Sun Outshines Speakers At Huge Washington Rally

WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 10-Saturday's anti-war rally here drew an unexpectedly large crowd of almost 100,000 to the Ellipse, a large park between the White House and the Washington Monument, to protest the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and to demand immediate withdrawal of American troops from Southeast Asia.

The atmosphere was less solemn than that during the huge Washington demonstration last November. The temperature hovered around 90 degrees as demonstrators wandered around absorbing the noonday sun, talking with friends, and wading in the various fountains in the area.

By the time the official rally ended at 3 p.m., at least a thousand had climbed into a reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, where they sang, splashed, and chanted slogans. Many young men and women took off all their clothes; two were later arrested for indecent exposure.

Several potentially violent episodes after the rally never got off the ground. The White House and Lafayette Park across the street were sealed off by a cordon of empty buses. Demonstrators let the air out of some bus tires, and tried unsuccessfully to tip over one of the buses.

"Seig Heil"

Youths shouting "Seig Heil" pushed a coffin over the bus cordon, near the Executive Office Building, while two blocks away demonstrators sat in the street blocking traffic and threw bottles at police.

An SDS rally in front of the Labor Department in support of worker-student cooperation drew several hundred chanting students and perhaps a handful of workers.

Several thousand National Guardsmen and Army troopers had been alerted for the demonstration. Many watched and chatted with throngs of passing demonstrators through the locked gates of Federal office complexes where the soldiers were being stored.

They were never needed. Most peacekeeping was handled by D.C. police-whose relations with demonstrators remained remarkably cordial all day-and New Mcbe marshals, many of whom had also been marshals at the November 15 demonstration.

After the main rally, the marshals moved quickly to block off potentially violent areas, warning people who passed their lines. "Please think about what you're doing before you go past here. There may be violence. This activity is not officially sanctioned by the New Mobilization Committee."

Some of the loudest applause at the noon rally came when several hundred moved through the crowds of students at the west end of the Ellipse carrying signs reading "Federal Employees Against the War."

Other signs played on President Nixon's reference earlier last week to college protesters as "bums." much as in November the demons? rators had carried signs saying "Effete Snobs for Peace." after Vice-President Agnew's earlier reference.

In front of the podium. Daniel W. Billings Jr., a 28-year-old minister from the Universal Life Church, had had himself strapped to a crucifix and lifted into the air for the benefit of newsmen. He refused water which the New Mobe marshals begged him to take. "We came here to crucify Nixon." one of Billings's supporters explained.

The speakers at the rally included Chicago Seven defendants John Froines, and David Dellinger, poet Allen Ginsburg. Mrs. Goretta King, folksingers Phil Ochs and Judy Collins, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and actress Jane Fonda.

"The students are showing the way for the older people in America by their militancy." said Spock, who was dressed in a blue double-breasted suit with pin-stripes and a peace-symbol tie.

Mrs. Beulah Sandres, a black vice-president of the National Welfare Rights Organization, said. "We join you in your fight against repression." But there appeared to be few blacks or welfare mothers among the white college students on the Ellipse lawn.

Students began arriving in Washington in large numbers Friday morning. While Harvard students and others lobbied on Capitol Hill, hundreds were entertained by Guerilla Theatre troopers in Lafayette Park.

Friday night, yippie Abbie Hoffman and Doug Miranda of the Black Panthers spoke to several thousand students gathered in the Sylvan Theatre, an open-air bowl at the foot of the Washington Monument. Hoffman called the Monument "The world's largest hard-on."

The crowd watched Nixon's press conference on a television on stage. After the conference was over. Hoffman threw the television on the ground and smashed it to pieces.

Early Saturday morning, after his press conference, Nixon paid a surprise visit to a startled group of students at the Lincoln Memorial. He discussed football with a student from Syracuse, and surfing with a girl from California. He said he had been unable to sleep.