PLAN E SUPPORTERS RENEW CAMPAIGN FOR VOTES, CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS

Clearing its desk for-hectic weeks of campaigning, members of the Cambridge Committee for Plan E seemed confident last night that the proportional representative, city manager form of government would be approved by the voters here in the November election.

After one of Cambridge's bitterest political rows in recent history, Plan E was rejected in a 1933 referendum by the slim margin of 1,767 votes out of the 46,292 votes cast.

Strategy Streamlined

With its organization tuned up and its strategy streamlined since the 1938 fight, the Plan E Committee has more than 300 voluntary workers canvassing each home in the city and speaking before all kinds of local groups.

Dean James M. Landis of the Law School heads the Committee, though he is avoiding the active part he played in 1938, when he became engaged in a rapid-fire exchange with Cambridge politicos. At that time he accused the city fathers of cheap politics, and they countered with charges that Harvard was attempting to secure control of the city.

Some city councillors in 1938 made every attempt to sabotage the proposal for a new charter and to prevent it from being placed before the voters. At one time the Plan E Committee had to obtain a special order from the courts before the Council would take the necessary steps to permit the people of Cambridge to vote on the city manager form of government.

This fall both the Plan E Committee and its opponents are playing their cards more quietly, attempting to avoid the bitter clashes of 1938. With its campaign at present based upon house rallies and speeches before the Rotarians, Kiwanis, and weekly sewing clubs, the Committee will begin a door to door canvass October 15.

If opposition develops, the tempo of the campaign will increase as the election draws near. So far these who opposed the plan in 1938 have remained silent, though there seems to be some quiet attempts at sabotage.

The fight against the plan in 1938 was led mainly by city councillors and communists, a Plan E Committee member said last night. Despite the fact that some of the councillors accused Plan E of being communist-inspired, the local communist party published a lengthy distribe against it.

Inefficiency Charged

Pointing to the steady increase in the tax rate and the city debt, the Committee suggests that unless radical reforms are adopted, it may eventually become necessary for the state legislature to appoint a Finance Commission to take over the government.

A recently published booklet of the Committee quotes incidents of inefficiency such as: "In 1939 the Park Department placed two sons of Park Board Commissioners to work at $5 a day as eaddymaster at the golf course. Both reported for work on March 10 during a heavy snowstorm."