Coolidge Drops Application For Advisor of Foundation

Albert Sprague Coolidge '15, lecturer on chemistry, has withdrawn his application for appointment as an advisor to a foundation his late mother gave to the Library of Congress in 1926.

The Library of Congress blocked his appointment, claiming the "inappropriateness of appointment that would ocurr."

Coolidge said last night that "This means nothing.

"They are just beating around the bush and won't come out and say that I wasn't appointed because they think that I'm a security risk."

In a letter to L. Quincy Mumford, Librarian of Congress, Coolidge said, "I want you to know directly from me that I regard the matter as closed, at least for the present. Any sort of reconsideration at this time would embarrass the person to whom the appointment has been offered and would be greatly to the disadvantage of the foundation."

Demands Information

Before Coolidge withdrew his application, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote Mumford, demanding that he inform Coolidge of the "derogatory information" that had blocked his appointment. In this letter Patrick M. Mellin, A.C.L.U. executive director, charged that Coolidge had been turned down because of alleged security information the F.B.I. had found concerning his supposed "unsuitable associations."

When contacted last night, Mumford said, "We have no intention of divulging such information; it is highly confidental and will not be released to the A.C.L.U. Coolidge was not selected because of the inappropiateness of his appointment, not because he was a security risk."

Coolidge, who is chairman of the A.C.L.U.'s Massachussets branch, withdrew his application when the A.C.L.U. informed him that the Committee on Cultural Freedom was going to press Mumford to reconsider his appointment.

"This is exactly what I do not want," Coolidge said. "I am not demanding reconsideration."