Peace Meeting in Boston Causes Break Among Faculty Sponsors

Although two of his colleagues found cause yesterday to withdraw their support from a rally of the Massachusetts peace Council, Francis O. Mathiessen, associate professor of History and Literature, said last night that he could see no reason for withdrawing his own patronage.

One of the original sponsors of the affair which is sceduled for Thursday evening in Symphony Hall, Professor Mathiessen is the lone Harvard, professor of the three who first backed the measure now affirming his first stand.

Changed Speakers

William E. Hocking, Alfred Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, and Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, are the two men who declined to support the measure after they learned yesterday that the peace Council was unable to secure the speakers originally scheduled to address the rally, Senator Walsh, and Senator Wheeler. In place of the two senators, the peace Council had substituted as speaker Vito Marcantonia, Congressman from New York with reputed radical leanings, and Liam O'Flaherty, the Irish playwright.

In speaking of his continued support, Professor Matthiessen stated last night that: "The meeting was originally devoted to a serious purpose, a discussion of peace. I am not at all sure that I agree with the views of the new speakers, but the rally, and the speakers may represent minority view-points. In a democracy, we listen to minority view-points."

Professor Hocking stated that his decision to withdraw as a sponsor of the rally was prompted by his unfamiliarity with the views of the new speakers chosen by the Peace Council. Said he: "As I don't know either of the new speakers, and as I don't know their views, it is absurd for me to consider sponsoring them."

Professor Mather asserted flatly last night that he has no confidence in the speakers chosen by the Council to replace Walsh and Wheeler, and that he considers that they will devote more time to the disbursement of propaganda than to the intelligent discussion of the subject in question.

Hacking up the stand taken by Professors Hocking and Mother, other sponsors of the rally also prepared to desert, and at least one prominent Boston clergyman, Dr. Albert C. Dieffenbach, had taken his stand with the professors who retracted their support.