Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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in the world conflict is hard to say. The fact remains, that when the college once again opened its doors, all was not the same. Perhaps, with the death of Professor Kittredge, the era of the old college with its traditions of the isolated scholar and of the eccentric but dramatic lecturer dehnitely passed away. The great professor died, the last of his kind died with him. Now a new type of professor held the academic chairs that had been left by the old. William Langer, the very an- tithesis of the isolated scholar, had been called to Washington for special work, and William Y. Elliot was to commute by plane from his desk in the nation's capitol to his lecture plat- form in Cambridge. If the place of the professor in society had changed over the past two decades, so had the place of the student. Bur the most striking and immediate change, a change that had taken place over merely the past two months, was expressed in Chapel by President Conant in his first address of the fall to the undergraduate body. He spoke, not of the scholar's duties in a peacetime society, but of his duties in wartime. These seemed indeed ominous words. Dr. Conant, however, though himself an advocate of immediate declaration of war, recognized the still-existing opinion against war. Only when no voice of dissent is heard, he said, must we fear that a group of free men has been transformed into a regiment of slaves. A few days later, as the news columns of the Crimron were reporting a serious water shortage at Mt. Holyoke college and as Harvard men were gallantly offering their female colleagues the use of their own shower baths, an editorial Ensigns line up in front of Hollis Hall before marching to class. appeared which announced a complete shift in the paper's policy. The editors, almost solidly non-interventionist but a few months before, had come to a different conclusion. Either we must believe that Hitler has to be defeated, they declared, or we must believe that America can live alone and like it. We believe the former. But the most spectacular, if not surprising, change was the volte hte of the Student Union. A year before, at an angry meeting, members of the Union had not minced words in declaring their stand. We protest, they had cried, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attempt to belittle the desires of the American people to keep at peace! How different were their words as the academic year of 1941-1942 hit its stride: . . the goal of all persons wishing to preserve democracy . . . must be the military defeat of Hitler. For them, as for so many others, the character of the war had somehow changed. Meanwhile, there was still doubt, and because of this doubt, there was confusion in thought and action. Students themselves were torn between their own problems at the university and the problems that arose from a future of mili- tary service. They were torn very literally, as the Lazmpoon put it, between Scylla the Dean and Charybdis the Draft. And every once in a while, over this rising tide of pro-war sentiment, a voice still loyal to the cause of non-intervention could be heard. On the very day that President Conant was announcing plans for the formation of courses in Civilian Defense, john Haynes Holmes '02, in words reminiscent of his stubborn but courageous stand in 1917, wrote to the Crimron: There is a reason for this pro-war campaign .... It Undergraduate ROTC marching to Stadium in spring review. -l17lr

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his-if f mira? a a , Q , the entire Harvard team could participate in the game. For liberal opinion throughout the university this was a victory, and the subject was finally dropped. In june, however, as parents and alumni began to flock into Cambridge for the graduation of the Class of 1941, a most awkward paradox confronted them, a paradox that seemed to summarize the divided attitudes of both the college and of the nation. For, up until the very moment of the graduation ceremony itself, seniors in caps and gowns, bearing placards protesting the pro-war attitude of the college administration, paraded incessantly before the gates of the Yard. Meanwhile, President Conant, only recently returned from England, was accompanied on graduation day by the elaborately be-robed Lord Halifax. At the ceremony, with what seemed at the time like an unnecessary amount of pro- British fanfare, he gave up his seat to the Ambassador from Great Britain. It was not, on the whole, a very popular gesture. . . and there were some embarassing moments beneath that hotjune sun. During the summer months, Russia declared war against Germany. Whether it was because of this or not that students changed their opinions concerning America's position Two lieutenants, in their summer and winter uniforms, check the luggage of newly arrived naval officers in front of Littauer. Students, air-raid wardens, white-helmeted auxiliary policemen, ensigns and visitors learn how incendiary bombs should be extinguished. H61

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r . , . lies in the fact that the imperialistic interests of this country are coincident with the imperialistic interests of the British Empire. But there were, as always, distractions from the world conflict. There were football games and cocktail parties and lectures on Sociology or Fine Arts. A Crimron editorial on The Heathenjapaneen which declared that the overthrow of Prince Konoye set the stage for further aggression whenever Nippon feels the time is ripe .... passed virtually un- noticed. More important were the results of the Dartmouth game: a victory for Harvard and several thousand dollars, worth of damage for the Hotel Statler. Now, as November came, it began to grow colder. Ambassador Cudahy and Senator Wheeler spoke at an America First Rally in Boston. The president of the Student Union was there with a picket line which, he hoped, would contribute much to bringing Harvard students into action against Hit- ler. And Harvardls own edition of Senator Wheeler, Tudor Gardiner 1G, screamed a vituperative reply to Comrade Bennett . . . and his pink playmatesf, Such young men, cried Mr. Gardiner, have clearly demonstrated that, in their bellicosity, V stands for Vicarious. If they want to fight, they can go to Canada and enlist with the blessing of all con- cernedf' Meanwhile, there were vague rumors that ex- Chancellor Bruening of Germany, now a tutor at Lowell House, was being considered by the British for post-war Students, conditioning in the shadow of the Stadium, take time out to watch naval officers march past them on way to drill. 2 i- -1- ,Y-- -H Y, ----.,..,.... .... ,, 1L......,. . .,, ,.,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,..m,,,,mmKm,, leadership of his native land. Professor Sorokin published another book called Cririr of our Age, and Maria Montez, glamorous Hollywood starlet, was, strangely enough, the dinner guest of the very serious-minded Student Union. But students were, as Armistice Day came, coming to a definite conclusion. Women and war aims, wrote the editors of the Crimson, must be understood before they can be handled .... For Americans today, November 11, 1918, represents the beginning of a great defeat-one that must not be repeatedfl There seemed to be a growing feeling among students that war for the United States was not only necessary, l 3 2 In the largest parade in I-Iarvard's history, the ROTC unit marches through the Square to Stadium with 3000 other troops. but perhaps even inevitable. The voices of intervention, the voices that praised the gallant fight of the Russians and of Londoners, were growing louder. But if students knew that war was sure to come, and if they knew that in the years after the war America must play a dominant role, they did not know where or how war would come. Here, then, lay the source of their confusion. As the month of November sped by, the President of the United States and his State Department were beginning to have serious troubles with japan. And while few Americans could believe thatjapan, exhausted by so long a conflict with China, would be strong enough to be a real threat, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo was telling the japanese Diet that there naturally is a limit to our conciliatory attitude and that