12 Students Are Arrested by Police In Square's Largest Riot Since War

Thirty-five hundred students pushed and shoved each other for almost two hours last night in what Cambridge police called the biggest Square riot since before the war. Thirteen people, including ten Harvard students and two from Yale were picked up in the police shuttle service and will appear in Third District Court this morning.

The riot made last year's "Princeton fracas look like peanuts," according to Chief Alvin R. Randall of the University police.

The disturbance started outside of Cronin's at 11:10 when two unidentified males attacked a Harvard undergraduate. The men, wearing green sweaters, were beaten off before they could inflict serious damage, but the evening's more violent festivities were underway.

The crowd milled around Dunster Street for about 20 minutes until the cry "On to the Square" was raised, and interested observers began to gather in large numbers.

Skyrockets, flares and firecrackers started to explode on Massachusetts Avenue, and the Cambridge police began to arrive in force to supplement Chief Randall's full crew of 30.

It was in the Square that the battle took on its real character, a fight against the police by the combined Harvard and Yale forces. The rioters began to attack passing cars, trolleys, and trucks. The first paddy wagon arrived at 12:10 a.m. and shortly after it left with the initial load five males and two of their dates.

Two trolleys were temporarily immobilized and a woman ran screaming from a student-rocked car. Aerials were ripped from passing cars and the steering mechanism on a parked automobile. As the police pushed people into the shutting wagons a student chant called out for the six day week.

A light rain which trickled on and off all evening combined with the local gendarmerie to close the riot shortly after 1 a.m.

Earlier in the evening close to 2,000 students gathered in front of Widener Library for the traditional Yale rally. Head Cheerleader Roger L. Butler '51 expressed actress Elizabeth Taylor's regrets on not being able to attend the game, and Carroll Lowenstein, Captain Phil Isenberg, and H.A.A. Business Manager Carroll F. Getchell gave short talks.