Story in 'Times' On Aid to HHH Denied by Peretz

Martin H. Peretz, assistant professor of Social Studies, has emphatically denied a report published yesterday in the New York Times, that members of the McCarthy National Finance Committee have conditionally offered to raise up to $4 million for the Humphrey-Muskie campaign.

In a letter dated October 13, according to the Times, the group of financiers, led by philanthropist Stewart Rawlings Mott, proposed a meeting with the Vice President. They wrote that the funds would be made available if their group was "turned on" by Humphrey's response to their questions about his "view of the nation's future and what it ought to be."

Peretz, however, who was listed as one of the letter's 15 signers, called the Times report "altogether without foundation. Most especially, as regards myself, it is simply false. Stewart Mott acted completely on his own in his communication with the Vice President."

"Checkbook-In-Hand"

"We realize that you would like to have us become contributors to your campaign," Mott wrote to Humphrey, "but you should not expect an immediate decision from any of us checkbook-in-hand. We will each make our own individual judgments on the basis of how you answer our questions and how you conduct your campaign in the coming weeks.

"Like yourself I am not convinced that a conservative martini (four parts Nixon; one part Wallace) would be the best concoction for our country. It seems to me that you are the only electable alternative to this prospect."

In a prepared response to the report, Peretz disavowed any intentions of supporting the Vice-President. "I cannot even conceive of voting for Mr. Humphrey, and I have argued against any support for Humphrey by peace-minded people."

"Mr. Mott has a yen for publicity," he said, "and he is free to make such political alliances as he wishes, but it is unseemly of him to appropriate other people's names to his personal uses.

"It is presumption of the highest order for Mr. Mott to think that members of the McCarthy Finance Committee, who were mere servants of a great cause, are entitled to negotiate with Mr. Humphrey about his positions.

"Mr. Mott may be placated by a rhetorical gloss in his direction from the Vice-President. I will not be, and I doubt that very many of Senator McCarthy's supporters will be either," Peretz said.