Conflict Over Underpasses Shifts to Hill

The struggle against the proposed underpasses along Memorial Drive moves to the State House today, where a hearing on three bills designed to alter present plans is scheduled for 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, nearly 80 students, most of them from the Graduate School of Design, gathered in Robinson Hall yesterday to organize a campaign against the underpasses. They heard Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for civic affairs, counsel against large student demonstrations at today's hearing.

"A large number of students tomorrow would have an adverse effect," he said. "The state legislature is primarily concerned with votes. Students and sycamores don't have votes."

Three Bills Will Be Discussed

Whitlock said that he would represent the University at the hearing. Three bills will be discussed: two would delay construction on the underpasses, the other would repeal entirely the act authorizing their construction.

The most important round in the legislative battle will come next Thursday, he said. At that time a hearing on a fourth bill will be held. This little-known proposal, if passed, would impose a moratorium on all new highway construction, including the underpasses, until at least March, 1965. The bill would create a "Greater Boston Transportation Agency," whose duty it would be to draw up a balanced transportation plan for the city. The new agency would try to increase cooperation between the MTA and such highway-building groups as the Metropolitan District Commission and the Department of Public Works.

Most Rational Solution

Both these agencies, as well as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, have new construction scheduled for the Cambridge area. Whitlock noted that at present there was little, if any coordination among these groups, and added that the bill provided the most rational solution to Cambridge's traffic problems.

The most "constructive" way for students to help, Whitlock explained, would be to mobilize voters in Cambridge and surrounding communities into active opposition against the underpasses.

He later estimated that nearly 500 local citizens, representing a host of civic organizations, would appear today at the State House hearing. About 300 people turned out last Friday when the MDC revealed plans for the underpasses, which would be built at River St., Western Ave., and Boylston St.

Robert F. LaRocca, a student in the Graduate School of Design and one of the leaders of the student group, said yesterday that the group would heed Whitlock's advice and only send a small group to the hearings.