Universal Databases

...About 20 people assembled in the St. Olaf administration building at 3:00 p.m. November 12. They were there to begin an all night "Vigil for Peace," the purpose of which came into question and under fire several times during the evening. ... Most of the group's problems lay in its lack of unity, not only in agreeing on its purpose, but also in deciding the means by which to achieve it. The original plans for the vigil were to stay in the administration building until 5:00 p.m., at which time it would move to Boe Chapel, where people were authorized to spend the night....

..."It is the Saigon government that prevents the self-determination of the Vietnamese people. There would be no war if we were to withdraw." Frank Mankiewicz, formerly Robert Kennedy's press aid and now syndicated Washington columnist, had this and other things to say about the war and Mr. Nixon when he spoke in Boe Chapel Thursday night. ... "President Nixon is probably the first president in our history who isn't really from anywhere," Mankiewicz commented. The President doesn't like or trust Washington, but he is a real politician....

...The goal of the University of Wisconsin at Madison was a peaceful Moratorium for peace. Its student organizers tried to discredit those who had predicted violence. ... Activities on Thursday—a "Day of Thought"—included a series of educational and political programs focusing on the idea of immediate withdrawal from Vietnam and on the university's involvement in military research. Participants also felt that the university's investment in war-related industries threaten the institution's academic ideals and demanded that such ties be broken....

...A bitter wind marred the path to the St. Olaf women's gym as I hurried to the student body meeting along with a couple hundred others. ... It was Moratorium time again. There was a prayer: give us better guns that can shoot a thousand rounds a second to spread killing and destruction over all the earth. "In the name of thy son, General Patton, amen." The audience liked the irony. ... And the vice-president was quoted again. Greg Willms said we really were impudent, impudent enough not to believe the myth that war is OK and should be accepted calmly....

..."Meanwhile at Northfield, Minn., work was begun yesterday on a giant junk sculpture, tentatively ttiled 'The War Machine.' The proposed five-ton structure is being built on a traffic island on the St. Olaf campus." ... Or so said the Minneapolis Tribune from November 14. In truth, there has been no construction on the project to date nor has there been a title proposed for the work. ... The drop in student support since October 15 has been a great factor contributing to this non-action. There were only about 40 or 50 people at a Moritorium sculpture rally Friday afternoon in Boe chapel....

...We bombed up to the Cities on Moratorium Thursday, but found little action. A couple of good speakers, some good times, but nothing unusual. No head cracking or tear-gas; we even missed Papa Groppi, who spoke on the other side of town while we itched thru 2 hrs. of speakers at the Auditorium. ... But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing was ... 1. Rally at the You ... We made it up to the You of Em in time to hear a couple of lousy speakers, wander thru the corridors of Northrop Auditorium, and stand outside in the —16 wind chill weather waiting to be told what to do....

...(Editor's note: Following is the statement issued by the "Vigil for Peace" at the sit-in in the St. Olaf administration building last Wednesday.) ... It is in the institutions, like St. Olaf College, that the power for change really lies in American society. This power is persuasive power, which resides in institutions by their nature as suppliers of goods and services. It involves economic, political and moral influences. The effectiveness of this power is strongly evidenced in institutional conglomorates such as the military-industrial complex, which controls military spending and determines our military posture....

...Washington, CPS — America loosened her skirts and sat on the cold ground at the Washington Monument, November 15, as hundreds of thousands of her children came together for three and a half hours of talking, music, and serious reflection on the war in Vietnam. All sorts of people were there: long-haired hippies, middle-aged women wrapped in mink, little children, and young marrieds. This was their resting place after the long march up Pennsylvania Avenue on to the rolling ground of the Monument....

...Washington, CPS — Despite advance government prodictions of widespread violence, and the last minute cancellation of busses from some cities, the Capital experienced the largest protest rally in the nation's history, November 15. ... It was impossible to determine exactly how big the massive crowd that gathered at the Washington Monument to protest the Vietnam war was. Police Chief Jerry Wilson termed his department's estimate of a quarter of a million people as "modest." He added that it is impossible to tell the size of a crowd larger than 250,000....

...In an effort to draw the business community into the antiwar letter effort, several of us descended up Northfield Friday afternoon. Unfortunately most of my postcards remained unsigned. ... Ironically, many stores displayed conflicting posters in their windows. While it appeared that the merchants were sympathetic with the Moritorium, they were also advertising their long Thursday business hours. This was carrying business to the "more than usual" phase. ... Response to the postcard-writing was varied....

