If At First

Section 1001 (f)--the loyalty oath and affidavit that everyone was so upset about a year ago--is still part of the National Defense Education Act. The last effort at repeal died last summer in the House Education and Labor Committee. After three failures, supporters of repeal may understandably be discouraged. But unless Harvard and other institutions are willing to reconcile themselves either to administering the oath and affidavit or to foregoing increasingly large sums of money, they must once again take up the fight for repeal.

When the NDEA was passed in August 1958, Section 1001 (f) snuck in through an elaborate series of conference committee compromises, with no one realizing its implications. Then, educational institutions discovered that they would have to administer the oath and affidavit themselves and the campaign for repeal began. The act is up for renewal this year, and 1001 (f) will not disappear quietly. If the academic community wants to get rid of the affidavit (it is apparently willing to live with the oath), it must exert even more pressure than it did last year.

The outlook is far from hopeless. Last year's principal obstacle, Chairman Graham Barde of the House Education and Labor Committee, has been removed by retirement and the co-sponsor of the Kennedy-Clark repeal bill is currently in the White House. But the current lack of agitation about Section 1001 (f) indicates that academic pressure may once again be too little and too late.

Supporters of repeal should learn from their past failures. They should realize that for the fourth year in a row NDEA will no doubt come up during summer vacation, when the academic community is least equipped to lobby effectively. They should recognize that, despite all the noise here in Cambridge, last year's effort was poorly organized and too small. If the nation's colleges and universities don't want that obnoxious affidavit on their hands for another three years they had better get busy now.