British Youth

To most U. S. collegians Oxford is a distant academic valhalla of stately ancient buildings where brilliant young men with mellifluent, clipped speech spend long days of leisure mixed with archaic studies; a temple of wit & learning, the bright fane of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Seldom does one of its paragons emerge actually to be seen and heard, but last week Princeton undergraduates had the privilege of observing and listening to the genuine Oxford article--pink-&-white, good-looking Randolph Churchill, 19, son of England's famed and effervescent Statesman Winston Churchill, onetime Chancellor of the Exchequer.

When he delivered himself of a sage maiden address before the Oxford Union last spring (TIME, Mar. 3), young Mr. Churchill--named for his grandfather Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-95), fiery Conservative orator--was conscious that he was making his first steps along the path to statesmanship. Capitalizing his youth rather than allowing it to be a handicap to him, as did the younger Pitt and the late Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, young Mr. Churchill is visiting the U. S. on a lecture tour. Whig-Clio Hall at Princeton was his first engagement. There he gave his address "The British Empire and World Progress." Young Mr. Churchill has two other addresses: "Can Youth Be Conservative?" and "Why I Am Not A Socialist."*

To U. S. college youths, politics and statesmanship are things best left to the generation ahead or behind, or to professional politicians and the newspapers. One debates national affairs in college but one does not consciously prepare for a public career. One mistrusts oratory and is, in any case, incapable of it. The brothers La Follette of Wisconsin are incomprehensible exceptions. Most U. S. college men would blush to hear themselves utter the kind of thing contained in young Mr. Churchill's lectures, e. g.:

"A young man who takes any interest in public affairs must realize that all is not well with Britain. . . .

"If the present leaders of democracy are found unable to mould an unwieldy electorate into the foundation of a government . . . great changes in men and methods lie before us. Once the passing generation shows that its usefulness is exhausted, the choice of these men and methods must be wrested from their hands by youth. . . .

"[Older politicians] cannot eternally bluff and befool the electorate, for it is neither as stupid nor as avaricious as the pre-War generation imagines. If the real facts of the case are properly presented to them they will know what to do.

"Britain at present alone of all the allied powers, seems incapable of asserting herself and safeguarding her inheritance. Even our naval power has to be decided upon by other countries. We have not the courage to administer our own affairs.

"The reason for all these troubles and misfortunes is that our country is controlled by the silliest and sloppiest sentimentalists who have ever in all history sat on the Treasury bench. The government of Britain and her empire has for some peculiar reason been entrusted to the weakest invertebrates in the country.

"Almost invariably, when a young man expresses his opinion, on whatever subject, his remarks are said by his elders to characterise the modern 'revolt of youth.'

"On the question of the Church of England, however, or, indeed, in regard to the Bishops, there is no revolt; there is merely silent nonconformity.

"The uninspired manner in which the Church has been led has caused people to face their religious difficulties as a purely personal matter. This in some ways is to be commended, as it avoids a great deal of cant and hypocrisy, but such a process extending over a long period of years will only produce one result--the gradual dissolution and death of the Church of England.

"If that is not to be, either from within or from without, there must arise an intellectual scourge to galvanize and revivify the body spiritual."

Young Mr. Churchill means to try to remedy these woes as soon as he is old enough to stand for Parliament. His itinerary in the U. S., arranged by the William B. Feakins Inc. lecture agency and remunerated individually by the bodies for whom he appears, includes: Bowdoin College, Westover School. Michigan State Normal School, Hope College (Mich.), Stevens College (Mo.), Hiram College (Ohio), Columbia University.

*Conservative Leader Stanley Baldwin's son Oliver, Cantabridgian, has grown a beard, turned Socialist.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.