U.S. Students Concerned, Fearful

Student newspaper editors across the country report that college students were generally shocked and stunned by President Kennedy's action in the Cuban crisis.

While the majority of students support Kennedy's initiatives and are grimly prepared to support him, the general feeling is that total war is unthinkable and will not happen.

The editors said that no issue in their memory had evoked the concern and discussion that monopolized life yesterday in American colleges.

At several universities active protests erupted yesterday or were planned for today. Perhaps the largest occurred at the University of California at Berkeley, where a public protest meeting originated by the Young Socialist Alliance attracted crowds of 800-1500 for more than four hours.

Although the Berkeley meeting started off with violent anti-Kennedy speeches, reporters for the Daily Californian said the mood of the meeting changed as pro-Kennedy students joined the throng. Heated arguments in the crowd at times threatened to explode into fist fights.

Some Students Picket

Pickets were spotted at the University of Chicago, Wayne State University in Detroit, and in New York. The Michigan Daily said a joint college-city protest march was planned for 4 p.m. today, and other editors speculated that similar action might be in the works at their colleges.

But support for the Administration and a strong feeling of personal involvement and danger were the rule at most campuses. Every editor interviewed said students were worried about the draft and thought war was very possible in the near future.

Swarthmore, Yale and Princeton editors said their student bodies were strongly in favor of the blockade and didn't feel nuclear war was imminent. Jonathan Rose, chairman of the Yale Daily News, saw near unanimity in New Haven behind the President, although a few students reportedly had left for Vermont.

War fear was far greater at Michigan and California, however, with many students apparently feeling "all this couldn't be happening." Today's Californian editorial said, "People are forcing smiles where there is no laughter." It also chastised students for continuing to "laugh and study and meet our girl friends" without realizing the seriousness of the times. Michigan Daily reporter Michael Zweig said he had "never seen students so concerned and upset." A similar atmosphere prevailed at Columbia.

Editors of the Daily Mississippian said the student body there was behind Kennedy, despite the violent anti-Administration feelings just two weeks ago in the integration riots.

Editorials, when risked, were primarily pro-Kennedy. Today's Princetonian will voice approval on the Administration, saying "There are few better times to do this." The Yale Daily News will say today that it and "Yale students have wholeheartedly supported Kennedy's firm but carefully limited initiatives." It expresses concern, though, that the "timing of the move" may have been influenced by "political considerations."

This morning's Michigan Daily, however, will carry a signed editorial joining the CRIMSON in questioning the U.S. position. It fears Kennedy's move has "subverted the power of the United Nations," and calls this a "great failure" for U.S. policy.