The United Nations Council, "Harvard's International Relations Club," has around 150 members, of whom at least 20 are "hard core." Based on an "interest in foreign affairs and a belief that the UN is a good organization," the Council is nonpartisan. In '56, both Stevenson pins and Ike buttons appeared in exec board meetings, and president Eldon Eisenach '60 said that "impartiality is the secret of our success."

Claiming a "balanced program," the Council sponsors not only big-name speakers--such as Owen Lattimore and Ambassador Menshikov--but also political laboratories ("polilabs"), model UN Councils in local high schools, and even occasional television programs on WHDH. The group has an impressive list of faculty sponsors, ranging from Dean Bundy to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

According to one enthusiastic member, the Liberal Union is the "oldest, cleanest, most active political organization on campus, without an election scandal yet." Its purpose is to "study an issue, take a stand, and then do something about it," and the HLU has strong ties to the Campus Americans for Democratic Action, which advocates such policies as extension of TVA principles to other river valleys, national health insurance, and establishment of a "comprehensive" federal scholarship program.

Last fall the HLU sponsored--among other things--a speech by Linus Pauling, raised $300 for Clinton's bombed-out high school, and helped edit the Overseas Review, a digest of excerpts from the liberal press, designed especially for African and Asian students. "Our big topics this year are disarmament, segregation, underdeveloped countries, and the draft," explained president James Bardeen '60. The group has published a 25 page booklet on nuclear policy, and plans a similar work on the U.S. draft laws.

Eggheads' for Ike

With a membership of 16, the Conservative League preserves the tradition of its departed bretheren, the New Conservative League and the Conservative Club. "Though still searching for an ideology," commented president Hastings Wyman '61, "our group would in general support right-to-work laws, and express serious reservations about the UN." Regarding Eisenhower as "too liberal," the League has dined with an associate of Gen. MacArthur, and hopes Bill Buckley of the National Review will speak to them this Spring.

Though the group has met only twice this term, its purpose is to provide "an opportunity for conservatives--who are not too numerous around here--to get together and discuss their views." Asked about the "coup" in the CSD, Wyman claimed that "the majority of the present executive board had nothing to do with it."

The subject of many headlines last Fall, the Committee to Study Disarmament sprang up just a year ago. Though most members were sincerely concerned with the disarmament problem, a few joined with rather curious motives. When interest lagged, these clever fellows stepped into the "power vacum," played some unconstitutional tricks, brought in a flock of cronies, and elected one of their number as president. The name was promptly changed to the Committee Against Appeasement. During a student Council inquiry, however, the trickster resigned, and the group was left free to puruse its original purpose.

"We consider our function not action, but education," said Andrew Biemiller '62, president. The group, whose speakers have included Henry Kissinger, has 30 dues-paying members, of whom 12 usually attend meetings.

Partly to remedy this numerical weakness, there is talk of a merger with the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Its program includes "both study and political action," and SANE hopes "through petitions, communication with Senators and Representatives, and participation in Congressional hearings to direct and make articulate an informal public opinion."

At present, the committee can boast only 15 members, five or six of whom are "consistently energetic," and the dreams of national influence are fading fast. "Students feel that the policies involved are too complicated to be tackled by private citizens," said President David Hamilton '62, "and the initial wave of interest in getting negotiations started has subsided, leaving us to cross our fingers and hope a compromise will be worked out."

A splinter off the HYRC-controlled "Students for Eisenhower" in 1956, the Eisenhower Club today claims 35 members, only eight of whom are "activists." Though the HEC has "bitterness of its own," according to president Eliot Bernat '60 it provides "a Republican alternative to the factionalism which dominates all the state-chartered political groups" at the College. Because of its limited membership, the HEC is not "frightfully active," and finds itself "unable to draw a decent audience" for its speakers.

Dedicated to "presenting both sides of controversial issues," the club remains what Bernat calls a "rebound" club for dissatisfied "regulars" of the HYRC and for self-styled "eggheads" who are "hammering out a new ideology for the party." If they are hammering, it is quietly done.

Hastily formed in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution, the Freedom Council collected almost $1000 to help bring a Freedom Fighter to Harvard. Since then, it has sponsored a commemoration program. With a "lasting interest in Eastern Europe," the Council "feels it is waiting on something," and at present its organization is "rather relaxed." Some members are working for the Vienna Youth Festival Information Service "to give us something to do," said Prescott Evarts '60, president. Perhaps if another revolution occurs in the satellites the council can recapture its former moment of glory.

Sympathizing with the NAACP, the Society for Minority Rights is mainly concerned with the integration problem, though "itching to do some work on the McCarran-Walter Act, Puerto Ricans in New York City, orientals on the West Coast, and Mexicans in the Southwest." Its membership is around 25, of whom eight are active.