College Politics

In November 1928, RWR as a freshman, leads a protest against budget cuts proposed by the president of Eureka College. Despite his acting and speaking before crowds in the past, this is the first time that he has tried to incite action. As cited from his a utobiography:
"I discovered that night that an audience has a feel to it and, in the parlance of theater, that audience and I were together. When I came to actually presenting the motion there was no need for parliamentary procedure; they came to their feet with a roar; even the faculty members present voted by acclamation. It was heady wine. Hell, with two more lines I could have had them riding through 'every Middlesex village and farm' and without horses yet."
Senior-class president and chairman of the strike committee Howard Short said "He was involved all right ... but at our invitation. ... We asked him to speak because even then he was full of baloney. He made a good rabble-rousing speech, but all three of us [on the committee who spoke] had them eating out of our hands." The strike succeeded and the president resigned and the program was eventually dropped.


Make Believe, p. 78-80

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