...
., ..
The Conservative
The Student Conservatives
May Not Identify
With Any Special Group
But Have Great Power
In Their Great Numbers
By PETER STUART
'Silent Generation'
The conservative student vote counts in the SGC elections
"WHAT DID YOU think of the Political
Issues Club discussion last night on
the new federal-aid-to-education bill?"
"I didn't go. Had to study."
"Too bad. You know, this federal aid
to education sounds like a great thing."
"I'm not too sure. As far as I'm con-s
cerned, the federal government ought to
stay out of education."
"Man, you're behind the times!"
a * * .4
BEHIND THE TIMES? Hardly. This
student is typical of a growing mass
of students whose influence is increasing-
ly felt on the college and university cam-
puses of .America.
His influence is hard t6 assess, because
it is less dramatic, less vocal and less well
organized than the influence of the poli-
tically liberal campus element.
He is the student who came to college
to get an education or perhaps learn a
trade-and he keeps this purpose always
upnermost in his mind.
He is the student who has examined
the interworkings of American life at
first-hand (rather than only in the some-
what artificial setting of the university
world)-and liked what he saw. He is the
student who has not set out to make over
the society-but to help preserve some of
the great institutions which are already
ours.
In short, he is a conservative.
BUT, IF YOU asked him if he was a
conservative, he probably couldn't tell
you-another characteristiv of this grow-
ing campus influence.
It's like a silent generation. Its mem-
bers hold deflinitely conservative view-
points, but they don't identify them as
conservative.
This characteristic was discovered early
by students organizing the Young Ameri-
cans for Freedom, the campus conserva-
tive club at the University, last winter.
In an effort to explain what the club
stood for, the organizers outlined conser-
vative principles to scores of University
students. They found that while the stu-
dents didn't identify the principles as
the cardinal points of conservatism, they
were in perfect accord with them.
"I never knew these were part of the
conservative philosophy-they're just the
sort of things I've believed all my life,"
they would reply. "I guess conservatism
is for me."
YET DON'T underestimate the influ-
ence of students holding conservative
viewpoints just because they don't-identi-
fy them as conservative. This is the very
core of their strength.
These students are the "average" Ameri-
can college and university students. Since
they are "average," there are more of
them than any other kind of students-
and you can't ignore the majority.
Today they're "ed" majors, pre-law
students, "econ" majors, "pre-meds," en-
gine" students and "bus ad" majors. To-
morrow they'll be the teachers, lawyers,
economists, doctors, engineers, business-
men and just plain citizens of the na-
tion.
Realizing this, they keep their eyes
fixed on the time when they must make
a success of themselves, their families,
their businesses, their cities, their states,
and their country. There's nothing glori-
ious or patriotic about this conviction; it's
just a recognition of the hard facts of life.
They consider college as a means to all
these ends, rather than an end in itself.
IT FOLLOWS that these "average;" con-
servative students aren't "joiners."
They may pledge a fraternrity or soror-
ity, or belong to an organization related
to their field of study. But they don't
join Americans Committed to World Re-
sponsibility, the Ann Arbor Direct Action
Committee, Challenge-and probably not
even Young Americans for Freedom.
Whether or not they vote in Student
Government Council elections (usually a
good indication of anyone's interest in
campus politics) depends on how import-
ant they feel SGC is or how important
they feel SGC elections are as citizenship
training. Enough of them have voted
in recent elections to make their presence
felt for. many semesters there's been a
sizeable faction of conservatives and
moderates on the council.
Looking beyond politics, conservative
students believe the college or university
campus can't provide more than a theor-
etical ':'test tube" study of the operation
of American life..Only the "outside world"
presents the true-to-life picture - and
they've taken a close look at it.
In working their way partly or wholly
through school,.in summer jobs, business
apprenticeships and countless other ex-
periences apart from college, they've
watched first-hand how a free society
works.
