Peace Society Offers Chance to Learn to Labor Intelligently Against War

This is the fifteenth in a series of articles on extra-curricular activities. These articles are intended to supplement the information received by the Class of 1939 at the Phillips Brooks House reception.

In that it restricts its attention to but one of the number of great present-day problems, the Peace Society is at Harvard a unique organization. It was formed with the idea of giving Harvard students a chance to work for peace, whether they were conservative, liberal, or radical, Christian, Hindu, or sceptical. It takes no stand on political philosophies or political movements, except those which have directly to do with peace and war. It is not a conservative club, a liberal club, a radical club, nor a Christian association, but it is a peace society.

But what can Harvard students do for peace? In the first place we want to know what we're talking about, what we mean by familiar terms (such as "sanctions"), what some of the economic and psychological factors in the subject are, and so forth. Study groups are tackling the problems of the League of Nations, the World Court, and America's neutrality policy; this year with the advantage of assistance from faculty members and outside authorities. The society will likewise sponsor, from time to time, talks by well-known speakers on specific questions of peace and war. And finally, for those interested in active work for peace, the society has one group of the individual members which are working with the Cambridge and Massachusetts Leagues for Peace Action, local branches of Peace Action Service. Peace Action Service, maintained by the National Council for the Prevention of War, is the machinery through which the National Council has been running an ever-growing lobby in Washington, a lobby working only for moves directly concerned with peace and war (of all kinds).