Town-Gown War End Sees Harvard . . . . . . Cambridge Friends

Harvard has been Cambridge's guest for over three hundred years. During this period Cambridge has grown into a modern, industrial city completely hemming in the University that once dominated it. And the relationship between city and college-"town and gown" some would have it-has changed too.

It changed somewhat with the immigration of a diverse population and the machines by which that population earned its living. From a relation of equals to equals, Harvard graduate to Harvard student, it became a relationship between "townies" and the residents of the Gold Coast. A new, later era brought with it battles between the City Council and the University. It saw one group of City legislators threaten to cut Harvard off from Cambridge entirely and another, earlier Council argue over the University's tax exemption.

Those are the only items that make the front pages, however. There is another part of the story seldom set in type. Otherwise City Manager John B. Atkinson could hardly say, as he does, "I think we enjoy a rather pleasant relationship," while his Council is debating the Reducators list at the other end of City Hall.

The University's employees and its students have given to Cambridge as well as taken away. While the University remains tax exempt, for example, it still pays the third highest revenue bill in the City. The system of government under which Cambridge now operates is a result of the activity of Harvard men, professors, and students alike. Plan E-a city manager government with proportional representation-has made city government better than before; yet its birth was marked by the last and the bitterest fights Cambridge and Harvard have ever had.

In 1938, the Cambridge City Council unanimously passed an order, presented by Councillor John Toomey, that the City file an appropriation with the State legislature to incorporate Harvard University as a separate municipality with full power to hold elections and appropriate money for municipal services.

The battle started over the activities of James M. Landis, dean of the Law School. At the time, he was carrying on a strong campaign to install Plan E in Cambridge. During this campaign, he attacked the City Council as a "gang of cheap politicians." When the Council demanded an apology Landis refused. He stated that "if any apology is needed, it should be one from the Council to the people of Cambridge."

Considered Secession

The politicians identified Harvard with Landis and the entire Plan E movement. President of the City Council Thomas M. MacNamara said that "it is Harvard's scheme to make their Plan E Cambridge's Plan E. They are willing to accept everything and give nothing."

Some faculty members seriously considered seceding from the city. Before entering a meeting with President Conant, James A. McLaughlin, professor of Law, told reporters that he thought it would be a "good thing if Harvard were segregated from the City."

President Conant decided to ignore the affair, but the student body didn't. It immediately held a plebescite, conducted victory parades through Harvard Square, and established an impassible boundary for the Republic of Harvard.

Cambridge police became irate when some student border guards would not let citizens cross the mythical line. Armed with tear gas bombs and hand grenades, the police repulsed the students. And the matter ended there.

When Plan E finally got to the polls in November, it failed by 1000 votes. Not until 1940 was Plan E accepted by the voters of Cambridge.

Relations Improved

Since then, the city's relations with the University have improved. One reason is that the city manager is more powerful than the former mayor; independent of the electorate, he can carry on relations almost as he pleases. John B. Atkinson, who has held the post since the installation of this form of government, says, "it is the kind of men elected under Plan E, rather than the system, which has bettered relationships." He points out the high number of college graduates on the Council and School Board, including four men with Harvard degrees.

One reason for many of the improvements the Council has made in the past ten years has been the Cambridge Civic Association. This non-partisan voters' organizations, headed by Donald Spencer '26, has pressured the legislators year after year to put through school improvements and appoint better men to the government. This good government has proved an asset to the University and its students.

There is still a good deal of controversy over the University's tax exemption, which is written into the State Constitution. One influential politician, a member of the Cambridge Civic Association, explained: "I still have a feeling that some family in East Cambridge is helping pay the way of some rich young man from California through College."

But, as Mayor Crane points out, the University's tax bill (on property not classified for educational use) is topped only by the Cambridge Electric Light Company and Lever Brothers.

'Gentlemen's Agreement'

To help ease its burden on Cambridge, Harvard and the City worked out a "gentlemen's agreement" at the time of the Harkness gift for the Houses. Since the University intended to take a good deal of land off the tax rolls to build Eliot and Dunster Houses, it decided to pay a sum "in lieu of taxes" on the property. One reason for this action was the Council's threat to halt Harvard's buying of high tax rate land along the river. The agreement has carried on and was renewed when the first Plan E Council took office in 1942.

The University pays in other ways. For instance, it has used the Daniel A. Buckley scholarships to pay Cambridge men's way here since 1905. The amount of the stipend varies in each case, and can be used in graduate schools as well as the College.

On the other hand, the City, for example, supplies free police protection for all of Harvard's football and Commencement crowds, including a weekly motorcycle escort for the Band's march to Soldiers Field.

Especially since the inauguration of Plan E, the city has called on professors to serve on its boards of experts. Gordon M. Fair, master of Dunster House, for instance, is now a member of the water board, while Gordon W. Allport, professor of Psychology, works with the Civic Unity Committee, a group engaged in combatting prejudice. Dean Hudnut helped plan the Cambridge War Memorial at the Council's request, and Professor Alfred D. Simpson of the School of Education prepared the report which has been the basis for Cambridge public school reform since 1946.

City Manager Atkinson feels, "It is the small things that have helped cement relations between the town and the College." He points to the civilian defense program during the war when professors and laborers served on wardens' teams. And there is the series of annual Council University dinners, at which members of the city administration and Harvard officials, including President Conant, dine and discuss common problems. Mayor John Corcoran '18 instituted this series in 1942. There was no dinner this year because of the President's illness and absence. This liaison with Cambridge officials often carries over to city departments.