From such personal experience, they've
acquired a healthy respect for some of the
basic institutions of, American life in
which they've been schooled for most of
their liyes. But more than this, they're
prepared to defend these institutions
against anything which threatens to in-
terfere with them.
IF THIS IS the nature of conservative
students, what's their role on campuses
of America?
The weight of the mass of conservative
students shifts the purpose of colleges
from experimenting aimlessly with any-
thing new to preparing, men and women
to strike out on their own into the world.
In the process, it harnesses the potential
of intellectuals by funnelling their output
into more usable channels. You might
say it professionalizes the campus.
In campus politics, the conservative ma-
jority brakes the far-out antics of ultra-
liberal student "leaders." It does this
either through anathy (which amounts
to ignoring the 'leader's" .schemes) or
else by voting against him.
Examples of both methods may be
found on this campus. Widespread dis-
interest and Jow campus participation
has greeted most activities of SGC, not-
ably such liberal ones as writing admon-
ishing letters to Southern governors or
censuring the House Un-American Activi-
ties Committee. Voters nearly dislodged
probably the most vocal SGC liberal (who
was also an officer in the National Student
Association) from the council at last
spring's election.
' At any rate, conservative students make
up a large segment of the campus popula-
tion which student leaders must take into
account. Liberal leaders must expect its
opposition and conservative leaders can
count on its support, either openly or
passively.
THE SUBJECTS which conservativep
students feel strongly about cover a
wide range--and are by no means the
same among all conservative students.
The positions they take on most issues,
however, can be traced to a basic belief
in individualism and private enterprise-
the John Locke-Thomasf Jefferson creed.
One of the subjects of most current
concern to these students is what they see
as a trend toward spend-thrift welfare-
statism in the.United States. The reaction
of young men and women to this, trend
has caught the attention of observers on
both sides of the political fence, according
to a report Aug. 8 on the editorial .page
of the Christian Science Monitor.
TI
Godfrey Sperling, Jr., chief of the Mon-
itor's Midwestern bureau, wrote that his
visits to college campuses had shown that
among students "the evidence of con-
servative leanings was strong."
He based his conclusion on political
discussions with students, conversations
he overheard in student eating places,
and observations by professors (who
didn't necessarily share their students'
sentiments). Sperling also talked to two
Midwestern political figures who, despite
their widely differing political views,
agreed that college students are arising
en masse to the conservative goal of stop-
ping ever-growing governmental spend-
ing.
Philip La Follette of Wisconsin, one-
time leader of the liberal Progressive
Party, told Sperling this about the con-
servative movement:
"I have noted it among young people,
apparently-in the age group of 21 to the
late 30's. They are beginning to wonder
who is going to pay for all this aid and
assistance-not just abroad, but right
here at home.
"I'm not saying they are correct, but
I have noted-it: I get up to the university
area a lot (the University of Wisconsin
is fairly close to my law office), and I
hear them talk. And I have children, and
I hear them talk....
"They are . . . concerned about who is
going to support the people at the upper
end of the line and the people at the
lower end of the line. They're asking,-
'Who is going to pay the bill?' In their.
view it is a nice dinner, but who is going
to pick up the check?"
Robert A. Taft, Jr., of Ohio, son of the
long-time Senate Republidan leader, made
just about the same observations:
". ..I think there is increased feeling
everywhere and particularly among young
people of both parties 'that inflation has
to be checked. They feel that we must
watch our spending or we're heading for
a bust.
'"Young Republicans at colleges are
organizing and speaking up more than
before. I think there was a feeling among
Republicans students of being ashamed
to state their views. This definitely is-
changing."
A lot of things are changing. And con-
-servative students are no longer "behind
the times.".
PETER STUART, a senior in the
literary college, has written a num-
ber of articles on the newconserv-
atism over the past few years. He is
a former night editor on The
Daily, and a journalism major.
