Washington - Shivering in a snow-laden downtown park yesterday, 97-year-old Louise Franklin-Ramirez held a sign she first made for a protest in 1961 that reads "No, No Bombs."

Having attended her first anti-war protest in 1917, Franklin-Ramirez was one of many seniors in a group of about 150 demonstrators at an anti-war rally organized by several church groups. "She doesn't remember things very well, but she can still get arrested," said her husband, John Steinbach, who pushed her wheelchair.

As '60s folk music played and speakers quoted Catholic activist Philip Berrigan, who died last week, many protesters, who were mostly middle-age and older, said to be successful, the anti-war movement needs support from students at colleges and universities.

"A lot of the peace movement cut their teeth during the Vietnam War," Steinbach said. "They are the peace veterans, but I would not discount the campuses."

But rallying students against a prospective war with Iraq may be difficult, some protesters said.

"I think building a solid coalition is going to be a lot of work," said Corky Bryant, a professor at Columbia University who lives in Washington. One problem stems from the lack of a national leader for the movement, Bryant said. Another is that today's activists are unable to draw mass support from discontent over other issues, as Vietnam War protesters did with the civil-rights movement, she said.

Others at the rally were more hopeful, citing their "pre-emptive strike" against the war and saying they have more support than in the early years of Vietnam.

"We're having demonstrations before the war even starts," said Frank Collins, 91, who taught physics for 27 years at what is now Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. "[Initially] in the Vietnam War, if you protested you were labeled a communist. Walking around this spot, I seem to get more smiles than sneers."

But a war with Iraq is currently supported by most people, according to polls, and is unlikely to be nearly as costly or as drawn out as the Vietnam War.

In an effort to get the anti-war message to the masses, small-scale protests have sprung up on college campuses throughout the country, and an Oct. 26 march here drew more than 100,000 demonstrators.

Protesters yesterday said those early rallies were partly responsible for President George W. Bush seeking United Nations approval before taking action against Iraq, stepping away from his administration's earlier endorsement of a unilateral strike.

Nationwide yesterday, the group United for Peace counted more than 120 planned vigils, acts of civil disobedience and marches in 37 states. The mostly small events resulted in more than 100 total arrests.