Evening star., 1948-01-19
|Dr. ShapIey Directs
Group Seeking 10 End
|Un-American Probe

Abolition of the House Committee
on Un-American Activities through
a "dignified educational and legisla-
tive campaign" was announced to-
day as the sole goal Of a newly
formed Committee Of One Thou
sand.
Acting chairman and prime mover
in the new group is DR.. Harlow
Shapley, noted Harvard astronomer
who accused Representative Rankin
of "Gestapo" tactics in November,
1946, when the Mississippi Demo-
crat questioned DR.. Shapley at a
one-man, closed session OF the
House committee.
The new group has established a
headquarters here at ITO G street
NV. with Bowen Smith, former
newspaperman and once leader of
the Governments salvage campaign,
as acting executive secretary.
Action is Outlined.
Mr. Smith said today that one of
the earliest moves of the committee
will be an effort to support a dis
charge petition to get the long
pending SABBATH resolution out of the
House Rules Committee. This reso-
luton would abolish all the investi-
gative powers of the Un-American
Activities Committee.
A meeting to formalize the new
committee, elect officers and lay
plans will be held here in the near
future, Mr.. Smith said.
The first 80 sponsors drawn
mostly from the scientific and edu-
catienal world-agreed to join the
committee, Mr.. Smith said, in re-
sponse to kilograms from DR.. Shap.-
ley.
He asked them to join, realizing
that the Un-American Activities
Committee is creating an atmos-
phere of civic cowardice through its
continued attacks upon the freedoms
guaranteed by the First Amendment
to our Constitution"
Einstein Joins Group.
Mr.. Smith showed telegram
from Albert Einstein, declaring,
Am glad to join proposed COM
mittee of one thousand; one from
Author Dorothy Garfield Fisher
saying she was glad to stand up
and be counted on the good side"
and one from Hiram Haydn, editor
OF the American Scholar, saying
simply, Count me in"
Although only three names as
sociated with Hollywood are in
cluded in the initial list OF spon-
sors-Frederic March, his wife,
Florence Eldridge, and Norman
Corwin-Mr. Smith said his COM
mittee would collaborate closely
with the Committee for the First
Amendment. That was the group
that protested the House commit
tees methods during its investiga-
ton of communism in Hollywood.
Committee Assailed.
Mr.. Smith said the new group is
not attacking the right of Congress
to have investigating committees
but feels the Un-American Activi-
ties Committee attacks too many
innocent people"
'tWe call upon the American
people to disavow such subversions
Of our basic freedoms as lie in the
proceedings of the Committee on
Un-American Activities" the state
ment. from the new committee de-
clared.
THAT there may be a, swift termi-
nation to such assaults upon our
constitutional rights, we ask the
American people to join us in a
concerted action towards one goal :
the abolition of the Committee on
Un-American Activities.
Solely to accomplish this end,
we are organizing as the Commit
tee of One Thousand. Our means:
An educational program using
every available medium of COM
munication to reach the broadest
section of the American people
and to enlist them in this fight"
Sponsors Named.
Named in the announcement
were these sponsors:
7 DR.. Einstein, Mrs. Fisher, DR.. Ed
win Edman Of Columbia University
Henry Seidel Candy, Archibald Mac
Leish, Rexford Tugwell, DR.. William
E. Ogburn, the University of Chi
cago, DR.. Isaac Kolthofl, University
Of Minnesota; Mr.. Hayden, Olir
DoWnes, music critic of the New
York Times; Mrs. Marshall Field
William Rose Benet, Dean Chris
tian Gauss, Princeton University;
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, DR.. Frank
Aydelotte, former director of the
School of Advanced Studies at
Princeton; Helen Keller and Van
Wych Brooks.
A