ON THE SHELF

With the seventh issue of its regular publication, International Student Service proves that the excellence of its recent copies was no momentary flash in the pan. Featuring articles by, for, and about college students in both hemispheres, "Threshold" has established itself the only collegiate monthly which achieves the purpose blazoned on its masthead. The magazine "seeks to express the widespread student conviction that this war be fought to establish a just world order." It succeeds in doing just that.

Student convictions are considered in six of the issue's ten articles. Most surprising of these is Paul Hagen's study of German youth, in which he argues convincingly that the task of "re-educating the Nazis" may be casier than anyone has dared hope, for there are signs that Hitler's young followers are beginning to grumble under the yoke. Any such development would revolutionize the emphasis of plans for the rehabilitation of Germany after the war.

Christian Krediet, a former student at Leyden University, describes the reaction of Dutch colleges to the "pacification" imposed by the Nazis. This resistance does not stop at grumbling. Articles such as Krediet's and those on British and Russian students is past issues of "Threshold" are striking disproof of the theory that "decadence" and "softness" fully describe young men and women in the United Nations.

The actions and ideas of American undergraduates are thoroughly portrayed. John W. Ballantine, 42, reports on the work of the Harvard Council on Post-War Problems, and William Hodson, '42, contributes an article on the techniques of campaigning for political candidates. Hodson, using as an illustration the efforts of the Harvard Liberal Union in Representative Eliot's 1940 campaign, provides a leaven of refreshing realism. Harvard's other contributions are "Two Parables" by Howard Nemerov, '41, poetry by William Ober, '41, and a summary of the Crimson editorial series, "Give Us the Blueprints."

Professor Frederick L. Schuman of Williams is the author of a leading article which falls below the standards of the issue as a whole. Starting from the unassailable premise that Allied soldiers have no faith strong enough to match that of the Wehrmacht, Professor Schuman indulges in phrases such as "supersede national sovereignity" with no discussion of the tremendous obstacles involved.

Periodicals dealing with subjects as ephemeral as "planning the post-war world" are apt to find themselves becalmed in the doldrums of utopian yearnings. "Threshold" has skillfully stayed afloat and on its course without jettisoning its credo.