Glee Club Performance In Florida Is Cancelled

Racial issues have forced the cancellation of a Glee Club concert planned for next Tuesday in Tallahassee, Fla., a professor at Florida State University said yesterday. Arrangements were dropped when that institution told the Glee Club it would be unable to guarantee a Negro member of the Club treatment identical to that given white singers.

Officials of the Club denied that the racial question had assumed any importance in the negotiations. They asserted that they had cancelled the concert because of a crowded schedule and because the fee offered by Florida State University was insufficient to cover their additional travelling expenses.

Wiley L. Hausewright, professor of Music at Florida State, who had arranged the concert, last night refuted the Glee Club spokesman. He described the events leading to Florida State officials' decision that including Monroe F. Dowling, Jr., '56 in the concert and reception following would be unwise.

"No mention of financial difficulties was made at any time," he stated. "We could have met any figure they decided they were worth," he added.

Hausewright said the concert had been dropped by "mutual consent," after Jerome C. Kindred '57, trip manager of the Glee Club, had telephoned him last Thursday and asked whether Dowling would receive treatment equal to that given the other members. Hausewright said that he could not give such assurance, and the next day the Glee Club wired him, telling him that unless it could be given, they would not appear. After conferences with students and officials at Florida State, Hausewright said he wired the Glee Club Saturday, "CONCERT CANCELLED."

Craig F. Swoboda '57, president of the Glee Club called the original story in Boston papers yesterday afternoon (essentially the same as Hausewright's), absolutely untrue.

Harry L. Kraut '54, 2GB, graduate manager of the Glee Club, said that the racial question had never been an issue, and that the Club's position on the fee had been explained. No contracts had been signed, he observed, and the $300 fee that had been agreed upon was inadequate to pay for the additional costs necessitated by going out of the way en route from Charleston, S.C., to Jacksonville, Fla.