Courageous Action
To the Editors of the CRIMSON:
I wish to express my support for the courageous action taken by those who picketed the Dow Chemical representative last Wednesday. The demonstration was certainly noted in Europe as well as within the United States. I hope that in considering possible discipline of those involved, the Faculty will not allow parochial considerations of their own convenience to blind them to the enoromous moral implications of the demonstrators' stand. Few of the many parallels drawn between the war in S.E. Asia and World War II seem to be relevant. But it is certainly possible that if the manufacturers of poisonous gases in Nazi Germany had been more actively opposed by other Germans, many lives might have been spared. J.B.P. Lovell Teaching Fellow in General Education
Blacklist
To the Editors of the CRIMSON:
The idea of denying access to private facilities to persons who are involved in disfavored activities is not new.
The demonstrations against the Dow Chemical Company merely echo what occurred in the movie industry in the early 1950's. It was called "blacklisting" in those days.
Some may try to distinguish mere speech from actual recruitment for practical activities. But is not all speech an attempt to affect action? Robert Bornbaum
Contradiction in Terms
To the Editors of the CRIMSON:
The recent sit-in and the ensuing student demands seem to me to be a contradiction of the sponsoring organization's name, Students for a Democratic Society. I, for one, resent the idea that a minority should tell me whether or not I can see a recruiter from Dow Chemical, the CIA, or the military. It is certainly within any group's rights to stage a peaceful demonstration for the purpose of bringing to attention the record of a recruiter such as Dow Chemical. But it should be the individual's choice as to whether he still wants to be interviewed. If the recruiter is guilty of was crimes in the minds of enough students to warrant his banishment from campus, he would face enough student apathy to his recruiting to convince him to pull out on his own. Russell Merriam '68
Saran Wrap
To the Editors of the CRIMSON:
The editorial, "The Wrong Way to Peace" is to be commended because it shows careful and probing thought and because you are willing to cooperate with a minority's being heard. Now that I have been polite and commended your fairness, I will say what I have to say.
Because of the demonstration against a Dow Chemical Recruiter, I know of a couple of women who have been alerted to the maker of Saran Wrap's being also the maker of napalm. They are going to boycott Saran Wrap. As the editorial points out, Dow Chemical Company is not the only culprit and not the original one, but some exposure of industrial-military power in the country may help. The demonstration caused some persons to think.
The writer of this editorial should read Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail." He is taking the law as it stands too seriously and substituting it for thought about good and bad in laws and what you do about bad laws. Robert Steele Professor of Film, Boston University
War Against Starvation
To the Editors of the CRIMSON:
The Chrstian Science Monitor recently let the story out on the Dow Chemical Company: Dow is furtively building a plant in India to produce a high-protein peanut-base food to alleviate rampant malputrition in that country, a condition which led an Indian spokesman to say recently that India was producing millions of subhumans yearly. On this basis, I accuse Dow of being a tool of the War against Starvation, and I accuse the University of complicity in this relationship; and I applaud the sit-in as an effective means of thwarting Dow's recruitment for this War. John H. Beck '71