Civil Liberties Committee Hits Browder Refusal as Vital Issue

A strongly worded statement attacking the University for not allowing Earl Browder to speak in the New Lecture Hall under the auspices of the John Reed Society was issued by the Civil Liberties Committee of Massachusetts yesterday.

Simultaneously, the American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter to President Conant, said that "The barring of Earl Browder from speaking at Harvard teaches a deplorable lesson in democracy, a lesson unworthy of Harvard's heritage or American tradition."

The message was signed by Roger N. Baldwin '04, director of the Union, and Carl Carmer A.M. '15, Osmond K. Fraenkel '07, Quincy Howe '21, and Harry F. Ward A.M. '98, all directors of the Union.

The University's action "raises serious questions of free speech. The reasons assigned by Mr. Greene are suave, persuasive and well stated. But they are sophistry," the Massachusetts Committee statement said.

Browder Defended

It is the claim of the Committee that the University did not have a legitimate reason to withdraw its permission for the Browder lecture because he was indicted for using a passport under a false name. "No one has suggested that there is any moral turpitude involved in the case," the Committee said.

"No amount of rationalization can defeat the conclusion that stripped of its sophistry the reason for the denial of permission to Browder is because his political views are repugnant to the officials of Harvard University, as they are to most people in the United States.

"It might well be said without the usual quotation marks that freedom of speech means freedom not for the opinions we approve, but for those we hate," the Committee concluded.