The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-12
BY EDWARD sAGARrN

CITY COLLEGE AND WAR: Why
Were Twenty-One Students Ex-
peRed? Issued by the Committee
of Expelled and Suspended City
College Student, 583 Sixth Avenue,
New York City. Three cents.
Why should the students in the
City College of New York be opposed
to elective" military training? Who
was actually responsible for the WELL
known umbrella affair" on lingo
day? Was the faculty justified in
taking sides with the administration?
How did each of the various anti
war groups act in the case? What
should be the position of the workers
and students of America toward this
case of expulsion and suspension?
These are some of the questions
which this pamphlet answers, at
times very adequately, at others less
so. Perhaps its most convincing and
important contribution is the argu-
ment against elective" military
training. The writers show the CO.
ercion used to get students to join
the r. o. T. G. Promises of privi-
leges, jobs, pay. camp, uniforms and
even sexual attraction are given to
the freshmen on the first day in
school by Colonel Lewis They are
taught jingoistic propaganda and lies
about national defense" They are
taught to hate radicals and pacifists,
and injected with religious opium
toward the end Of saving ones faith
in "our people. in their God, their
homes, their native land, its flag and
the American institutions.
That any student interested in
making the world safe from iInpe-
rialist war must militantly oppose
such e. program in q free" college
Cor any other school becomes OBJ
vious, and it was in order to demon
strate their opposition that certain
City College clubs and students, affil-
lated with or sympathetic to the
National Student League and the
League for Industrial Democracy par
ticipated in an anti-Jingo demon
stration the same day that President
Robinson and some generals and D.
A. r. ladies were to review the mill
taristic display of the R. o. T. G.
The overwhelming majority of the
student body had already showed its
sympathy with these anti-war stu
dents by electing candidates on a
platform Of abolition of the r. o.
T. G.
The pamphlet outlines what hap
pened that day, how the press (that
is, the capitalist press contradicted
itself from one edition to the next
and purposely distorted the case, how
the faculty backed up the reactionary
administration, how a fascist group
of "vigilantes" was formed, all cul-
minating with the suspension Of
three clubs, and the expulsion Of
twenty-one students.
The pamphlet is written very
simply, with sectarian language
avoided which will make it very
helpful in winning over even more
students for program of struggle
against war, and ultimately for
revolutionary program.
However, the pamphlet, which is
issued by the united front committee
of expelled and suspended students,
ends up with demand for organiza-
ton, without telling what kind of
organization. 1t does not say that
L. I. D. members of the commit
tee have consistently and regularly
sabotaged every act of the commit
tee, that they refused to act with
the National Student League on the
ground that the latter were Com
munists, and in this way did every
thing in their power to weaken the
struggle for the reinstatement Of the
students and the clubs, and for the