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Radcliffe Political Clubs Form, Flourish, and Fold

In the spring of '48 more splintering occurred. The American Youth for Democracy, the Young Progressives, the Young Republican Club organized outside of the League for Democracy, and in the fall of that year the SDA pulled out of the League, taking with it the majority of the membership. The Young Progressives and the AYD endorsed Wallace for president, the Republicans Dewey and the SDA supported no one.

The SDA was for the labor referenda, getting out the vote, and birth control. They also wanted to raise teacher's pay, were usherettes at a Roosevelt Day dinner, and dispatched delegates to various conventions. The SDA would have little to do with the HLU and refused the latter's offer to hold a joint dance. The other partisan groups did nothing without Harvard.

On November 3, 1948 disintegration set in. There was no Democratic Party group to celebrate.

AYD and GOP Fold

In the spring of '49 the AYD chapter lost its charter for refusing to say who its members were. This fall the Young Republicans lost their charter because they didn't know who their officers were. The skeleton League for Democracy, despite a summer extension before rechartering, could not win back enough members to do so.

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The Council executive board, in an attempt to revitalize 'Cliffe politics, suggested that all remaining groups combine in a non-partisan organization, reminiscent of the 1914 Civics Club and the 1940 League for Democracy. While the Progressives approved the proposal, SDA rejected the entire idea.

The picture of the Radcliffe political scene is exemplified by the fact that in 36 years of activity, only one non-presidential candidate has ever found organized support at the Annex. He is one Jimmy O'Dea, candidate for the Massachusetts legislature in the spring of '48. He won.

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