4,000 IN BROOKLYN STRIKE AGAINST WAR;
          150,000 STUDENTS IN U.S. DEMONSTRATE

Brooklyn, Seth Low and L.I.U.
      March to City Park
            In Heavy Drizzle

FRANK OLMSTEAD TALKS

Speakers Emphasize Necessity
      For Student Activity
            On Vital Issues

            In spite of the heavy drizzle Friday, four thousand representatives of Brooklyn College, Long Island University, Seth Low Junior College, and Pratt Institute marched to City Park as a protest against war and fascism. By far the largest representation came from Brooklyn College.

            Because of the rain and the exposed condition of the meeting place, the speeches were shortened, thus reducing the expected three hour strike to an hour and a half. Students left the College at eleven a.m, and returned at 12:30 p.m. The same orderliness that prevailed in last year's strike was apparent this year.

            Speaking at City Park were Frank Olmstead, national secretary of the Y.M.C.A., Dr. Theodore Bremeld, instructor of philosophy at Long Island University; Edward Billet and I. J. Selikoff of Seth Low Junior College; and Chris Jonassen, Nelson Seitel, and Sylvia Wener of Brooklyn College.

            "We students have nothing to gain by war; we have our lives, limbs, and futures to lose," said Sol Modell, executive secretary of the Brooklyn chapter of the National Student League, in presenting the speakers at City Park, Most of these speakers urged student alliance with larger movements against war.

            The World War, Mr. Olmstead, guest speaker said, demonstrated the futility of war, leading as it did to friction, dictatorships, and wasted men and women, instead of preserving democracy. "Once patriotism and war were synonomous," Mr. Olmstead said; "now there is a new patriotism." "Either we must destroy war, or war will destroy civilization." As an active protest in case of war, Mr. Olmstead urged the general strike, rather than violent means. The brotherhood of man and the spiritual approach, he insisted, are the important actors among men.

            Mr. Theodore Bremeld. instructor at Long Island University, supported the desirability of student opinion on war. "Students should no longer be regarded as young children," he said, "but as young adults. As adults they should be allowed to express their opinion on fighting."

            Student speakers stressed the importance of spreading anti-war efforts beyond the annual peace strike. Nelson Seitel, editor of Pioneer, said, "We are not going to stop war merely by coming together once a year. We must talk pacifism, spread the message, build a great psychology against war."

            Chris Jonassen, president of the Student Christian Association, urged the spreading of peace through a constant repetition of the phrase, "No war." He stated that "War is against all principles of Christianity," and lauded the demonstration as "a magnificent gesture against war."

            Edward Billet, representing Seth Low Junior College, maintained that it is important to draw all elements into the anti-war movement, conservative and liberal as well as radical. I. Selikoff, the other representative of Seth Low, stressed opposition in the Hearst papers as the most important force in America driving toward war.

            Students left the college al the end of the second hour, formed in line outside the buildings, marched four abreast, and approached City Park from two routes. Brooklyn College banners carried such inscriptions as Fight Against Imperialist War, Schools, Not Battleships, Brooklyn College Strikes Against War and Fascism.

April 17, 1935, pages 1, 3

15,000 New York High School
      and College Students
            Protest War

4,000 MEET AT COLUMBIA

Many Out of Town Colleges
      Hold Meetings With
            100% Walkout

            One hundred fifty thousand students from universities, colleges, and high schools throughout the country left their classrooms Friday at 11 o'clock to participate in a militant strike against war and fascism, in response to a call issued by the National Student Strike committee.

            Demonstrations were conducted by thousands of students in New York City, despite the cold and the steady rain. Most of the larger mass meetings were held indoors, however. At Columbia University–more than 4,000 students poured into the gymnasium at 11 o'clock for the mass meeting, disregarding President Nicholas Murray Butler's disapproval. Heywood Broun, Roger N. Baldwin, and Professor John Hammond Randall addressed the assembled students

            The demonstration at Columbia terminated at 12:45 with the adoption of a resolution authorizing the sending of two telegrams to President Roosevelt, one demanding the allotment of more money for educational purposes and less for military strength, the other requesting, as a means of guiding the voters, that the President publicly explain why the appropriation for the army and navy has been increased at all.

            At City College 3,500 students gathered in the Great Hall, where they were addressed by James W. Wise, former editor of Opinion.

            After watching the 500 girls who walked out of the building at 11 o'clock, President Eugene A. Colligan of Hunter College ordered the building superintendent to heat several rooms to normal so that they could have a place to dry in when they returned. Dr. Colligan said that he would not discipline the girls, although he disapproved of the strike.

            Nine hundred strikers from the Washington Square College of New York University filled the Judson Memorial Church, and 600 more held an outdoor demonstration in Washington Square.

            Accordiug to the Columbia .Spectator, the demonstration at that university had the endorsement of seventy-seven faculty members , drawn from all colleges and schools. The entire student body of Sarah Lawrence College, 250 in all, left their classes and went to a meeting where they were addressed by Miss Constance Warren, dean of the college, and two members of the faulty.

            At Briarcliff Junior College all the seventy-seven students joined in the mass demonstration against war.

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May 20, 2004