Opinions and demonstrations have been many in the last several months around Oneonta, about wars and our federal government. The same was true here 90 years ago, some for other reasons.
Some remembered wars of the past. Others were building something useful for the future during the Great Depression in 1935.
As The Oneonta Star of April 12, 1935 reported, “Plans on the part of Hartwick college students for participation in the nation-wide demonstration against war have progressed rapidly, according to an announcement made last night by Eugene Strebel, president of the Hartwick Student association.
“Dr. Ralph D. Heim, dean, announced that the administration had given its consent for the ‘walkout’ which will take place at 11 o’clock this morning. Following the ‘walkout,’ students will participate in a parade through the main streets of the city in a protest against the United States entering into another war.
Although the U.S. entry was still nearly six years away, “The movement, which is nationwide in its scope, will involve some 100,000 students from colleges and universities in all of the 48 states of the union. This is about 10 per cent of the total college enrollment in the nation.
“Banners and placards will be used to declare the opposition of the students to war, and it is probable that floats may be entered in the parade. There is also a possibility that a band will be organized from the students of the college, and that this group will lead the marchers.”
Turnout was favorable, as The Star reported the next day, “Despite wet streets and a steady drizzle of rain from 11 until 12 o’clock yesterday forenoon, a turnout of nearly 100 per cent of the students of Hartwick college participated.” That was about 300 students at the time.
The students marched down Oyaron Hill through several streets and past the Normal School before disbanding on Center Street.
“The parade and demonstration were carried off in an orderly fashion, and many onlookers flocked to doors and windows as the procession passed.
“Occasional cheers, patriotic songs and school songs, and occasional blasts on the horns of the automobiles at the end of the line were the only audible evidence of the demonstration.”
Another war of the past got attention, as Star readers of April 20 learned, “April 21, 1898, is a date that conveys little of significance to many residents of Oneonta, but to a group of now middle-aged men, who at that time were members of the First New York Volunteer Infantry, it is a date not easily forgotten.
“Thirty-seven years ago tomorrow the nation woke up to the cry of ‘to h–l with Spain, remember the Maine.’ Within a few days after the destruction of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, the Oneonta unit …was ordered to mobilize for the war against Spain.”
Young people of the mid-1930s also had an opinion on the fairly recent ending of Prohibition.
As The Star reported on April 25, “’Until repeal, I had never seen a drunken person. Since then, I have seen dozens of them in many places,’ Miss Elizabeth Patrick of Oneonta State Normal school told the City W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) at a meeting in the United Presbyterian church yesterday afternoon.
“As one of four speakers on the topic, ‘Christian Youth’s Reaction to Repeal,’ she said, ‘I was brought up in a dry family and repeal advocates will say that I have been sheltered and never went to the places where there was drinking. Perhaps so, but I have gone to the same places since repeal that I did before, and I have seen many drunken persons on the streets, at dances, and in the homes of my friends.
“Conditions today are to be blamed on persons who voted for repeal because they themselves wanted to drink, but even more on those who were too indifferent to vote against it.
“‘Christian young people are opposed strenuously to alcohol of any kind, and they will revolt,’ stated Wilfred Lyon of Hartwick college, another speaker.”
Many men probably had a good opinion of just being able to work, as members of the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at Gilbert Lake. Several projects were underway, and as The Star of April 20 reported, “A number of cabins are now being constructed by CCC members and will be placed at the disposal of the camping public this summer.”
On Wednesday, Oneonta is introduced to Great Society programs, civil rights and more in the spring of 1965.