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University Daily Kansan Tuesday. December 5. 1964
Conservatism at KU
A chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) formed at KU this October as the result of a continuing development of student conservatism and its representatives on the campus.
the establishment of the YAF chapter has roots that reach back to the election of Charles McIlwaine as president of the KU Young Republicans. He served in that position in the 1960-61 term. During the spring semester he campaigned for and won the chairmanships of the Kansas Young Republicans and of a region consisting of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma on a ticket of Goldwater conservatism.
DURING THE SUMMER McIlwaine traveled Kansas with Scott Stanley, a liaison man for the national board of directors of YAF and a former KU law student, giving speeches in which he urged greater support for the conservative movement. McIlwaine was recently elected to the national board of directors of YAF. He and Stanley are the ones who organized the KU YAF chapter.
It should be pointed out that neither McIlwaine nor Stanley are in charge of the KU chapter. They aided in its organization and give advice, but they are not officers and have stated that they do not intend to serve as officers of the group.
The present members of the KU YAF chapter have a strong fear of publicity and make a continuing effort to control information about the group that reaches the news columns. This is done by excluding reporters from many of its meetings (a Kansan reporter has been allowed to enter only two meetings) and by making numerous off-the-record statements in the meetings where a reporter is present.
THERE ARE SEVERAL reasons for the group's attitude toward public knowledge of its activities.
The KU chapter of YAF is a young and struggling group. It is presently suffering from a struggle between two factions for control of the
chapter. One of these factions places its emphasis on an aggressive program of hammering away at liberal groups with demonstrations and every other available means. The other faction, a more moderate group, wants a program with a more constructive approach that would emphasize films, speakers and other educational methods.
The YAF members are also afraid of attacks on their group by the liberal organizations on the campus.
At present the group is in a state of dissension and uncertainty. It is still in the process of formation. What its final shape will be or if it will survive at all is not yet clear. This depends to a great extent on which faction within the group wins the chairmanship and control of the chapter and on its appeal to the KU student. Regardless of which group wins control, if it is unable to interest KU students, YAF at KU will be just another ineffectual student political group.
BUT THE FACT that such a staunchly conservative student political group supporting the Goldwater philosophy has arisen in the nation and established a chapter at KU demonstrates the growth of the conservative creed.
There is no doubt that the coming of YAF has added a new element to KU's student political atmosphere. For the first time in many years the established groups are faced with an active political group which is often diametrically opposed to them in terms of belief and policy.
YAF can be and often is wrong in its approach to the solution of national problems, just as their hero Senator Goldwater is. But they do serve to force people to consider things they had long accepted at face value. Occasionally there is an element of truth in what they say.
The YAF chapter at KU is not a significant force in student life at present, however. And if the pattern of indifference that applies to the other national political groups represented at KU holds for YAF, it never will be a major factor in student life.
-William H. Mullins
Focus on YAF
National
The conservative youth organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) was organized at the estate of William F. Buckley Jr. in Sharon Conn., on Sept. 9-11, 1960. Mr. Buckley is the editor of "National Review," a conservative magazine.
The idea for the group grew out of a meeting of a group of young conservatives with Sen. Barry Goldwater, who said they should organize a club for conservative-minded students and young people.
The Sharon Statement was the outcome of the meeting in Connecticut and is the credo of YAF.
The cry of YAF is for limited government, private enterprise and repudiation of the Square, New and Fair Deals. They are against liberalism, which means anything to the left of Sen. Goldwater or Mr. Buckley, according to some critics.
WITH ONE-THIRD of YAF's membership coming from the South, the policy committee is reluctant to take a stand on sit-ins and other racial issues. One member of the committee said he thought the Supreme Court decision was a "tragic blunder." He was referring to the decision ordering school desegregation.
On the "for" side, YAF likes the House Un-American Activities Committee, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, John C. Calhoun, right-to-work laws, J. Edgar Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Sen. William E. Jenner of Indiana, states' rights and Sen. Goldwater.
The past actions of YAF have been quite successful and have received a considerable amount of publicity.
