Political Network Controlled by Few

(This is the second of two articles on political organizations at Harvard)

The organization of conservative groups is somewhat simpler and less extensive. It is limited to three main divisions, all of which have sprung up within the last year and a half.

Whatever power the Conservative League may once have had has passed form its hands to the new and active Harvard Young Republican Club. This club, a branch of the National Young Republicans, is the most recent and most powerful conservative outlet, and was chronologically preceded by both the Free Enterprise Society, a modest study group, and the Republican Open Forum, also primarily a discussion and debating society.

Rusher a Prime Mover

The Forum was founded last year by William A. Rusher, 3L, who has since resigned in order to take over presidency of HYRC. The Young Republican Club acts primarily as an arm of Republican policy. Its pledge to "Further and improve Republican principles; elect Republican candidates at all levels; and provide opposition to the activities of leftist groups at Harvard" fixes it squarely as a Party subsidiary, not a philosophic group.

It is perhaps because of this that the HYRC is less sensationalist and more orthodox in its work than most of its rivals. "We don't believe in rallies and telegrams," Rusher explains, "we want concrete and useful political action."

Its 400 members, the most of any dues-paying political organization in the College, are organized for this work by a complicated hierarchy of officers under Rusher's command. There is, for instance, a voting bureau to help with data and aid at election times; a biweekly newsletter distributed to members; a speakers' bureau; and sundry other promotional departments.

But at present most of HYRC's work is internal--only its mock convention Thursday parallels the activity of other groups. Rusher is saving his strength for the big push next fall, when the full force of the club will be brought to bear on local and national elections.

Until the Republican convention in June, HYRC will support no candidate actively. However, it encourages the work of its various splinter groups--The Taft, Dewey and Stassen exponents--as furthering its aim of bringing Republicanism before the public eye. "Besides, it does them good to let off steam," President Rusher philosophizes.

Four Powerful Groups

So much for the major clubs at College. The four so far mentioned, HYD, Committee for Wallace, HLU, and HYRC, are really the nerve centers of all other activity. From them stems the controlling influence over virtually all minor groups.

For instance, Operations Director Jay Jansen of HYRC is also a leader of the Taft forces; HYRC Publicity Director Loring M. Staples is a moving force in the Free Enterprise Society; John Casey of HYRC Speakers' Division heads a Dewey group; while Dan Pierce of the Republican Open Forum also holds the reins of the flourishing College Stassenites.

It is the same story on the Left. Geoff White works for both Wallace and the Communist Party group, heads HYD, and is an editor of the New Student. Fred Houghteling carries the College Eisenhower banner as well as direction of Liberal Union operations. Richard Hays, HLU's vice-President, was the founding father of the Douglas movement in College and is now working for the Justice on a nation-wide front.

As described above, HYD is strongly linked to the Wallace movement in effect if not in theory. Margolis himself is Chairman of the New England Students for Wallace and a member of the National Committee for Wallace. At present he is maneuvering to affiliate the Harvard chapter with the National Student group and the Progressive Party itself.

Some Clubs Independent

A few groups hold themselves aloof from this complex interlocking directorate. The John Reed Society, a Marxist study group, takes no part in political action and limits itself to philosophic contemplation. The same can be said for the Student League for Industrial Democracy, which has renounced all former affiliation with the Liberal Union and the old Student Union to pursue its own quiet ways. Neither the Free Enterprise Society nor the all-but-extinct Conservative League meddle with action, following their own cautious paths unmolested.

There is only one other important political force--AVC. But it cannot be grouped with the rest, for its raison d'etre lies in backing issues affecting the citizen-veteran, not in support of candidates or parties.

The Harvard chapter, under the chairmanship of Stanley G. Karson, embraces a full spectrum of political opinion from Stassen-Willkie Republicans on left wards to the fringe of Communism.

There is no Red ban in AVC, but the prevailing moderate liberal political temper and membership of the organization is such as to discourage them from joining and keep them in the background when they come in. AVC is a supporter of action through the U.N., a strong Marhall Plan supporter, and domestically, a backer of such measures as the Taft-Eilender-Wagner housing program and the recent subsistence pay raise for vets. On the negative side, they have opposed a Federal bonus and the Taft-Hartley labor bill.

Members Powerful Elsewhere

Many Harvard AVC members wield their influence elsewhere around the College, but when they do, they speak as individuals, not as AVC representatives. Its New England Regional Chairman, Arnold Rivkin, is also co-founder of the Law School group for Douglas, while State AVC Chairman Andrew Rice 2G is a member of the National Executive Committee for Eisenhower. Manny Margolis (Wallace) and Hale Knight (Stassen) are two others active within the AVC fold.

When one considers that all this fervor has developed within a year and a half, it gives cause for wonder as to whence it came and how it grew. Doubtless the June conventions and November election will break up many splinter groups at present backing favorite sons. But this is only one of the causes of Harvard's political renaissance. An equally basic cause lies in troubled international conditions which will certainly not die with November.

Activity Mounting

Crisis and Communism have stirred the College to a nervous tension reflected in spontaneous action committees, rallies, and pamphlets which bury the average undergraduate under a confusing and conflicting mass of ideologies.

The noise made, however, is far out of proportion to the noisemakers' size. HYRC, the largest of the permanent groups, has 400 members. HYD, the loudest complainer, has 45 members. HLU has twice, the Committee for Wallace, four times that number.

Small as these groups are, however, the controlling minority within them is far tinier. In all, not more than a dozen men are in control of the entire system. Yet the records prove that their abilities are far greater than the average student politico elsewhere, enabling them to generate the noise and interest that has made Harvard a political hotbed today