Chicago

THE PATTERN of last month's attack on the Center for International Affairs has been writ large on the streets of Chicago this week. Most of us knew what the Weathermen were planning in Chicago, when and where the days of rage would strike. But no amount of psychic rehearsal could have prepared us for the indiscriminate violence of the Weathermen campaign.

If there is any political logic to racing down city streets, breaking shop and car windows and assuaging policemen, the demonstrators have not bothered to make it plain. One R Y M-I leader announced Wednesday night that the "revolution must move like fish in the sea." Against the background of the week's events, the words sounds like a parody of Mao's essential teaching. Chicago's "friendly sea" turned on the group of Weathermen, as some bystanders fought with them in the streets.

The turnout of demonstrators-300 out of an expected 1.000-plainly indicates the Weathermen tactics have few supporters in this country, even among radicals. But the massive violence of the R Y M-I effort can do damage way out of proportion to their numbers by strengthening opponents of social change in the United States.