Appearing on the eve of the National Student Organization's Madison convention, the September issue of the "Progressive" is devoted to discussions of the hopes and problems which the delegates will carry into the convention hall. Unfortunately, the number of students who are going to be vitally concerned with developments in Madison is likely to be something sort of sectioned. For those who are already action in NSO and have kept informed of the successive stages of its growth, the current Progressive provides generally cans and constructive reading. But the uninitiated will find it only slightly more interesting and lively than Austin's "Juris-prudence."

That no imaginative appeal for new support is made constitutes a weakness all the greater because the foremost requirement for an effective student organization is a broad base of participation. Interest at Harvard in NSO has been more spasmodic than widespread. A minor tempest arose over the question of whether or not NSO should be affiliated with the International Union of Students, formed last summer in Prague. On this issue the "Progressive's" contributor, J. C. Farrar of Yale, takes a qualified affirmative position, proposing "affiliation at once" but only on the grant of "certain contingencies." Though reasserting the benefits of affiliation, Farrar says that since "the majority opinion of the IUS is far to the left of the usual American student" and "the European student is a much more active citizen and a more violent political figure" than his American counterpart, "it may seem advisable to ask the IUS to alter the clauses of its constitution covering withdrawal, which are now quite cumbersome, in case NSO found itself obliged to withdraw."

The best statement of the aims and potentialities of a National Student Organization is presented in the lead article by Don S. Willner. The NSO (or NSA) is envisioned as a non-partisan service organization, free from-domination by any political, religions, or social group, but including all students regardless of race, sex, or political and economic belief. It should "fight for academic freedom, for student rights, and for the goal of ending discrimination." It should encourage international student exchange, student travel, and student relief; help reduce student expenses, work for increased scholarships; and promote forum and discussion groups, artistic and cultural development, and student and faculty exchange.

Mildred Kieffer's suggestion for the "bringing of California architecture to the midwest and the mountain ballads of the South to New England" is not the sort of thing to arouse a violent, crusading enthusiasm; but the other proposals in the "Progressive" should be of considerable value to the delegates at Madison and to those at Harvard who are hoping for organized student participation in the solution of future problems in "social engineering."