Commehhow vtogr Y .p~ frEoEOLmhvecoebakarmsasintn.Moe iedthi Everything was hu'e and people had to stand in line fr hours I befoire joining the mass. And then the crowd didn't mnoxe because there weie just too many. But, as cold as it was, the mnarchers weien't com- plaining. They shouted to keep warm- "Peace Now" again and again with digs at Agnew interspersed. Some people hopped-a hundred people hopping to fight the freezing wind. Others warmed with wine while a few with the definitely unfurtive pas*sing of joints. The crowd was big and it was happy too. The happy ranged from unbridled skipping joy to the feeling that comes from determination and resolve. But for nearly everyone a part of being happy was a quiet sense of accomplishment. 4 Standing in the midst of Saturday's mass march, with people ~. crowded out of sight in both directions or watching the agonizing solemnity of the March Against Death, thei'e was an overwhelming feeling of being part of a group doing something very ireal. Nearly everyone seemed aware that the marches would have little immediate effect on the administration's policy. Indeed the talk of the wxar was limited to chanted s logans and the speeches from the platform on Saturday. ~~ORE IMPORTANT was the sense ol unity in being part ol the O mas:. All 'orts of people marched together-they were part of the same crowd. And, if just for afew moments, even the purists were glad to see all those different sorts protesting the x'war. And that was a large part of the accomplishnent-the act of protest. The going to the hone of the villains to voice dissent was catharsis and satisfaction-simply to speak out and be glad that so many others had chosen to speak out too. But the speaking out has come to be over and people gone home. There is, before anything else, bitterness. 'The newspapers say that men are still dying. Nixon is still president and Agnew still an ass. THE CHANGES, if any, resulting from the mobilization were in the attitudes of people. Among the gream silent who-ever-they-are that Nixon thinks he appeals to, the changes in attitude were very few. Hardly anyone realized, who didn't know it before, that this country has been fighting the wxrong fight all along. The only significant reaction of the country at large will be in their general feeling toward tht anti-war movement. It appears now N ~if the administra tion's desper'ate attempts to polarize the nation have failed. The Pres'ident's wrapping himself in the flag on November third -telling millions of television viewers of his valiant efforts to stave - off the tide of communisnm-did not keep anyone away from Was'hing- ton nor did it make the marchers appear evil to anyone but those who would have thought so anyway. Even Agnew's forays into his daughter's high pow ered vocabulary cards seem only to have lprovided a public - ~voice for the nation's lpolitically degenerate. There was violence in Washington but it was not of the sort the administration could point to with glee. The gas in the streets was directed at a small portion of those who went to Washington. For the most part the message of the mnoratoirium was firmly but non-violently stated. The gas battles were clearly peripheral, even in the eyes of the conservative press and Washington's police chief. BUT FOR TH1-E PEOPLE in the movement the violence in the streets may have had greater' importance. Beyond the unity which the overwhelming numbers in the capital represented, there was an emner- ging discomfort and a more prooundc disunity over the direction and Wtacticss of the movement. The Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam wa. a rood thing. Lois of lpeolple came a nd the point wvas made. But it didn't end the war and it wvon't. It was clear as well that the violence which did occur will not ~ '~/~stop the war either. But many at all level: of the anti-war movement will be thinkina, in the aftermath of Washington, about the implications of this general lack of results. The street disturbances were disorganized and essentially without political significance. Rocks tossed and windows broken, a whole lot of team' gas ca nister: thrown -it didn't mean too much either wxay. What the Washington Post appropriately termed a "mini-riot" could just as well have been in another town at another time for all it said 7 a° about the war. But leaders of the movement or new leaders in a