The moment approached which would bring the climax of the evening. There was no feverish political air to the room but there was a quiet anticipation of the ultimate purpose of the evening, a speech by Vellucci. After a brief plea for support by a candidate for the school committee. Vellucci stood up.

" People used to take bets who'd get to Central Square first, Harvard or M.I.T. It looks like M.I.T.'s going to win that race, they own mostly everything on the other side of Central Square now. You and I know that's not going to be the end of it, either, Harvard's in there too. Between them and M.I.T. half the land in Cambridge is taken up and you know what that means to everybody here. You're all at the mercy of those two schools. They've brought lots of students here, swelled the population and forced up the rents. Prices are going up, taxes too. It's getting so that one job isn't enough to keep you going these days. You've got to have THREE jobs. "

From the audience, "Yeah AI, that's right Al."

" The people running those schools would like to see Cambridge change, they want to bring all sorts of modern industry into the city, with scientists and technicians and drive you out. Look at the NASA center. You know they're taking up all that land and they're not going to be paying any taxes to the city. No they're not going to pay any taxes, you're going to have to take care of that. You know there have been five tax increases since they announced they were going to build the NASA center here. There are already eight hundred technicians working there and there are going to be five thousand more. Those people are going to be making better salaries than you and they're going to be outbidding you for your own homes, or else they're going to tear down your homes to build high rises that those technicians can live in. "

Again from the audience, "Yeah AI, tell us again Al."

Mrs. Archcraft shouted, "Vote for Al, that's all."

"You all remember who brought NASA to Cambridge?"

"No Al, who Al?"

" Come on now, it hasn't been that long. It was Hayes and Mahoney who went down to Washington and came back to tell you that all your kids in high school now would eventually be working there. That's a joke. You've got to watch out for people who say they have your interests at heart and then push you out. You've got to pay attention to what's going on. You've got to go to the meetings of those experts and you've got to ask them questions; you've got to make them tell you straight. If you don't you'll wake up the next morning and read in the paper that they're going to tear your house down. "

There it was. Everything we'd heard from the steps of Mem Church and University Hall. Everything that PL has been ranting about ad nauseam. Al Vellucci was telling the people. But he wasn't telling them, he wasn't educating them, they knew it all. He was saying it for them. He was putting all their fears and anxieties into words. He is their man because he is the political expression of these people. He fights their battles for them, and all these people were cheering Al on as he denounced their common enemy.

As Vellucci drove us back to the Square, later that night, we asked him if he realized that the radicals were attacking Harvard and M.I.T. for many of the same reasons that he was, and asked why he didn't try to enlist their support.

He brushed off the suggestion, explaining that such an alliance is impossible at the moment because students have very little contact with the people, don't understand them and consequently would not be able to gain their trust. He went on to ask us if we'd had an interesting evening and said he hoped he hadn't kept us away from anything we had planned to do.

"That's all right," I replied, "I was only planning to go to a mixer."

"Mixer?" he asked, "what's a mixer?"