Violence Reaction Fear

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32011, 11 June 1969, Page 15

Violence Reaction Fear

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, June 9. A special Presidential commission said today that extreme public reaction against university violence might turn moderate students into radicals who might help destroy American colleges.

This was one of the conclusions of an interim report by the Commission on Violence, headed by Dr Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of the late General Dwight Eisenhower. It was created by I President Johnson last June after the murder of Senator Robert Kennedy.

The interim report, specifically devoted to student disorders, comes in the wake of months of unrest at campuses throughout the country. It blames college troubles on a small minority of nihilists and others who feel violence is the only way to achieve reform, and on the slowness of colleges to correct their own failings. But it says that punitive public reaction to campus unrest might turn the great majority of moderate students into radicals and help win the goals of nihilists seeking to destroy American colleges. The report suggested, however, that colleges be given the legal means to cope with campus sit-ins when demonstrations cause colleges to close.

Dr Eisenhower said in a statement that while violent

protest often achieved its goals, it more often “produces a degree of counter-vio-lence and public dismay that may gravely damage the cause for which violence is invoked.”

At a press conference. Dr Eisenhower said the campus situation was too threatening for the commission to remain silent until its final report, scheduled for the autumn. To prepare for the autumn college term, the commission recommended that college administrators and faculty, in co-operation with students, set explicit codes for student conduct and discipline. Although campus unrest was often focused on university grievances, the report conceded that it was rooted in dissatisfaction with society at large, its inequalities and its means of self-destruction.