The campus of Columbia University is the arena for its annual tumult. This time it is the question of Hitlerism, freedom of the press and academic liberty for professors having been settled for all time last year after much verbal fisticuffs.
The discovery of swastikas hanging from the rafters of Hamilton Hall and in the editorial offices of The Daily Spectator Thursday morning has the daily off on one of its vitriolic flights, the student body in an uproar and members of the faculty in bewilderment. The question biting the campus is whether the “perpetrators” are practical jokers or “Nazi propagandists.”
This being a day of bellicose pro-and anti-Hitlerism. Columbia is in its element and student correspondents are chasing hither and thither gathering statements and telephoning their city desks. The Spectator put on a grim look and with fierce editorial emotion, has thrown down the gauntlet to campus Nazis who dare to flaunt swastikas.
Friday’s edition of The Spectator carries an editorial reading in par as follows:
“The reputation of this University has suffered because of the remarkable silence of its president, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, with regard to the Hitler government and the menace to world peace.
“If indications point to a growing organized movement of Nazi adherents on this campus and elsewhere, Columbia must expel these men.
“The menace of Hitlerism in the United States is too potent a reality to be likely to be dismissed.
“The incident on the campus gives rise to fear that the shadow of Hitlerism is evolving into substance. Such fear should be translated into concerted attempt to ## down those who perpetrated this outrage and seek the men behind it, if any.”
VARIOUS COMMENTS
Acting Dean Nicholas McD. McKnight, of the college, said:
“The college objects most rigorously to the recent occurrence involving the display of the Nazi symbol. Investigation thus far leads me to the conclusion that someone’s distorted sense of humor is responsible. It is a vicious” sort of joke and one that is entirely out of place in community that sides itself with tolerance and consideration for others. I am making it my business to get all the facts and see to it that the occurrence is stopped in the future.”
The Socialist Club executive committee said:
“Fascism is too dangerous a menace to be treated as an attempt at puerile humor.”
The Social Problems Club said:
“The fight against Fascism must be intensified now.”
The Student Board will consider the matter at its next meeting to decide whether the affair was a prank or a Nazi plot.
Frederick J. W. Heuser, professor of German and head of the Deutsches Haus, described the incident as a “lark and a practical joke.”
Rabbi Baruch Braunstein, advisor to Jewish students, said:
“The flurry of swastikas has ceased to be a joke.” He will urge University authorities to investigate.
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