Presidential Hopefuls Will Speak At Providence Antiwar Gathering

The spring antiwar offensive will start early in New England.

It will begin on Sunday at a 3 p. m. rally on the State House steps in Providence. The rally is the first in a series of "Dump Nixon" rallies being organized around the country by Allard K. Lowenstein, one of the architects of the "Dump Johnson" movement.

Speakers at the rally will include Lowenstein, Senator Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) and Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) Entertainment will be provided by Paul Butterfield, Alex Taylor and Joni Mitchell.

Arnie Miller, a spokesman for the Providence Committee for Alternatives Now (CAN), the group sponsoring the rally, said last night he anticipated a crowd "in excess of ten or 12 thousand." "We're shooting for 18,000," he said.

Steve Morgan of Boston CAN said that busses will leave from Cambridge Common at 2 p. m. Sunday afternoon. He said a key purpose of the rally is to encourage student voter registration. The elections in Berkeley last week showed that students can have a major effort in electoral politics, he added.

Reps. Paul N. McCloskey (R-Calif.), Bella Abzug (D-N. Y.) and Donald Riegle (R-Mich.) will also speak. McCloskey, who has vowed to oppose President Nixon in the Republican presidential primaries on the war issue, returns Saturday from a trip to Vietnam and Laos.