An American at Oxford Discusses
The-Academic Sandcastle
... Its Disappointments and Its
By STEPHEN BEAL
"PUT what are you going to do now?"
the recent Bryn Mawr graduate (or
the girl recently graduated -from Bryn
Mawr, as she delighted in saying) asked
me. Her tone was that of an alcoholic
addressing an AA convert. Resisting an
impulse to reply "Punt," a response which
would have skirted too near the truth,
and resisting also the urge to say
"Write," I replied, "Live off frustrated
old women."
The girl, who, as I say, went to Bryn-
Mawr once upon a time, ran away clutch-
ing her French twist. And I' hope she
never comes back. If she does she will
have been graduated from at least two
more places and I'll have to go through
the whole song and dance with Yale and'
Stanford, too. No thanks.
What shocked the poor dear thing was
the fact that I had, after using up one
year of a two-year scholarship, quit Ox-
ford. Bryn Mawr girls and most other
budding ,American intellectuals, are, I
fear, inclined to regard Oxford in a man-
ner too pristine and sacrosanct. That is
why they tremble when I tell them I've
quit. Some even pity me.
They pity me because I don't share
their enthusiasm for the great American
dream of accumulating university degrees.
I realize I could mitigate their pity by
giving into my second impulse, but I
don't like to do that. Writing, in the
sense of discovering oneself and putting
oneself down on paper is, it seems, the
second most popular dream of young
American intelligentsia. I disqualify my-
self from both categories completely. Al-
though 1 write now.I don't do it as a sort
of self psycho-therapy. If I ever do make
any money by writing I'll hire a fancy
objective psychoanalyst and leave the
worrying to him.
* * *
T SAID that I'd "used up" one year of
my scholarship and that's pretty much
the way I look at it now. The scholarship
people sent me my checks, I spent most
of them paying my college expenses, and I
quit when the money ran out. I could
have gone on another year, but I'd got
sick of all the Oxford pubs and movie
theatres, I'd taken all the walks the
University Parks and neighboring coun-
tryside had to offer, I'd toured as many
of the colleges and historic buildings as I
had the stomach and patience for, and I
decided to move on.
I didn't move far-only to a flat in'
North Oxford where I finished a book
I'd started second term. But I am happy
to be quit of the University part of the
town because it depressed me. My depres-
sion .was not, however, due to the in-
cessant rain, nor the dreadful college
food, nor the lack of attractive female
company. What did depress me was the
great number, myself included, of rabid
American students infesting Oxford in the
belief they were getting more than their
friends back home. And what depressed
me even more was a once-rabid Ameri-
can student who'd awakened to the fact
that Oxford was, for him at least, an
academic sand-castle. This type usually
slinks off to North Oxford and writes
novels. God keep him from us.
Aifd I suppose the best way to keep the
disillusioned American student from us is
never to send him to Oxford in the first
place. Rhodes House could be converted
into a dance hall (or a crematorium be-
cause that's what it looks like), the
cheeseburger concession in the Turf Tav-
ern could be replaced- by a suitably Eng-
lish tea-room, and American publishers
could be spared a great, lengthy head-
ache. I don't mean to sound like a rabble-
rouser, but I think it is time Americans
woke up to the fact that, for them at
least, there are just as good, if not better
universities in $he States, and that one
of them can be reached by street-car, bus
or foot from wherever you are right now.
STEPHEN BEAL is a Williams
graduate and an ex-student at Ex-
ter College, #Oxford. He is cur-
rently finishing off his first novel
--which is not about Oxford, stu-
dents, or any other likely subject.
BEFORE I sta
some of Oxf
One thing Air
sibly find ditrnr
r
Examination Schools, at the end of three years, are the only significant exami-
nations in the Oxford student's career-and this one set of exams can determine
his future.
A SHELDON
.*. cri
rIp kMil(--4(fAN DrA-ILYVAAZAINEJ - SUND~AY-A('TOFFZ 11;i_ 19F