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By contrast, Swarthmore is endlessly involved in social action, partly because of the Quaker influence that still has the campus telephone operator say "Thank thee." Almost conventionally liberal, Swarthmore sent an ambulance to Loyalist Spain in the 1930s, began deliberately recruiting Negro students in the early 1940s. Swarthmoreans analyze disarmament, criticize the McCarran Act, lead civil rights demonstrations, from Chester, Pa., to Cambridge, Md. Last fall 60 student pickets got arrested in Chester.
President Smith, who exhorts students to "value values," is sometimes forced to blow the whistle. He warns against "unexamined liberalism," worries that activists may forsake "scrupulously legal and nonviolent" tactics. His own record is memorable. Outspoken against McCarthyism at the height of it, he led other colleges in attacking the now repealed loyalty "disclaimer oath" in the National Defense Education Act. When his students invited Communist Gus Hall to speak on campus, Smith ignored public outcries. Hall spoke. As Smith tells old grads: "Your college has guts. There are a lot of colleges that don't. Be proud of it."
*Named for Swarthmore Hall, the English home of George Fox, founder of Quakerism.