The Cambridge Police force had no direct contact with University officials until 1940. It now consults with them on all matters concerning students, such as discipline and the police's number one headache: parking. At intervals throughout the year, Police Chief John R. King confers with the deans in an attempt to formulate a policy in regard to University matters.

The use of the Business School lot for student parking was one result of these meetings. King says, however, that since this idea has not proved successful, at the next meeting he will probably ask for a new solution. He sees only two possibilities: the University should either buy a lot near the Yard for parking or else ban student cars altogether.

King expects students to "blow off steam every now and then." He has instructed policemen to "use discretion" at Harvard rallies. Even the traffic officers are picked for duty in the Square on the basis of work in other sections of the city.

This now policy toward Square rallies has prevented a recurrence of the 1928 riot, during which policemen clubbed students and a paddy wagon was overturned. Today, police attempt to calm any gathering through sheer superiority of numbers: all off-duty officers are sent to the riot scene and infiltrate the student ranks. Then by breaking up individual fights, the police try to frustrate mass battles.

Harvard Is An Asset

"The police recognize that Harvard is an asset," King states; "if it were not here, Cambridge would be merely another mediocre city."

From the actions of some local politicians, it would seem that not all agree with King. The City Council unanimously passed in September a motion of Councillor John D. Lynch that the "Reducators" list, naming 68 faculty members as "Communists, communist sympathizers, or fellow travelers," be distributed to the nine Councillors and to the Chief of Police.

But Lynch says he does not wish to attack Harvard on Harvard's qualities; rather he has a strong hatred of what he believes to be Communist's infiltration in educational institutions.

Lynch readily admits that he has nothing against the University. However, he says he is worried about the "parlor pink professors" who he claims are corrupting "the minds of students with red propaganda." But he thinks the student body is composed of "fine boys"; Lynch was very pleased, he said, with the students' reception of his speech during his debate one week ago with Arthur M. Schlesinger '38, associate professor of History, on "How to combat Communism in the United States."

Fresh Air

Lynch has been in Cambridge politics for 30 years, but throughout these years he has had and desires to have little to do with the University. He says, "Whenever I go from North Cambridge to City Hall, I'm always in a hurry to get back . . . the air is better up here."

The late City Councillor Michael A. Sullivan, one of the most colorful men in Cambridge politics, also seemed to take exception to a King's attitude toward Harvard. But "Mickey the Dude," as he was called in his ward, was well-liked by many students and faculty members.

He had his troubles with Harvard. Once, he arrived in the middle of a Square riot. Realizing that this was a good chance for publicity, he had his eyes blackened with charcoal by a student. Then he called over photographers from the press wire services and showed them his "eyes which were blackend by a Harvard student." The following day newspapers throughout the nation picked up the picture of Mickey Sullivan with "the blackeyes which rioting Harvard students inflicted."

Another time, Sullivan thought that all statues should go into the war time scrap drive-works of art included. He then introduced an order in the City Council demanding that the bronze statues in the Germanic Museum he seized and melted into scrap. He sincerely thought he was helping the war effort by this order, but he felt too that statues of German heroes should be melted anyway.

Bronze Coated

However, somebody tipped the Council off that the statues were just plaster coated with bronze. Mickey's order never got to a vote, but it gave him good press publicity.

Sullivan was well-liked in his ward; there are many stories of the times when the indominitable little Councilor got up in the middle of the night to aid a constituent. His attacks on Harvard were purely superficial: he knew all the members of the Porcellian Club by their first names and he had a strong friendship with several important members of the faculty. He maintained a "midnight table" for himself and his friends at the Hayes-Bickford cafeteria. Most of the time, these "friends" were students.

There are a number of reasons why City Councillors and other vote-getters see fit to attack Harvard every now and then. Obviously they think that their jibes at the University will get them more votes on election day.

City Councillor Joseph E. Deguglielmo '29, adds: "I don't think that anyone gets a single vote from that kind of attack. Of course," he continues, "in the mentality and make-up of some men there is the feeling that they should go after the 'rich boys' at Harvard, and unthinking people who have never had contact with the University might tend to feel the same way."

Tax Controversy

Deguglielmo points up the tax question, explaining, "If Harvard paid full taxes the average Cambridge citizen's bill would be cut in half. But, of course, that would bankrupt the University. Take a look at Harvard Square; how much of that would be there if Harvard were not? Most people realize this."

A former mayor of Cambridge, Michael J. Neville, agrees: "The great majority of the citizens like to have Harvard here." Neville stopped the Law School Forum from presenting Harold Laski in Rindge Technical High School auditorium in 1948. His argument then and now was, "If Harvard wanted him to speak let Harvard find a place for him to speak."

Speaking of his own terms of office, Neville states, "Harvard was always ready and willing to help us, and we have been willing to give them a hand there." He pointed out how the city aided, by changinging its zoning laws and other ordinances when Harvard wanted to construct the Botanical Gardens housing project two years ago. Neville himself gave a lecture in a government course here last year.

If the present trend toward better liaison and overall relationship continues, Harvard and Cambridge will be more than partners in years to come, they will be friends. That has been the general attitude of city and college officials recently.

More specifically, Manager Atkinson says, "Unquestionably it costs this city a great deal to have Harvard here, but there is no way of telling what the town would be without the University, or what would replace it."

Fair Trade

Mayor Edward A. Crane '35, likes to tell about the time that the University made a deal with the city back in the thirties to trade the land where Lincoln Square fire station now stands for the property on which Littauer was built. Lincoln Square is now the center of all fire operations in Cambridge; its station contains the city's main fire switchboard. Littauer is, of course, the headquarters of the School of Public Administration. Cooperation paid off then. And two shrewd traders were bound to learn the lesson.