RATIONALITY

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I want to thank the many people--students, faculty, workmen, and bystanders--who were kind enough to help clean up the debris after the disturbance last week at the Center for International Affairs. The fire was set in my office, and the firemen had to throw out a good deal of material to keep the blaze from spreading. But the efforts of all these people to put out the fire and to salvage papers kept losses to a minimum. I am sorry that, in the confusion, I could not thank each of these friends personally.

About 130 books were damaged by fire or water; twenty-five were library books. In addition, some valuable research materials were lost. Fortunately, the original data (voter surveys) were kept on file elsewhere, and the analysis can be replicated--with a good deal of additional work, and at some cost.

Violence and extremism inevitably bear great costs--human costs and political costs. Vietnamese and Americans are paying the costs of an outrageous and extremist policy. But if we respond in kind, then the cost may be to destroy the political left. I know, from my work on electoral behavior, that disorder and violence always produce massive political reactions--usually among the very people who ought to be our natural allies in the movement for political change. One workman remarked to be that there might be fifty votes for Wallace among the men cleaning up the building that night. The one thing we cannot afford to give up is rationality. Bill Schneider   Assistant Professor of Government