The controversy centering around the compulsory purchase of German-made goods by the student body of City College approached a climax yesterday afternoon when the Avukah and Menorah Societies placed a huge sign reading “Don’t Buy German Goods” in front of their alcove. Sentiment to pass a resolution petitioning the school authorities to cease buying German goods and passing it on to unwilling students was voiced by an overwhelming majority of the Jewish clubs.
This step was taken after student publications had bitterly attacked Hitler and urged the faculty and students to boycott German goods. However, the Campus and other student papers are silent about German goods used in the drafting, biology, physics and chemistry departments of City College.
Instruments used in the science departments. which the students must buy for five dollars, are stamped with “made in Germany.” One active Jewish student protested at the start of the current semester to his science instructor but was told that the rules of the department made it compulsory for students to purchase their material from the school.
That German goods were still being used was observed yesterday on the fourth floor of the main building, at 137th street and Convent avenue, where a reporter found two large crates, both marked from Germany. It could not be ascertained what was in them.
COMMITTEE CALLS ON STORE
In the cooperative store of the school also German goods are sold. A committee of Menorah Society students called upon the head of the store recently. The committee was assured that should the student body protest, the sale of German goods would be stopped. So far nothing has been done.
School instructors are inclined to be uncommunicative, but at the Business School, Professor Ross A. Baker, head of the laboratory department, denied that German material is being used.
John J. Karpeles, president of the Menorah at the Business School, informed The Jewish Daily Bulletin that he would join in a school protest against German goods.
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