Two Liberal Weeklies

The New Republic and The Nation, liberal intellectual weeklies of relatively small circulation, are an issue in Los Angeles politics. They were ousted from the libraries of the Los Angeles public schools during the war --The Nation for being "pacifist" and The New Republic for being " radical"--and now there is a strong movement to have them reinstated on the ground that they contain data essential in the study of public affairs. Candidates for election to the School Board, which will be held in the near future, are being asked to define their attitude toward the forbidden periodicals. Neither The New Republic nor The Nation is radical in the proper sense of the word, since they do not advocate socialism, syndicalism, communism nor any other revolutionary change in our government or social structure, but simply reforms in the present system. Their sympathy for radical movements, which has brought them into mistaken disrepute, is based upon a literal interpretation of the Constitution regarding freedom of speech, publication and assembly. Both are essentially in agreement regarding political and social reforms. But The Nation took the pacifist position against the war.