Evening star., 1933-05-03
CAP-GOWN PARADE
THIS AFTERNOON
Unemployed College Alumni
to Visit White House and
Other Offices.
Armed with a program of educational

Interior.
The cap and gown" group, officially
named the Association Of Unemployed
college Alumni, which has been meet
ing here for two days drafting an ap-
peal for relief in educational and social
welfare fields, spent this morning whip
ping their program into shape, ana,
while they would not make 1t public
before their presentation, they called
it constructive criticism OF the present
order Of things
Start at 4 O'clock.
The various delegations were ex-
pected to start out from the Y. w. z. A.,
their meeting place, for. the White
House, the U. S. c. Of c. and the De-
partrnents of Labor and the Interior, at
about 4 o'clock this afternoon, formally
winding up their deliberations here.
All members of the delegations Will
wear the mortarboard caps and somber,
black gowns which they earned the rlgnt
to wear in expensive years OF education
in some of the leading colleges ana
universities of the country.
The program was written by MRS.
Varian. Fry, wife of one Of the leaders
of the association. Mrs. Fry formerly
was employed by the Atlantic Monthly.
but. like her husband, graduate OF
Harvard and classmate OF James
Roosevelt, son Of President Roosevelt,
fell a victim Of the depression and now
has no job. .
They also have a mass of data which
they have gathered in the past year,
which they will present to Senator
Robert M La Toilette, jr., in the hope
that some Of it might be read into the
Congressional Record.
The group yesterday openly an
nounced its opposition to the policies
of the Chamber of Commerce Of the
United States, which also Is meeting
here now, and it was for this reason
that the Chamber was included In the
places to be visited by cap and gown
delegations this afternoon. Secretary
of Labor Perkins will be visited, be-
cause she has the administration of a
large amount Of social legislation, and
the Secretary Of the Interior will be in
cluded, because it is under his depart
ment that the Office of Education oper-
ateS
Particular stress will be laid in the
program, 1t was announced, on the up
building, with Federal funds, Of the
educational facilities of the country.
Officers Named.
The association yesterday named Jo-
seph P. Lash, who is one OF its
founders, the chairman, and John j.
Barnes, a graduate Of Washington
State, was named vice chairman.
At the White House early this after
noon it was stated that the cap and
gown delegation would be received. If
not by the President himself, by one Of
his secretaries.
At this mornings session the white
collar unemployed" drafted and agreed
upon a constitution for a permanent Or
sanitation and laid plans for bu1ld1nS1
l1p their organization with chapters in
the principal cities of the country and
to spread their organization into the
undergraduate groups of all the colleges
and universities OF the country.
New Type Of Marchers.
Washington has had its share Of
narchers upon the Capital, the ragtag
and bobtail of the bonus army, the
gaunt and unfed of the hunger army,
and the red ranks of the Communists,
and now, to complete the picture, 1t has
the procession of the caps and gowns,
all asking for relief.
The caps and gowns adorn an i'm
pressive group Of bachelors, masters
and doctors degrees, with here and
there a Phi. D. thrown in for good
measure.
A Trace Of Bitterness.
There's a trace of bitterness among
them all, and, though they laugh ana
talk among themselves over their hard
ships, their theories, which would have
survived well in the capitalist scheme
of things which flourished so verdantly
back in the days when they were going
to school, or when they were first start
ing out in the serious business Of earn
ing a living, have taken on distinct
anti-capitalistic tinge. There are no
Communists among them; that they
affirm vigorously, but neither are there
any capitalists.
They are the products Of Columbia,
Harvard, Oxford, the University of Lon
don Hunter, Cooper Union, Michigan
University, New York University, West
Virginia University, Boston Medical
College, Oklahoma Agricultural and
Mechanical College, the University of
Kentucky, Dartmouth, Loyola OF Chi
Drexel, Washington College Washing
ton State, College Of the City Of New
York, University of Wisconsin, Syracuse
and the University of Gottinger, Ger
many.
Each Of the more than SO young men
and women delegates to the two-day
conference, which is in its second and
last day today, had at least year, some
two and three years, Of fruitless search
ing for jobs doing anything that would
earn them living.
There Is, for instance, one Of the
leaders of the association, Vartan Fry
of New York, who is on the executive
council Of the association. Fry, class
mate of James Roosevelt, son of the
President, at Harvard, left Cambridge
in 1881, prepared, according to the
educational standards of the country, to
cope with life and earn living.
The bitches Ran Out.
He got a job with Consumers Re
search, in New York, doing just the
sort of work he wanted to do, nom
academic research work. But the work
ran out, and he was let out after a
year because there was no work for
him to do. That was last May. He
hasn't been able to find anything to do
since. Once he dug bitches, but there
was q limit to the number Of bitches
to be dug. and that work ran out, too.
Last Winter he was forced to fall
back on a friend, and he and the wife
he married when he was earning
living, went to live on farm upstate,
in New York. There, on the friends
Summer place, not equipped for Winter
quarters, he and his wife lived all
Winter, he chopping wood and carrying
water and his wife cooking the meager
Tations. His friend wants the place
This Summer, so he'll have to find some
where else to live.
, Then there is the president Of the
organization, Joseph P. Lash, who says
his work the past year has been organ
izing and fostering the association-and
not getting anything for it.
He, too, had a job ready for him
when he completed his work at ColrIm-
bia-a job in an advertising agency.
That lasted for about 10 months and
then, like Fry's place, there was no
more work to do, aid he was out.
: His life since then has been an un-