Officials Deny Reported Conant-Stevenson Deal

President Conant's successor has not yet been chosen, but the field of possible candidates has been narrowed down, a University spokesman said last night. The Corporation has been meeting each Monday since the president's resignation in an effort to find a successor. Normally the Corporation meets every other week.

The Corporation recently passed a resolution barring any of its own members from consideration. Although no Corporation member has been chosen president in the past, it is believed that Grenville Clark '30 could have had the position in 1933 by voting for himself.

The University last night also officially denied a story that President Conant had recommended Adlai Stevenson as his successor. It pointed out that the president does not take part in the selection of a man to follow him, the choice being made by the remaining six members of the Corporation--the treasurer and five Fellows.

Attention on Stevenson

The story was printed in Robert S. Allen's Washington column last week. It read: "Adlai Stevenson has been proposed for president of Harvard University. He was recommended by Dr. James B. Conant, who gave up the job to become Ambassador to West Germany.

"Conant submitted the name of the former Illinois Governor and 1952 Democratic presidential nominee to the Harvard Board of Overseers. Conant warmly endorsed Stevenson, but at the same time strongly counseled that if the Board makes a formal offer to him, a clear-cut string should be attached to it.

"This reservation would be an unqualified guarantee from Stevenson that he would permanently give up all political ambitions and activity. That would mean his immediate and final withdrawal as a 1956 prospect."

Allen Upholds Story

Contacted last night in Washington. Allen said that he had obtained the story from "someone I consider a reliable source and someone who is connected with the University, though it is not his primary interest." Allen specifically denied that his source was Senator Leverett Saltonstall '14, a classmate of Conant's and a former president of the Board of Overseers.