The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-08-14

conscious students as something
far different from the statement
in Mr.. Fines article. He has taken
the propaganda claims Of the adj
ministration word for word and
set them down as unbiased observ-
alton.
Commonwealth needs the services
Of Mr.. Fine as an apologist. Stu
dents there during the September
December quarter, who went on
strike and left the school in pure
disgust over the tirnidity and con-
servatism Of the administration,
have spread the story too widely
of what the school actually is for
administration stories OF an Ar
kansas Utopia to be believed with
out some apparently "unprejudiced''
support.
Mr.. Fine rejoices several times
over the fact that nowhere in the
school did he find "a single affili@
ated member of any Of the Com
munist factions" This is a mat
ter easily explained. Since the
strike, class-conscious students
have avoided the school and left
only the half-hearted liberals and
the renegades from which the adj
ninistration may coax a student
body. Commonwealth now, more
than when we were there, is a fes@
tering place for the propagation OF
Observation-Disclosures trends. for
sectarianism, and for reforrnism.
CONSIDER its faculty. Last De-
" cember, at the time of the strike.
when two-thirds of the student
body left, there were on the fac
ulty and administration three per-
sons expelled from the Communist
Party, two Socialists, a Trotskyite.
Lovestoneite, a Musteite and
three who have had no organic con-
nection with even the liberal fringes
OF the labor movement. One of
those listed as expelled from the
G. P. is Oliver Carlson, Carlson
was expelled from the Communist
Party several years ago for ner-
sistent refusal to stick to the PARTY
line and for negligence and lazis
ness IN executing instructions. Il
CONSIDER the policies OF the adj
administration. As the best example
OF It's timid and reactionary attI-
tude, Is its stand on the question
OF admitting Negro students. Ouak-
ing with fear over the possibility
OF arousing the "neighboas" in tina
Hy-Whifs county where the school
Is located, the administration had
to be forced by pressure of student
opinion 10 consider q program of
nelghborhood education leading up
to the gradual admission of Negro
students. Administration action on
the program was quick and in
stinctive-action on 1t was post
poned until September, 1898. in
other words, until a new student
body had come and the farce could
be played over from the beginning.
EVEN more potent than the feay
~ OF Communism and its prin-
ciples in the minds OF the Asso-
citation members that control the
school, Is the dread Of organized
student action. Ever since the
present administration, at that
time students themselves. ousted
the former head Of the school.
William E. zeuch, and assumed
control themselves, there has been
the dread of an upheaval that
would throw them out in turn.
This last December, when oppo-
sltlon to the stringent rules and to
the administrations attitude ON
the admission Of Negroes took the
form OF agitation for student adj
Visory government, the Association
IN the first impulse Of wild terror.
sunlmarily expelled two students
who had been the most vocal in
their opposition to the reactionarv
administration.
Student anger took the form of a
protest strike-the second school
strike Of this school generation,
Communist and Socialist students
alike joined in close united front
and kept the strikers ranks solid
and unbroken. The only scabs were
several blood-relatives of Associa-
ton members and students paid BY
the administration in the form OF
scholarships and jobs.
THEN the college Joined forces
Il with its natural allies-tre po-
lice and the courts. The strike
committee was put under arrest.
This action completely exposed the
reactionary character of the ad-.
ministration to the students. On
the next day the strikers, compris-
ing about two-thirds Of the student
body, packed and left in body.
Commonwealth is openly exposed
to the workers as an ideologically
bankrupt, reactionary school. Only
such stand-patter Socialists as Mr.
Fine can find an enchanting pic
ture in considering it. But per-
haps to Mr.. Fine it Is an Interests
ing experiment"-an experiment to
determine how much and how long
working-class students may be de-
ceiVed t1y reartinnarv ideas cIothed