Last January the Young Americans for Freedom sent about 200 pickets to Washington D.C. to picket in favor of HUAC. It is their boast that they outpicked the
"Commist and leftist" pickets demonstrating against HUAC.
IN THE SAME month, the Greenwich Village branch showed the film "Operation Abolition" to a turn-away crowd. The showing was picketed by the Young People's Socialist League. "Operation Abolition" is a film produced by HUAC supposedly showing the San Francisco riots against HUAC in May 1956 to be Communist inspired.
Last March, the YAF staged a huge national awards and Sen. Goldwater rally in Manhattan Center, New York City. About 3,200 persons jammed the center to hear Sen. Goldwater. Awards went to Herbert Kohier for business, George E. Sokolsky for journalism, and George K. C. Yeh, Chinese Nationalist ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, for the preservation and maintenance of freedom.
YAF also tried to gain the leadership of the National Student Association at its August convention. Most of the resolutions introduced by YAF at the convention were defeated.
Local
The first announcement of a KU chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom organizing on campus came last May from Scott Stanley, former KU law student and now a liaison officer with YAF. No organization followed.
The campus conservatives again expressed a desire for a KU chapter at the beginning of this semester. Then, on Oct. 11, 1961, the first open meeting of the YAF was held. Most of the meeting was devoted to a lengthy talk by Charles McIlwaine, Wichita senior and a member of YAF's national board of directors. About 15 students out of 30 attending joined the organization at this meeting.
THE ORGANIZERS of YAF were McIlwaine; Pat Allen, Lawrence law student and former temporary chairman; Brent Mandry, St. Louis, Mo., senior; Jim Williamson, Hutchinson junior, and Bob Radcliffe, Lawrence junior. Allen was appointed temporary chairman.
The next meeting the press was notified of was three weeks later. The members at this meeting seemed to have solidified into a group of active conservatives. They were visited by Scott Stanley, who attacked such advocates of liberalism as Eleanor Roosevelt, Adalai Stevenson and Nelson Rockefeller. Most of his remarks were not for publication.
About two weeks later, YAF sponsored an anti-Communist film, "Red China—Outlaw," one of the projects discussed at the meeting. The film was produced by the Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Communist China to the United Nations.
Several projects were discussed at the meeting, all of which received the enthusiastic support of the members.
KLAUS PRINGSHEIM, instructor of political science and a Red China expert, spoke following the film. He gave practical reasons for Red China's exclusion from the United Nations. Some viewers felt the film appealed to the emotions. After the film, Stanley expressed disapproval of Mr. Pringsheim's talk.
The chapter has yet to elect officers. Allen, the temporary chairman, resigned because of the pressure of studies, and a power struggle between two factions has developed. One faction is for more action like that of the national organization while the other group is more moderate.
One proposed project brought the difference of opinion to the surface. The organization planned a
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"Solid as a rock!"
The Sharon Statement
(Editor's note: The Sharon Statement outlines the beliefs and purposes of the Young Americans for Freedom. It was composed at their initial conference Sept. 9-11, 1960 in Sharon, Conn.)
"In this time of moral and political crisis, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths.
We, as young conservatives, believe:
That foremost among the transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force;
That liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom;
That the purposes of government are to protect these freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice;
That when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power which tends to diminish order and liberty;
That the Constitution of the United States is the best arrangement yet devised for empowering government to fulfill its proper role, while restraining it from the concentration and abuse of power;
That the genius of the Constitution—the division of powers—is summed up in the clause which reserves primacy to the several states, or to the people, in those spheres not specifically delegated to the Federal Government;
That the market economy, allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand, is the single economic system compatible with the requirements of personal freedom and constitutional government, and that it is at the same time the most productive supplier of human needs;
That when government interferes with the work of the market economy, it tends to reduce the moral and physical strength of the nation; that when it takes from one man to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both;
That we will be free only so long as the national sovereignty of the United States is secure; that history shows periods of freedom are rare, and can exist only when free citizens concertedly defend their rights against all enemies;
That the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties;
That the United States should stress victory over, rather than coexistence with, this menace; and
That American foreign policy must be judged by this criterion; does it serve the just interests of the United States?
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