteer if the U. S. went to war in Europe, 76% answered with a resounding "no." A stubborn 37% said they would refuse to be drafted for service abroad, even if it meant imprisonment.

The University of Washington Daily gave out results of the Bruin poll on its own campus. If U. S. ships were sunk with U. S. passengers aboard, would the students fight? They would, said 119; they would not, said 741. All but 89 were willing to fight if U. S. territory were attacked; but only 365 (out of 864) were ready to defend other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

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