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The Vagabond

ETERNAL QUEST

Vag was punch-drunk from the barrage of opinion and heckling which had assailed him ever since the beginning of the European war. The weeks had been telling on him, these hectic weeks out of which erupted the AIL, the Student Union peace poll, verbal battles in the Crimson over neutrality, and peace meetings by the score. Conscientiously Vag had tried to make up his mind about it all, to decide just what stand he should take. But a solution to the problem seemed to be always just beyond his fingertips.

The debate in Congress over the Neutrality bill had been an opaque mess to Vag. Each side seemed right, and yet they disagreed bitterly. Who dared to doubt the sincerity of the Lion of Idaho, Senator Borah; or the high-mindedness of the President, who surely knew that his place in history was secure if he succeeded in keeping the U. S. out of war? Vag even began to wonder if this were not just a great sham battle, masking the intrigues of powerful men behind the scenes.

Then there was this affair about changing some U. S. ships to Panama registry so they could sail into war zones. Vag had just about made up his mind that this was hedging, and exactly the wrong thing to do to stay out of war. After all, Mr. Hull thought so too. But again, the President quickly made the statement that the matter had no bearing on our neutrality. What to believe?

But wasn't the new Neutrality Act meant to fix all these questions? Vag had been reading headline after headline about how Congress was thrashing out a new bill that would take care of everything and keep us out of war, and then he read that it was passed by a large vote. Here was what he was looking for. If he could get someone to explain this bill to him, everything would be clear. And so Vag is suspending further thought on the subject of the War until he hears Professor Payson S. Wild speak at 11 o'clock this morning in Harvard 6 on "The Present Neutrality Law."

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