"Hallowed Junk"

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

This question of the student attitude toward politics which has been bothering your correspondents and editorial writers the last few days seems to be placing the blame most unfairly. Your editorial repeats the hallowed junk about "academic detachment" and advocates men studying such matters from a high judgment seat far removed from the blood and sweat of actual conflict. That is a good point of departure, but it is insane to expect anyone to get a true picture of any social problem but high tables in the stultifying atmosphere of Harvard self-approval. The average Harvard man is usually a disciple of the mysterious metaphysics of the department of Government, or else he is whooping it up in the train of some attractive tub-thumper like Mencken. Such muddleheadedness, naturally derived from their betters, leads the students to support Hoover because it is the thing to do, or to support Roosevelt because he sounds so nice and liberal, even though they know you can't prove it. Those men who might be politically minded find themselves confronted with a Punch and Judy show in very bad taste. Naturally they turn away. And with two outstanding Government professors supporting a candidate who is on every side of every fence on a plea of "practical" politics, my sympathies are with the students. It is hard to see without light. J. P. Hall '34.