The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-08
By JEROME ARNOLD

oTUDENTs learn from workers.
y The recent nation wide anti-war
strike demonstrations. the large
numbers that marched in the May
Day parades, show that they are
studying the handbook of militant
working class struggle against war
and faScism and adapting the
methods to the most powerful in
stitution of capitalist propaganda
the high schools and colleges.
But If students are learning from
workers. school authorities are get
ting some valuable tips from city
officials. bosses and refOrmist labor
misleaders. Students are using the
weapons Of mass meetings. petit
lions, demonstrations. strikes.
School administrations are learn
ing the art Of demagogy, and how
to employ police brutality and
scabs.
Take the recent wave of anti
war strikes and demOnstrat tons held
in hundreds of high schools and
colleges throughout the country.
1t was the seventeenth snniver-
sary Of the entrance Of the United
States into the World Wharf.-The
week set aside by the American
League Against War and Fascism
as "Anti-War Week" April 10 was
national strike day in the schools.
Students Pour Onto Csmpuses
Led by the united front of the
militant National Student League
and the alist-controlled Student
League for Industrial Democracy.
many thousands Of students poured
onto their campuses in mass meet
ings against imperislist war. There
were speakers, shouting Of slogans,
and placards calling for Schools
not battleships," Down with r, o,
T. c." Join the working class in
struggle against imperialist war
etc.
In most of the colleges in New
York the demonstrations reached
so many sympathizers that school
authorities feared to prohibit or in
terfere with the strike. Some even
issued statements supporting the
aims, but not the methods used"
Others were silent. Many sincere
college professors and instructors in
the more liberal schools actually
dismissed their classes at the hour
set for the strike and urged their
students to join the strike.
But Just as some city officials use
demagogy while others prefer police
terror, other school authorities de-
cided to employ strong arm methods
in handling the anti-Wsr strikes
This was true especially IN the high
schools where the vast majority Of
the student body are from prole-
tartan and petty bourgeois homes
Strong Arm" Methods
In De Witt Clinton High School
the principal, A. Mortimer Clark,
decided to use both methods. First,
he declared himself lin sympathy
with the anti-war movement" Then
he called on the students not to
support the strike because it was
arranged by reds"
: Just before the strike hour he
called two special assemblies at
which he exhorted the students to
"be loyal to the school and coun-
try and not to listen to thorse
reds" At one Of the assemblies p
student. Joe Lev rose and called
on the students to Join the STRIFE.
One Of the instructors slapped MIN
in the face amid the cries OF the
students to LET him speak,"
Students Beaten
Later, at the library where the
striking students met for an orderly
march out of the school, a group
Of R.O.TC. boys and instructors
charged the group. Some of the
anti-war students we're beaten and
thrown into their claSsrooms.
Just to make sure, Clark had
squadron Of fifteen police marched
up and down in front of the school
with their revolvers displayed out
side their coats
A somewhat similar incident oc-
Cured in Thomas jefferson High
School. Brooklyn, but there was q
little better organization and the
students defeated the attempts of
the administration to break the
strike.
Just before May Day. A. Nor
timer, of De Witt Clinton. distri-
buted the following leaf1et to the
students:
STUDENTS!
your school is being permeated
by radicals. Today these subver-
sive elements intend to persuade
you to march in their red parade
at Union Square.
You must combine your every
means in a determined effort to
break this foul movement!
"If you are an American, if you
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