The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-04-07
Tear Gas
StYlRlmg
Students
Students In Pitched
Battle With Athletes
On Columbia Campus
1000 Mass NearLibrary

NEW YORK.-The overwhelming
majority of almost 1000 Columbia
students voted by show of hands
to support the fight being led by the
National Student League for the re-
of Reed Harris, expelled
student editor. The vote was taken at
a mass meeting on the steps Of the
Columbia library at the height of
the one-day protest strike called by
the National Students League.
A militant battle was put up by
the strikers against the attacks of
the athletic crowd. When a foot
ball man attempted to pull down a
streamer reading Free Speech"
hung on the library steps, he was
Immediately surrounded by mass
of students, who threw him to the
ground. Only the interference of
the faculty members saved him
from a beating.
The students in Avery Hall bar
ricaded themselves to prevent the
athletes from tearing down the
streamerS which they had tied on
the outside Of the building. With
the athletes hurting bags Of water
and small tear gas bombs manu-
featured in the college laboratory,
the students fought for over Is
ha nfr-av 30 a
Hall.
The janitor of the building, un-
der instructions from teh faculty,
locked the door of the building
after desks had been smashed,
tables overturned and chairs hurled
around the rooms.
During the mass meeting, the
athletes who had been throwing
eggs at the speakers were singled
out by the student strikers and fist
fights broke out which continued
throughout the afternoon.
Although there is no report as yet
on the actual number of students
who struck, the support given the
student strike committee indicates
wide support of the strike call.
The only section of the students
opposed to the strike was the foot
ball crowd" who with the encourage
ment of the faculty, acted as a fas-
cist group. A number of the student
pickets were attacked and unsuccess-
full efforts made to break up the
campus meeting by throwing eggs
and apples at the speakers.
In addition to the broad student
support of the free speech" fight,
more than twenty professors and in
structors signed petition demand
mig Harris reinstatement. About IL
of them dismissed their classes as
evidence of their support OF the Ma
tional Student League strike call.
Long, streaming banners were hung
from the windows of Avery Hall,
reading: 'No Gagging," Free
Speech" 'Reinstate Reed Harris. ="
The pickets carried placards de-
nouncing President Butler, and de-
manding the immediate and uncon-
ditional reinstatement of Harris.
Robert Hall, leader of the student
delegation to Kentucky and member
of the National Executive Committee
OF the National Student League was
chairman of the meeting. One of the
students read long list of affida-
Wits from student workers in the COL
lege cafeteria charging grating, rot
ten quality of food, high prices, and
of the workers.
The expulsion of Harris served as
an object lesson to hundreds of stu
dents that the mythical academic
freedom" about which the hypocriti-
cal liberal Butler spoke was non-ex-
istent when it came into conflict
with the interests of the financiers
who control the entire capitalist edu-
cational system.