New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-24
200 High School
Pupils on Strike;
Gary Riots End
Dewitt Clinton Students
Seek to Force Shorter
Day; Others Wait

More than two hundred students at
De Witt Clinton High School went on
strike yesterday against the long
school day.
Most Of the protestants against the
Gary system in the elementary schools,
however, became orderly during the
day, when the truant officers began
searching for pupils absent during the
anti-Gary strikes last week.
The students at De Witt Clinton
High School struck at noon. Ihey
walked out after a student committee
had reported the results of a confer
ence with the high school committee
of the Board of Education Monday.
The student ENJOYS brought the news
that no action would be taken TO
shorten the school day until student
representatives showed cause for so
doing in briefs to be filed next Mon
day.
Similar committees reported to tho
student bodies at the High School OF
Commerce, Wadleigh High School,
Eastern District High School and Boys
High School. School officials said the
majority of the BOYS and girls were
willing to wait while their commit
tees handled the situation.
Two Thousand at Protest Meeting
Two thousand disconnected high
school students last night met at For.
ward Hall, 1875 East Broadway, aired
their views without restraint and
boosted that thousands of high school
students in Manhattan and Brooklyn
would strike against the long school
day to-day.
The 200 or more boys who walked
out at De Witt Clinton High School
yesterday at noon because of impa'
/ thence over the delay of their COM
mittee, appointed to have the longer
school day shortened, were among the
protestants.
The presence of Leon Samson, the
militant pscifist, gave the gathering g
real appearance OF discomfort. AS the
principal speaker of the evening, Sam
son offered to give the students who
/ chafed under the requirement TO spend
an hour longer in school the benefit OF
his academic experience. But since
Samson's tactics led TO his expulsion
from City College and Columbia Uni
versity, the disgruntled schoolboys ant
/ schoolgirls accepted his precepts with
a grain of salt. Without taking a for
nal vote, those at the meeting turned
down his offer TO have friends of hi:
finance the forthcoming widespread
strike"
Before Samson tried to interest the
/ young people in pacifsm and othel
timely things not directly related TO {
/ school strike Harry Beakston, chairman
of the meeting, who said he was stu
dent Of the High School of Commerce
announced from the rostrum that ZOO
students at De Witt Clinton Higl
School would go on strike to-day, al
well as 800 from the High School o.
! Commerce and 1900 from Wadleigl
High School. He added that similar
outbreaks would occur in the Brooklyn
secondary schools.
No definite action was taken at thu
meeting.
With the disturbances in the Gary
schools dwindling, many pupils, &c
companied by parents, appeared before
truant officers and were told they haC
been playing hockey and were subjec
to the usual punishment. A line o.
mothers and children more than 4
block long stood before the Office o.
John W. Davis, director Of attendance
at Is. East Sixty-eighth Street.
Cases in which mothers seemed re
sponsible for the children's absence
from school were sent TO the City
Court. Where the children acted or
their own initiative their cases were
referred TO the Children's Court. Sim
| liar hearings were held in Brooklyn
and in The Bronx. and when 1t wa:
/ learned that those who did not at
tend school were liable TO punishment
most Of the juvenile malcontents re
turned 10 their classes.
The chief disturbance Of the day
was in Brooklyn, at Public School 1856
Herkimer Avenue and Eastern Park
way. Seventeen ringleaders were ar.
rested More than 1000 youngster:
marched and carried anti-Mitchel anc
anti-Gary school slogans.
The expectsd spontaneous" anti.