1000 Attend Class Day; The War is Major Theme

Class Day for the Class of 1970, the second day of Commencement activities, found Sever Quad alive with anti-war speeches, some of them also anti-government and anti-the-latest-developments-in-Western-culture.

Some 1000 people, including about 400 seniors, listened to speakers and poets. Less than half of the seniors-from both Harvard and Radcliffe-were wearing caps and gowns. Although it was Radcliffe's Class Day as well, the speakers were all white and all male.

The speakers included Reswell B. Perkins '47, a vice-president of the Harvard Alumni, James M. Fallows '70, Class Orator, Frederic L. Grandy '70, Ivy Orator, and J. Herbert Hollomon, president of the University of Oklahoma.

Dean May, rising amidst scattered applause and hisses in what he called one of his "few pleasant duties," awarded the three annual Ames awards, to students, who, in the opinion of the class, had shown the qualities of leadership and resourcefulness.

The three seniors who won the award are Lawrence Berger '70, Thomas Cross '70, and Les?ie F. Griffin '70.

The award was founded by the Ames family in memory of the father and two sons, all Harvard graduates, who drowned in the transatlantic yacht race in 1934.

New Patriotism

James M. Fallows '70, the class orator, warned that "A new patriotism will require, as a first step, that we separate ourselves from many of our nation's current practices," In his conversational but pained speech, he explained, "I think the decision we must make is to withdraw our cooperation [from the draft], to refuse to serve in an army that bears any resemblance to the one we have now."

"Today, most of us are not here," Fal-lows said. "Those of us who are share a sense of embarrassment to be standing here. performing the traditional rituals, while more important jobs are left undone."

Before the reading of the class ode, written by Class Odist Gilbert S. Bettman III, Thomas Elliott, the original class odist, read the ode he had composed.

Because of the political nature of Elliott's Ode, the Class Chorister said that he would be unable to sing it. The class committee therefore decided to choose Bettman as a second choice, John F. Ince. Class Marshall, said.

Bettman, calling his Ode a "monument to obscurity," said that he agreed with what Elliott had written, but added that his poem was probably a little more circumspect about it.

J. Herbert Hollomon, speaking as Guest Speaker, said that "even if Vietnam should disappear tomorrow, student protest would continue."

"The rebellion is against the rationalization of the world, against the scientism," he said Hollomon is a former executive for General Electric and former assistant Secretary of Commerce under Kennedy and Johnson.

It was in Washington. Hollomon said, that he began to see the failure in his world view. "I lost myself in the drive for unreasoned progress." he said. "Even my sons thought that I was cruel and removed from them, and I was."

As intermezzos to the orations, William Alfred, and Mark Seeger '70 read poems, and John Hoffman '70 sang what he called "a traditional Latin protest song."

Hoffman said that the Class of 1970 was about to join "that Orange Bowl half-time show which is America." He then accompanied himself on the guitar and kazoo in his song. "The Simple Life For Me."