Evening star., 1954-04-13
Top Ascien+st Insists He's Loyal Details Political Innocence

I wished to resign. When an ef.
fort was made to dissuade me
from this course ! again wrote
on December 2. 1916, insisting
upon resignation.
Later in the postwar period
an incident occurred which seems
to be the basis of one of the
items of derogatory information.
In May, 1850. Paul Crouch. a
former Communist of1lcial. and
Mrs. Crouch testified before the
California State Committee on
Un-American Activities that in
July, 1941, they had attended a
Communist party meeting at a
house in Berkeley, Of which I
was then the tenant.
Away From Berkeley at Time.
On the basis of pictures and
movies Of me which they saw
some eight years later. they said
they recognized me as having
been present. When the FB1
first talked to me about this al
legged incident, ! was quite GER
tain that no such meeting as
Crouch described had occurred.
So was my wife. when dis
cussed it with her. Later. when
I saw the testimony, I became
even more certain.
Crouch had described the
gathering as a closed meeting Of
the Communist Party. I vas
never a member Of the party.
Crouch said that no introduce
tions had been made. I could
not recall ever having had a
group of people at my home that
had not been introduced. In May
of 1852, I again discussed this
alleged meeting with the United
States attorney in the Weinberg
case" (Footnote) can indict-
ment against Joseph Weinberg
for perjury for having among
other things denied membership
in the Communist Party.)
I again said that ! could not
have been present at a closed
meeting of the Communist Party
because I was not a member OF
the party; that I had searched
my memory and that the only
thing that conceivably could be
relevant was the vaguest OF i'm
pressions that someone on the
campus might at some time have
asked permission to use our
home for a gathering Of young
people; that. however. I could
recall no such gathering, nor
any meeting even remotely re-
sembling the one described BY
Crouch; that I thought 1t prob
able that at the time of the
meeting. which by then had
been fixed by Crouch as approxi-
mately July %. my wife and I
were away from Berkeley.
Shortly thereafter, with the
aid of counsel, we were able to
establish that my wife and I left
Berkeley within few days after
July 4. 1941. and did not return
until toward the end of the first
week in August.
Turns to Advisory Committee.
need to turn now to an &C
count of some of the measures
which, as Chairman of the Gen.
eral Advisory Committee, and in
other capacities. advocated in
the years since the war to in
crease the power of the United
States and its allies to resist and
defeat aggression.
The initial members of the
Genera Advisory Committee
were Conant, then president Of
Harvard; DuBridge, president Of
the California Institute of Tech
nology: Fermi of the University
OF Chicago; Rabi of Columbia
University; Rowe, vice president
Of the United Fruit Company;
Seaborg of the University Of
California; Cyril Smith of the
University of Chicago and
Worthineton of the du Pont
Company. In 1948 Buckley.
president of the Bell Telephone
laboratories, replaced Worthing-
ton: in the summer of 1850
Fermi. Rowe and Seaborg were
replaced by Libby of the Univer-
city of Chicago: Murphree. presi-
dent of Standard Oil Develop
ment Company, and Whitman Of
the Massachusetts, Institute Of
Technology Later Smith re-
signed, and was succeeded by
Won Neumann of the Institute
for Advanced Study.
In these years from early 1947
to mid-1952 the committee met
some thirty times and trans
mitted perhaps as many reports
to the commission.
Formulation of policy and the
management of the vast atomic
energy enterprise were RESPONSE
bilitieS vested in the commission
itself. The General Advisory
Committee had the role which
was fixed for it by statute, to
advise the commission.
Gave Views to Commission.
In that capacity we gave the
commission our views on oues-
tions which the commission put
before us, brought to the COM
missions attention on our initia-
tive technical matters of impor-
tance. and encouraged and sup
ported the work of the several
major installations Of the COM
mission.
At one of our first meetings in
1947 we settled down to the Job
OF forming our own views of the
priorities. And while we agreed
that the development of atomic
power and the support and main
tenance Of a strong basic scien-
tif1c activity in the fields relevant
to 1t were important. we assigned
top priority to the problem Of
atomic weapons.
At that time we advised the
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