...Focusing his remarks on the President's Nov. 3 address to the nation, Rep. Don Fraser (D-Minn.) criticized Mr. Nixon last Friday evening for taking the real "easy way out" by postponing the truly hard decisions about the war. ... The Minneapolis congressman noted that the most chilling aspect of the speech was Nixon's willingness to accept the substitution of his own name in what used to be called "Johnson's War." ... Fraser refuted Nixon's claim that to call Vietnam Johnson's war and blame the consequences of a pullout on the former President would be "politically cynical....

...A guerilla theater group in Minneapolis abandoned the streets for the bright lights of the stage during the Moratorium, briefly upstaging the Minnesota Theatre Company. ... The political melodrama surreptitiously opened during the third act of Uncle Vanya Friday night at the Guthrie Theatre. A shill whistle, followed by shouts and vocal machine gun fire, interrupted Yelena Andreievna's solioquy. ... Seven male and female Viet Cong, disguised as long-haired street people, infiltrated the theatre from two doors directly in front of the proscenium....

...In recent weeks there has been much talk about a possible reduction of the staff of the Russian Department and the status of the Russian major itself. In reply to this, Dean Albert Finholt announced that an administrative decision made in August has tentatively reduced the Russian faculty for 1971-1972 from two professors to one. ... Finholt explained that such early action was necessitated at that time because of college rules providing a full year's notice to all faculty members -about changes in hiring....

...Impressed by the organization and success of the recent October 15 Moratorium, parliament has discarded its former system of regularly scheduled assemblies on Tuesday nights. It has innovated a new non-system, whose goal according to treasurer Terry Yarger is "to get interested students working on issues." ... Toward implementing the new system, four meetings open to any and all students have been planned for this week. Parliament members may still participate in any of the four issue-areas. However, the assumption is that parliament members might not necessarily be the interested students which are wanted....

...(STONB) — Eric Giere, tenor soloist, will present a recital at 8:15 p.m., November 18, in the women's gymnasium. ... Mr. Giere has performed with the Center Opera Company in Minneapolis and most recently was tenor soloist in Honegger's King David with the Hamline University choir and the St. Paul Chamber orchestra earlier this year. He also performed at the Nordic Fest at Decorah, la., in July. ... Other performance credits include University of Iowa Opera Workshop soloist and soloist in St. Paul Pops concerts and with the Minneapolis symphony....

...TRENTON, N.J. — (CPS) — Those students who still believe change can be accomplished working through the political system have suffered a set-back in the Nov. 5 elections, as referendums to lower the voting age in two states failed. ... Voters in Ohio and New Jersey rejected their opportunities to grant voting rights to 19 and 18-year-olds respectively in referendums considered crucial tests to indicate the probability of other states doing the same. Had the referendums passed, the possibility for passage of a federal Constitutional amendment on the issue also would have been greatly improved, Youth Franchise Coalition spokesmen had predicted....

...Last year St. Olaf College ran up a deficit for the first time in several years. Such an experience is bound to be a traumatic one for adminstrators, especially when the situation does not seem likely to right itself easily. It is indeed understandable, then, that administrators should look for places to cut down expenditures. ... Judging from recent "tentative" administrative action, reported elsewhere in this issue, one of the first expenditures to go is "high cost courses." A "high cost course" is defined as a course for which less than ten students are registered....

...To the Editors: ... St. Olaf's almost non-existent black population seems to go to all ends to leave misinformed whites misinformed. As they slink into their black sanctuary on the north side of Ytterboe. they alienate all but a few well-chosen whites. ... This center supposedly fulfills all the needs of the blacks to escape the heavy Norwegian atmosphere which is so prevalent on this campus. Not everyone is Norwegian, however, and not all bask in the holy atmosphere of this Norwegian convent! ... But then the huge Ole grapevine has heard little of the blacks' alienating powers in their "much needed center!...

...The legend on its massive door reads HALL'S SAFE AND LOCK CO. — Cincinnati & Minneapolis. A tranquil pastoral scene above the lettering is now cracked and faded. The combination knob is smashed and battered — the result of some determined effort of the past to bring its contents to light. ... It has resided in the basement of Steensland Hall for as long as anyone can remember. Sitting as it has directly outside the door to the Messenger office, through the years it has become known as the "Messenger safe....

...To the Editors: ... I was sorry to see the prominent display in the Messenger of the Moratorium committee call for a boycott of classes November 13 and 14. The superficial thinking which produces a document so filled with assumptions and innuendoes reflects little credit upon St. Olaf students' ability to discriminate and evaluate. ... I have high regard for the intellectual acumen of St. Olaf students. I trust that they will recognize that interrupting the academic program is irrelevant to stopping a war and will rather get on with their classwork for which they make a large financial investment and which in the long run is their best preparation for solving the problems of the world....