( What follows is the second of a two-part feature on the tenth anniversary celebration held last month by YAF. Part One appeared yesterday. )

THURSDAY was Goldwater day. The Young Americans for Freedom took many of their early members from the 1960 Youth-for-Goldwater-for Vice-President movement, and YAF reached its highest membership during Goldwater's presidential campaign. He's still their man, their biggest friend in office and their hope. A sign in the press room announced an evening press conference with Goldwater, that would be followed by his speech to the assembled Yaffers. Everyone was eager to see Barry.

More and more University of Hartford students were coming back to school and discovering the YAF convention going in full-swing on their campus. Many of them hung around the student lounge, talking and eyeing the young conservatives, who eyed them back. Many of them resented the fact that the university had rented out the campus to such a group. "It's like having ROTC set up in your lounge." Some were really angry: "This is an example of the liberal attitude towards education: separate values for the educational process.... It's an example of the latent schizophrenia of the university.... I've seen University of Hartford police escort Panthers off the campus for distributing literature. Now they're inviting these people in." A woman YAF staffer walked resolutely through the lounge, avoiding the long-haired students. "We've been invaded," she said to a companion. "We shall handle that accordingly."

By 3 p. m., twenty or thirty University of Hartford students had come together in the lounge. After all the hours of suspicious glances across some imaginary barrier, a heated argument broke out between a YAF staffer and a U. of H. student, and the invisible shield finally shattered. The argument drew a huddle of supporters behind each of the protagonists, who stood face to face at one end of the lounge. Before this argument reached its pitch (when Dan Joy, editor of the YAF house organ, New Guard, called his emotional opponent a "creep"), other discussions had broken out all over the room. Some of the contestants argued arrogantly and hotly; others tried to persuade the other side of the truth of some particular belief, or to find some bit of common ground between the Left and the Right. Onlookers were confused, or amused, or downright disdainful of the other side; some moved around from group to group, trying to keep up with all the arguments at once.

A pretty, efficient blonde who works with the national staff in Washington was a little unhappy about the radicals' dislike of conservatives and conservatism. "Some of these people are nuts-they don't realize that the conservative movement isn't all establishment people. We're just as anti-establishment as they are." One of the observers, a former Marine Sergeant back from 20 months in Vietnam, finally left the edge of one of the arguments to relax on a couch, obviously pleased. "This is better than the speeches. Those leftists are really getting torn apart."

At 7:30, reporters, photographers, and a video-tape crew were crowded along the walls of a small room for Goldwater's press conference. YAF's very own Barry sat at a table behind a phalanx of microphones. He was tanned and freckled and as dynamic looking as any Goldwater fan could wish. One observer thought that Goldwater was getting to look more and more like the caricatures drawn of him. Goldwater was striking in his directness. He seemed, for a politician, unusually willing to speak his mind, and rarely tried to speak his way around a question; he neither played up to the press nor followed someone else's party line.

A FEW U of H students stood outside below a window and looked up into the brightly lit room, yelling and booing at Goldwater; a staff member pulled a curtain over the window.

One reporter asked Goldwater if he had much trouble with demonstrators.

"I haven't had enough to bother about. I don't care... it's music to my ears."

Do you feel that you can get a fair hearing at colleges in the Northeast?

"I've never had any problem."

Would you be in favor of wage and price controls?

"No, they've never worked, and they'd never work now."

A government task force has recommended removal of restrictions on marijuana. Do you think the government will go along with it?

"Whether or not to legalize marijuana.... I'm not ready to say. I lean that way.... The laws regulating marijuana I don't think are right. Maybe we could, by making it available, kill the problem.