Page 8 University Daily Kansan Friday. April 16, 1954
Tear Gas Used in Peace Movements of 30's
By GENE SHANK
An almost pathetic realism shadows the peace movements that were prevalent on the KU campus during the '30s. Clippings in the Daily Kansas files indicate that peace demonstrations, strikes, orations and polls began to spring up in the latter part of 1934 and were increased in number and fervor by 1940 when World War II seemed more and more real.
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more and more inevitable.
The white smoke released from the bomb blew over the crowd, but the speaker, Kenneth Born, "36, kept the crowd from dispersing by saying. "You will face worse than this in war."
Probably the most dramatic of the peace movements was interrupted temporarily by a tear gas bomb thrown at 800 demonstrators who met April 22, 1936, around a speaker's platform erected north of Fowler Shops (now the journalism building).
The bomb was regulation army type, and it was believed to have been obtained by a student from the summer camp of the National Guard. A student, August Anneberg, was charged with throwing the bomb His case was taken before the newly-formed Student Court, but apparently nothing came of it.
The Fowler grove demonstration was a student mobilization for peace that took the form of a walk-out, since the University did not give it official sanction. The demonstration was actually a student strike that took place at 10:30 a.m. when the 800 students simply picked up their books and left their classes.
The movement was in conjunction with a nation-wide peace strike which was expected to bring out a half-million students in the United States. The fundamental resolution of the University demonstrators contained the following: "We wish to keep the United States out of any war under all circumstances. We believe that youth, as potential fighters, should make a definite protest, and only through mass organization can such protest be effective in deterring those in power from taking steps which may involve us in war. A peace mobilization is a symbol of that resistance to war which we intend to make when the crisis comes."
A previous student strike against war, held on April 12, 1935, kept the campus alive with controversy. The Daily Kansan opposed the strike editorially, saying that it wrong method means wrong response. The UDK, reasoned that "the strikers were weak and cause peace more harm than intelligent stay-at-homes who, in their hearts, sincerely worked for peace."
William L. White, son of William Allen White, writing in the Emporia Gazette, said, "Without wishing to butt an obtrusive nose into the affairs of a great center of learning, we're for the strike. If the coming generation, who will fight that next war doesn't take the time, trouble, and the brains to head it off, no one will do it for them. It's their job."
On Nov. 17, 1935, more than 2,000 students met for the first all-student convocation in the history of the school in an orderly demonstration against this country's entering any future war. From that time on the University became host to a series of organized conferences, contests, forums, debates, and Peace Action Committee discussions that reached their peak in '39 and '40.
Student peace polls were extremely popular in "35" and "36", the most comprehensive being the Literary Digest poll of college students throughout the country. With
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211 signified their willingness to do so.
All-student sunrise service, 6 a.m.
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1150 KU students casting their ballots, their votes were largely indicative of the sentiment of the country.
Probably the most discussed question was left unsolved, 698 students believing that the United States should enter the League of Nations and 418 advising the country to remain out of foreign entanglements.
On the general question as to whether the United States could remain out of another world war, 769 students cast affirmative ballots and 360 students believed it impossible. Eight hundred ninety-eight students believed they would take up arms if their country were invaded by an aggressor, while 211 students were conscientious objectors. There was a complete reversal of opinion when 908 students declared they would not assist in the invasion of a foreign country and
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