Evening star., 1933-05-04
Student Paciism Growing.

There Is little cause Tor qualification
In the first returns revealed by the
National Student Federation Of Amer
lea from its war service poll among
college and university students. Defi-
mite conclusions cannot yet be drawn,
because the figures thus far available
cover only twenty-six institutions
among the seven hundred-odd which
are being canvassed. But analysis of
these early figures shows that of more
than eleven thousand ballots received
more than five thousand recorded that
those who cast them would not go
to war under any circumstances. while
only some three thousand declared
their readiness to fight at the coun-
try's call, no matter what the condi-
tions. Others indicated varying de-
grees Of willingness or unwillingness.
The impression Is inescapable that
paciflst sentiment Is on the march
across the college campuses of the
country. Evidently the movement,
which had its inception in England
earlier in the year at Oxford. has
spread rapidly In the United States.
The oxford Union, celebrated univer-
sity organization, voted overwhelmingly
that this house will in no circum-
stances fight for king and country" !"
American undergraduates were asked
to express themselves pro or con the
same idea. To what extent our young
men and women have been Influenced
by Oxford cannot be estimated But
there Is no gainsaying the fact that
the college mind is trending to pacifism
on scale little realized heretofore.
In nearly all cases the poll discloses
similar results. At Columbia, Colgate,
Massachusetts State College, Vassar.
Connecticut College for Women, Beaver
College, University Of Cincinnati, Beth
any College, Wellesley, Smith, Wesleyan
College at Macon, Ca; Ohio Wesleyan,
West Virginia State College and Tulane
University the margin of votes in favor
Of non-participation in wars under any
circumstances was considerable. In q
few cases, like Colgate, Vassar, Gin
cinnati, Wellesley and Massachusetts,
State, the preponderance Of ballots
against fighting, no matter what the
cause, was overwhelming.
No figures were obtainable from Har-
ward, where poll is yet to be taken.
The National Students Federation
meantime announces that at . student
meeting at the college, at which votes
were not tabulated, the oxford resolu-
ton was supported. At Princeton, only
twenty-six votes, all for no participa-
ton In war under any circumstances
were collected, because posters asking
for votes were torn down. At the Col
lege of the City of New York the
faculty forbade q vote.
Lovers Of their country, believers in
peace-but peace by preparedness
will derive from this college poll at least
the satisfaction of knowing that Ameri-
can campus life has not yet entirely
gone pacifist. Everywhere there is a
patriotic minority Of not unsubstantial
size, ready to proclaim its willingness
to bear arms in the hour Of the Ma
tions emergency. Upon these young
men and women rests responsibility
they are not likely to shirk-to labor
increasingly to see that national unpre-
paredness does not become the obsessing
creed of the rising generation of our
youth, from whose ranks the Repub-
lies future leaders In peace, as well
as war, must be recruited.
Recently a reader Of The Star In q
letter published on this page justified
the anti-war spirit among college stu
dents on the ground that they are
merely identifying themselves with the
spirit Of the Kellogg pact, which pledges
the nations to renounce war as an in
strument of national policy. But the chief
author of the pact, former Secretary of
State Frank Il. Kellogg, has more than
once pointed out that nothing in 1t
calls upon its Gevotees to renounce that
obligation, sacrediy incumbent upon al
true patriots, to defend their country in
the hour of need. Those American COL
lege men and women who unblushingly
avow their refusal to bear arms for the
United States under any circum-
stances" are false, not true, to the
underlying principle of the Kellogs
pact.