Fisher Resigns from YRC; Wrote 'Un-American' Study

Robert C. Fisher '51 yesterday resigned from the Harvard Young Republican Club. He charged the HYRC's Planning Committee, of which he is a member, with:

1. Using him as a tool in his capacities as a National Student Association delegate and non-voting member of the Student Council.

2. "Evil" practices ranging from racial discrimination to dishonesty.

Fisher also admitted private authorship of a 300-page report on alleged Communist activities in NSA. He said he had submitted the report to the House Un-American Activities Committee, to Senator Homer Ferguson's special investigating committee, and to Young Republican national headquarters.

Fisher said that he "had attempted to serve the HYRC as a 'spokesman' in both the NSA and Student Council" but was refusing any further backing from the Young Republicans because they, while not supporting him fully, still assumed the right to "scold" him.

HYRC Sponsorship

He admitted that the HYRC was responsible for two-fifths of his votes in the NSA elections last spring. A month before the election, the Student Council had banned any organization from soliciting votes for a candidate.

Fisher also attacked the "Machiavellian atmosphere" of the HYRC. He referred to a "Cloak and Dagger Department" (headed by Arthur W. Bingham '51) which, he said, at various times had considered 1) wrecking the NSA, 2) packing the Student Council, 3) infiltrating into the Liberal Union, 4) smearing candidates as Communists, and 5) printing birth control leaflets and distributing them under the name of prominent NSA officers in order to cause dissension between those officers and the Catholic schools in NSA.

Fisher pointed to specific cases of dishonesty and discrimination. He said that Bingham had been responsible for the organization of the League for Reaction, but that the origin of the group had been covered up by the HYRC Planning Committee.

He also said that he had been told to stop trying to sign up Negro students at Registration "because it wouldn't look good."

"The stark truth," Fisher said in his letter of resignation, "is that not many undergraduates trust the Young Republican Club any more. We have been too obvious in our attempts to be subtle. We have not been honest with our fellow students; we have not been honest with ourselves."

Charles K. McWhorter 3L, president of the HYRC, said last night that he had no comment on Fisher's statement