THE RIGHT TO RIOT

As General Primo de Riyera joined the rank and file of erstwhile dictators yesterday, 200 students were incarcerated for their boisterous exuberance at the restoration of kingly power. Neither Alfonso's refusal to continue as a figurehead in these enlightened times of complete suffrage, nor the machinations of the Army as a political boss have occasioned more press comment in Spain's latest cabal than this violent outburst of joy from the halls of higher learning.

The interest which European students manifest in affairs of state evidently comes from their assumption that it is their unalterable right to do so. At any rate the latest riot affords an interesting contrast to the manner and subject of student riots in America. The undergraduates of Spain engage in fisticuffs with the officers of the same army which ended Rivera's dictatorship because they are delighted in the return of Monarchy. The younger generation in the United States confines its outbursts mostly to matters academic which have aroused their wrath. Be it faculty infringement on their privileges, the removal of a popular professor, or any form of unjust domination, a riot may be the answer. Riots made to order, riots on the spur of the moment, or riots made necessary by the clammy hand of tradition, they are always a protest against the limitation of freedom.

Even though the Latin temperament seems to prefer outbreaks in favor of autocracy, and the Nordic revolts a means to further Democracy, the younger generation of the world reverts to riots as the logical method of expression. It is Youth's eternal privilege to be indiscreet.