ELECTION-YEAR CONFERENCE
Kefauver and Stassen Talks Feature Annual Student Political Affairs Event
ON March 2 and 3, the Undergraduate Council of Dartmouth College sponsored its third annual Conference on Political Affairs. This conference, featuring Democratic Presidential hopeful Estes Kefauver and Special Presidential Assistant Harold E. Stassen as keynote speakers, brought to Hanover over 100 delegates from campuses as far as 500 miles away.
This annual conference is the modern edition of something which began eighteen years ago. A circumspect awareness of the "context of the times" has always been of importance to Dartmouth students, and it was a desire to obtain mutual intellectual stimulation through discussion of current political problems that led to the establishment, in 1938, of a triangular conference among Dartmouth, Cornell and Pennsylvania. This series of conferences, with rotating sponsorship, had as its topic, "Making Democracy Work." These conferences lasted for six years until 1943, when they were cancelled because of the war. With the end of the war, however, nothing was done to reestablish this triangular event, and political conferences at Dartmouth became a thing of the past.
Under the auspices of the National Student Association, the Undergraduate Council revived and sponsored a student political conference at Dartmouth in February 1954, when 52 delegates from eighteen New England schools met in Hanover with sixteen Dartmouth representatives to hear talks by Congressman Peter Frelinghuysen of New Jersey and Mr. James Murphy, chairman of National Citizens for Eisenhower. These two men spoke on the conference theme, "Youth and Politics." The delegates also gathered in discussion groups "to thrash out among themselves specific issues within this general topic. This format of two principal speakers, augmented by the active participation of the delegates in discussion groups, proved so compatible that the two succeeding conferences have continued it almost without change.
The enthusiasm displayed at the 1954 conference led the Undergraduate Council, in the spring of that year, to "establish a permanent committee, to be called the Conference Committee ... to be entirely separate from the NSA Committee, and to have as its purpose the planning and supervising of an annual student conference to be held in Hanover." With this constitutional revision, the conference became an independent function of the Undergraduate Council.
The 1955 Conference, entitled "Youth and Political Affairs," had the general purpose of giving each delegate the opportunity to decide "Why should a young voter be a Republican or a Democrat?" Trying to convince those in attendance that the former choice was preferable was Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey, while Minnesota Congressman Eugene McCarthy argued vociferously for the latter alternative. The Conference attracted some forty delegates from eighteen Eastern colleges and universities. The three topics chosen for the panel discussions were, "How representative are our political parties?", "How bipartisan should our foreign policy be?", and "Universal Military Training." Considerable enthusiasm and a sense of accomplishment displayed by the delegates were indicative of a second successful year of operation.
The 1956 Conference on Political Affairs brought to something of a climax the work of the previous conferences. The Committee drew upon the invaluable information and experience handed down from the two preceding conferences, and was also able to take advantage of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation Presidential primary. The latter circumstance enabled the Committee to obtain as speakers Senator Kefauver, who was actively campaigning in the state, and Mr. Stassen, who brought the personal greetings of President Eisenhower. The central issue this year was whether or not "... the record of the Republican administration warrants that Party's support by the American voters in November's election." Senator Kefauver presented to a Webster Hall audience an incisive indictment of the administration's farm and foreign policies; Presidential Assistant Stassen replied the next day with an equally clear defense.
Panel Discussions Provided the Gore of the Conference ...
The Conference was attended by 106 delegates from 37 Eastern schools. These out-of-town representatives, augmented by 28 delegates from the College, considered in panel discussions such questions as the Eisenhower record on civil liberties, the extent to which the present administration is influenced by business, Republican foreign policy, the farm problem, the degree of support given the President by Republicans in Congress, and the efficacy with which the Eisenhower administration has fulfilled its campaign promises. Also on the agenda were two banquets and receptions for both speakers.
The past three years have seen the Conference develop into something far more important than the original triangular discussions. Its success, past, present and, I am sure, future, has given and will continue to give Dartmouth a major annual event of which the College can be proud.
Conference Chairman
Over 100 visiting delegates registered,
Harold E. Stassen, Special Assistant to President Eisenhower, presenting the Republican case in 105 Dartmouth. Shown with him is Prof. Louis Menand of the Government Department, faculty adviser for the Conference during the past three years.
"What about the tanks this country recently shipped to Saudi Arabia?" Mr. Stassen gets an armament question from the floor.
The political issues of 1956 were a very serious business to the student listeners.
Robert H. Gile '56, conference chairman, escorts Senator Kefauver to the reception on opening day.
A chance to relax came to Senator Kefauver at the conference reception, where he is shown with two pretty delegates from Green Mountain Junior College and Skidmore.
Mr. Stassen talks with student delegates in front of Dartmouth Hall.
A capacity audience listening to the keynote talk on Saturday.
