Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR THE NEW LEADER welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words. AL SMITH I wish to comment upon William E. Bohn's recent eulogy of Al...
...These include all college students enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, of which there are presently 155,871 compared to the 68,342 participants in the NDEA...
...Many people seem to think that the solid Democratic South voted solidly against Smith because of his religion...
...Washington DOUCLAS CADDY Chairman, National Student Committee for the Loyalty Oath...
...He says that had Al Smith been elected President, he would have been counted among the great ones...
...Before the student loyalty oath controversy is settled by Congress in the near future, I think it will be conclusively shown that the vast majority of college students and of the academic community supports a student loyalty oath...
...If so, what magic would he have used...
...Are they being singled out for discrimination...
...Fort Edward, N.Y...
...Smith did not carry his own state of New York...
...Smith carried Alabama, Arkansas...
...Secondly, it should be stated that many segments of our society today are required to take the identical affidavit involved in the NDEA controversy...
...But the solution to the problem advanced by the oath's opponents—to do away with the affidavit entirely—is wholly negative...
...I think I should also point out that this man —who was so greatly honored by the Democratic party and was elected to numerous offices on the Democratic ticket, including the Governorship of New York four times—ended his political career by supporting the Republican candidate, Alf Landon, in 1936, and then became the favorite orator of the now happily defunct Liberty League...
...How does he know this...
...Could Smith have warded off the depression that ruined the political career of Herbert Hoover...
...This was not the case at all...
...In 1928, the Republican party was in the ascendancy...
...Actually the most constructive approach to this aspect appears to be for Congress to adopt the Goldwater-Mundt amendment proposed in the last session of Congress which would have strengthened the security-checking provisions of the NDEA so that effectiveness could be maintained...
...And finally, while only 19 colleges and universities have refused to participate or have withdrawn from participation in the NDEA because of the affidavit provision, 1,370 other institutions are participating without protest— representing 88 per cent of the total college student body...
...Several additional arguments for the NDEA oath and non-subversive affidavit need be considered, I think, in all justice...
...Students participating in the National Science Foundation Act sign the affidavit as do the members of the staffs of all Congressmen, all Federal employees, and even private citizens who volunteer for Civil Defense work...
...I dare say that if Smith had been elected President the Depression would have taken place, as it did under Hoover, and the Democrats would have been out of office for a long, long time afterward—as they were after what were known as "Cleveland's hard times...
...It had elected Presidents in 1920 and 1924...
...AL SMITH I wish to comment upon William E. Bohn's recent eulogy of Al Smith ("Home Front," NL, January 18...
...Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, and polled large votes in the rest of the Southern states...
...Even this statement is questionable...
...Herbert Hoover was at the height of his popularity, with an immense following among the American people...
...It is very doubtful, in my opinion, that Al Smith could have defeated Herbert Hoover, even if the religious issue had not been injected into the campaign...
...Bohn asserts that Al Smith was defeated for the worst of reasons—because he was a Catholic...
...NL, February 1...
...JOHN P. BURKE STUDENT LOYALTY Ernest van den Haag is to be congratulated for his fine defense of the student loyalty oath requirement of the National Defense Education Act ("Student Loyalty—Should It Be Questioned...
...First, many of the oath's opponents in Congress raise the point that the oath-affidavit requirement is ineffective from the standpoint of developing a sound security system...
Vol. 43 • February 1960 • No. 7
