Council Torpedoes New Combined Charities List

In a noisy four hour meeting the Student Council remodeled the Combined Charities card last night. One member described the projected list of charities, top-heavy with international beneficiaries, as "a phony deal."

After the meeting Carl M. Sapers '53, Chairman of the Combined Charities Committee, said his group will probably disband, an action "which will slow the drive enormously."

Council president Richard E. Johnson '53 met with Sapers late last night in an attempt to seal the split between the two groups.

The Council objected to the list of charities appearing on the card: five of the seven are international in operation. The Council also reversed its decision of two weeks ago restricting charities to those dealing with students and voted to add a list of 20 to 30 national charities on the back of the card.

Hit Experiment

Council members Joseph H. Soble '53 and Thomas E. Everhart '53 immediately took issue with one charity, the Experiment in International Living. Everhart said students in the College had told him in connection with the Experiment "that someone is putting a big one over on the Council." The Council proposed the Committee remove that organization from the list after a 7-3-3 vote, further restricting Sapers' group by specifying that a near equal ratio of national and international charities appear on the list.

Sapers said his committee had looked over national charities and "could find no other good (ones) to put on the card." He explained why his committee had put the Experiment on the list, saying, "We believe the Charities Card should include as many diverse student charities as possible, so that each student at Harvard can choose the charity which most coincides with his philosophy of what a charity should be."

Committee Disbands

When the Council passed the ratio proposal, which, according to Sapers, "means in realistic terms that we are going to have to cut one international charity," the Committee Chairman said his group can either accept the Council's dictum or disband, and indicated the latter course as probable. Actually, the Combined Charities Committee, a group appointed by the Council, can repect Council proposals.

The seven charities which appear on the Committee's list are: The National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students, the Phillips Brooks House, the Salzburg Seminar, the World Student Service Fund, the Harvard-Indonesian Project, the Experiment in International Living, and the American Friend's Service. The last of these was counted as half-national, half-international.

The Council also took up the issue of non-residents' library privileges. Johnson read a letter from Philip J. McNiff. Assistant Librarian, in charge of Lamont, presenting five arguments against commutersk' taking books out before 9 p.m. a Council project since last spring.

The Council had proposed that commuters be allowed to take out reserve books between 5:30 and 6 p.m. in a proportion of one out of five.

Johnson appointed a committee led by Soble, with Michael G. Yamin '53 and Clifford L. Alexander, Jr '55 as the other two members, to investigate the issue.