Pacifists Attacked on the Third Day Of March from Boston to the Cape

Peace marchers walking from Boston to Provincetown were set upon and briefly beaten yesterday in Marshfield.

The incident, which resulted in no serious injuries, marred two eventless days during which police had constantly observed the march and intervened at the first signs of violence.

In Marshfield, however, the lone patrol car accompanying the peace walk disappeared briefly, allowing about 40 men and boys time to assault the marchers and break up a number of their signs.

James Hayes, head of the march, which is sponsored by a pacifist group called the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), described the incident in a telephone interview last night.

"There were people lining both sides of the street as we passed through the center of the town. I guess they had been waiting because most of them had signs," Hayes said.

A number of the hecklers followed the 11 peace marchers out of the business area. Riding in a truck which carried a large "Bomb Red China" sign, they taunted the marchers with an American flag and then briefly set upon them.

"It was a pretty tense situation," Hayes said. "There was just some pushing and roughing up," he added. A number of the marchers were shoved to the ground.

CNVA does not ask for protection, Hayes said, and he had no criticism of the state trooper who had left the walk. "We don't ask for police protection--we always try to talk to people," he said.

Although there was no more violence yesterday, the marchers were continual- ly taunted by passing cars. Some riders threatened the pacifists.

Yesterday's incident was in sharp contrast to the first two days of the walk. With constant police protection, it had begun virtually undisturbed Saturday. The marchers paced through areas of Boston where demonstration earlier in the year had provoked serious violence. But this time, police stepped in immediately wherever there was a chance of a confrontation between the marchers and spectators.

Most people were either apathetic or hostile toward the march. In front of Donovan's Tavern in South Boston, one man shouted:

"You bums, have you ever been in slit trenches?" And along the march's route, another remarked: "The police have to go along with all demonstrations. They know if they didn't there might be a neighborhood-riot."

Only three times during the first two days did the marchers receive anything more than verbal abuse. They were pelted with eggs, once very briefly in Boston, once in Quincy, and more severely Sunday in Weymouth. None of the incidents was serious, however.

Purpose

The purpose of the march, which expects to reach the tip of Cape Cod by the end of the month, is not only to protest the war in Vietnam but also to promote belief in pacifism. In a pamphlet entitled "Why We Walk," the marchers declare:

"Together, we shall liberate one another from the bondage of insensitivity, and restore moral virtue to human affairs. FOR WE SHALL DEVELOP THE SPIRITUAL ATOM BOMB and with it destroy the walls of hate and violence!"

Rest

During their brief rest stops, members of the walk tried to persuade hecklers to change their viewpoint about war. In response, they were hostilely disputed and often taunted. Said one teenager from Dorchester, "It [the war in Vietnam] is just like when you have a fight with a gang. They stab you and you want to stay them back."

Angry spectators often cursed the marchers and accused them of being both cowardly and un-American.

"You call yourselves Americans, yalled one man. "You're all yellow bastards."

When the demonstration left the Boston Common at about 12:35 p.m. Saturday, there were about 64 marchers and about 50 policemen protecting them. The size of the police contigent was reduced about a half hour later to several patrol cars and six motorcycles. The march's size, too, began to diminish, and at the end of the day about 25 people remained.

By Sunday, there were only about 15. This was the size anticipated by the planners of the peace walk. One of the marchers, John Phillips, who has burned his draft card and refused induction into the army, explained Saturday why he was walking:

"I want to convince people that we're not out to topple the government," he said. On private walks from Boston to Providence, Phillips said, "I would just saunter along and talk to people."

On Sunday, Phillips was hinting that the march was not proving as successful as his private walks. "When I walk alone, it's easy to stop and talk to someone. Here it's almost the opposite. We all have signs, and it's hard to stop.