Today the most promising national organization strictly for collegiates concerned with influencing political issues is Students for Democratic Action, junior arm of Wilson Wyatt's Americans for Democratic Action. Even in its present state of acute growing pains it may represent with its alleged 5,000 membership in 75 chapters the advent of a new force which can effectively correlate the scattered social consciences of the political animals. Past patterns demand revision; for the so-called "student movement" of the last decade sported labyrinthine politics at once harlequinade and sorry spectacle. From 1935 to 1939 the American Student Union held a following of 50,000. Then in the midst of the Russo-Finnish crisis the first signs of Young Communist League disruption appeared and by 1941 the ASU was a diseredited front. Out of its ruins emerged four non-Communist groups, all calling for aid to the Allies while the ASU carried a banner shouting "imperialist war": Student League for Progressive Action, Student Defenders of Democracy, Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and Democracy's Volunteers. Amid great oclat the Student Merger Convention at Harvard in December of 1941 set up the Student League of America--doomed from the start to dissolution before the long arm of Selective Service.

Since demobilization SDA's bid to fill the vacuum left by the war years has outstripped opponents for two chief reasons: through the organizational help of ADA it gains a relatively solid basis which rivals lack and through the adult leadership of ADA big-names (FDR, Jr., Wyatt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tom Stokes) it holds out political symbols which Ioom attractive in a leaderless hour to youth of left-center inclination. Furthermore SDA, like ADA, clearly stated at the outset that unlike other organizations' which had fallen into negativist internal battling against men primarily loyal to the Communist Party Line, it would embark upon its adventure explicitly inviting Little Redwing out and defining its direction in terms of Roosevelt, Wilson, Jackson, and Jefferson. The competition rests with Young Progressive Citizens of America (YPCA) claiming 25 chapters and American Youth for Democracy (AYD) claiming a membership of 5,000 distributed in high schools, colleges, and what have euphemistically been termed young people's circles. At Harvard the Liberal Union minutes show a majority stand endorsing SDA principles and favoring affiliation as soon as possible. For those who were bewildered by the proceedings several weeks ago the simple explanation is this: SDA requires all members to subscribe as individuals to its principles and HLU in order to demand this of its membership needed a constitutional amendment which a simple majority but not the requisite two-thirds approved.

Both brains and legwork behind SDA are Crimson: Don Willner '47 serves as national chairman and Charles Sellers '45 organizes in the field. Today's ground-floor nucleus will make or break its great chance to capture mass support tomorrow by the means it devises to implement its ideals. From the current program embracing labor rights, federal aid to education, civil liberties, and universal military training two sorts of approach can develop: the agitation tactic which alienates the men it should most woo simply because of what it is (making smalltime political capital from colossal issues) or the militant but intelligent approach which seeks to offer something concrete to the solution of actual problems. Choosing the latter will spell a busy and worthwhile career. By fostering a progressive attitude on separate college campuses SDA can well play a determining role in the forthcoming National Student Organization. More important, the country's policy-makers of a decade hence will clasp fondly to their bosom hopeful men who know how people behave on the floor of a meeting and who know as well the facts of twentieth century society.