anding in the middle of New York's garment district, Manhattan ter has lent its shelter and its ellent acoustics to a wide variety adical movements. Earl Browder to hold forth there in the hey- of the Party; both the Fur kers and the staunchly antiinist Garment Workers met e to inveigh against the bosses, inst capitalism, and against each r. Even the murals on the walls quare-jawed, muscular proletar- "building the industry of rica" -- call to mind the days tenement-dwellers transcend- the squalidness of their daily while singing "We Shall Not Moved."

Anyone who passed the Center's ance on West 34th Street last ay evening might have thought another such radical gathering taking place. Hundreds of pla- waving young men, women, teenagers milled around the s, while a squad of New York's strian finest diligently tried to order. Across the street a ller group marched sullenly up down with a different set of : the inevitable counter-de-stration.

erable Tradition

he counter-demonstrators' whose read, "Abolish the Un-Ameri- Activities Committee," lay just to a venerable tradition of rican dissent. Their rivals in attan Center upheld a different age. They called themselves ng Americans for Freedom," their posters honored Senator y Goldwater, who would key- their meeting. Their ideology with in a some kind of God, in al rights, and in classical ecocs, combined with nationalist ments -- is familiar indeed: egacy of Jefferson, of Hoover, aft. . . and a bit of McCarthy. The generally thinks of their as "conservative," yet in a the Young Americans For dom are radicals. For they ad, in effect, a fundamental re-ruction of present institutions, ing them into accord with cer- philosophical notions. Manhat- Center was not a wholly inapriate place for them to meet.

Impressive

Perhaps the most impressive about the rally was its magni Radical-conservative leaders, ially William F. Buckley, Jr. National Review, have long top priority to recruiting stu. Yet in the past, rallies for purpose have been less than phant. They usually attracted d 500 people -- mostly grim old ladies. The one last Friday, however, was an unqualified success which reduced even so sentimental a liberal as columnist Murray Kempton (New York Post) to savage comments about "children" who don't respect their (liberal) elders, and to bitter disillusionment about the merits of John Dewey's educational reforms. Four thousand attended the rally, and -- according to perhaps exaggerated official estimates -- from three to six thousand more had to be turned away. The vast majority were bona fide high school and college students.

Repeated Clobberings

Like frustrated Seventh-Day Adventists, conservatives have reacted to their perennial setbacks by assurring each other that "salvation-is-just-around-the-corner" -- but found only repeated clobbering around that bend. It is hard (even for them) to avoid feeling that History is with the other team: one begins to discount their wishful optimism. A triumph such as the YAF rally takes one aback: young people are supposed to be liberal, and New York is hardly a reactionary stronghold to begin with. One wonders if there might really be, as the YAF leaders claim, a great upsurge in rightist sentiment among students.

Speakers at the meeting included not only Goldwater -- who often draws very large crowds -- but also such noted conservatives as Russell Kirk, Nationalist Chinese Ambassador George H.C. Yeh, novelist Taylor Caldwell, columnist George Sokolsky, and William F. Buckley, Jr. Congressman Francis Walter and Admiral Lewis Strauss were supposed to come, but didn't make it. Each of these gentlemen was presented with a plaque for services to the nation. Such a phalanx might well be expected to draw every ambulatory conservative within a fifty-mile radius.

The students did not represent a cross-section of youth from New York or the Eastern Seaboard. It seemed that a substantial majority of them were Catholics, mostly Irish Catholics. Apparently the election of Kennedy has not cut off one of the more significant political developments of recent years: the growing tendency for Catholics to espouse conservative political views. (New York liberals and conservatives alike privately admit that liberal movements tend to enlist large numbers of Jews, while conservativism appeals primarily to Catholics.) But while an ethnic interpretation of the rally might be reasonable, a Marxist one clearly is out -- the students were from all economic levels. It was by no means a rally of "Wall Street ruling circles."

Rigid Mold

Despite the claims of YAF to be a youthful, dynamic, libertarian movement, the rally was cast in the rigid mold right-wing gatherings have used from time immemorial. At least nine American flags hung over the stage. The young officials of YAF had the appearance, as George Sokolsky put it, of "trustees of an institution." Their lengthy speeches ranged from conventionstyle rhetoric ("it is a significant historical movement -- the wave of the future -- leading to the rise of a responsible alternative to apathy"), to downright poor taste ("We will be done with the beatniks, the puerile purveyors of pornography, the limp-wristed bent-kneed writers. . .") niks, the puerile purveyors of porno-provided by the grown-ups. George Sokolsky, a syndicated columnist who began his journalistic career as editor of a Petrograd newspaper during the Revolution received the award for journalism. Speaking quietly with emotion, he declared: "For forty years I have been observing the struggle in the world against Communist revolution. . . There was not too much hope because those who were fighting were growing old, and soon none would be left to fight. Tonight for the first time I see youth, and I feel assurance. America is strong tonight." He drew a standing ovation.

"No Other Award"

Another YAF plaque went to the National Review, which is edited by William F. Buckley, Jr. whom many hold responsible for the YAF's existence. On receiving the citation from a group he advises and helps finance, Buckley declared that "There is no other award we at National Review would rather have. To be sure," he added wryly, "there is no other award we are likely to receive."

The students in the audience were quite devoid of the somewhat pompous air which characterized the YAF leaders. Casually, almost sloppily dressed, they sat and smoked and listened fairly attentively, not suppressing a number of groans when YAF President Robert M. Schuchman turned his introduction of Goldwater into a filibuster. When speakers made statements like "the United States should stress victory over, rather than co-existence with, the Communist menace," they cheered, whistled, stomped their feet, and raised a great commotion. When someone referred to stock villians like Eleanor Roosevelt, J. Robert Oppenheimer, or Linus Pauling, they booed and hissed with equal fervor. But the boos contained no venom. The crowd was simply cheering the heroes and hissing the bad guys and having a heck of a good time doing it.

Rank-and-File

After their exertion at the rally, many YSF members relaxed at cocktail parties. Talking with the movement's rank-and-file gave one a distinct feeling that they were by no means bigots, embittered cynics, or oldsters pompous before their time. (The YAF leadership and its adult advisors have taken great pains to eliminate that resist fringe which tries to attach itself to conservative groups, much as Communists bedevil liberal organizations.) While these students believed deeply in their philosophy of natural law, in the free market, limited government etc.,--and had often suffered for their convictions in terms of lower marks from professors with differing views--few seemed to bear any deep hatred for liberals. Quite a few of the rank-and-filers expressed interest in substituting some form of meaningful dialogue--a "cultural exchange program," as it were--for the current epithet-trading between the democratic Left and the democratic Right.

Perhaps typical of those more open-minded YSF members was the Hunter College student who was discussing J. D. Salinger's Cathcher in the Rye. Because it idealizes childhood, defends rebelliousness, suggests that bourgeolse society is "phony," and employs a few words, Catcher has become a of ideological contention. journals hailed it as a master while the National Review att it for sounding like Rousse some parents' "decency" goutempted to have it banned fro schools.

This student--who happenecidentally, to be Irish--des his reaction to the book: "The et said, when you pick this bo you can't put it down. Of cour rather doubted this. But I the book, read it on the train said hello to Mother, and w reading till I'd finished. W said seemed so true."

An invitation to foreign new to visit New Hampshire an "democracy in action" at a Meeting has been canceled b four of the newsmen are from munist countries.  New York Times, March