5 Professors Attack Peace Meeting; Shapley Confident as Sessions Open

Five Harvard professors lined up yesterday behind the Americans for Intellectual Freedom, which has denounced the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace, sponsored by Harlow Shapley, as a "Communist front operation." One of them, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 37, will speak this afternoon at the AIF's counter-rally in New York City's Freedom House.

Schlesinger, associate professor of History, was joined in his support of the rally by C. Crane Brinton '19, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History; Seymour E. Harris '20, professor of Economics; Michael Karpovich, professor of History; and Perry G. Miller, professor of American Literature. Of the five, Schlesinger is the only one attending the rally.

"The whole purpose of the Cultural and Scientific Conference is to support the Communist party line," Schlesinger told the CRIMSON yesterday. "We are backing this counter-rally as a means of affirming that not all American intellectuals agree that the United States today is 100 percent wrong and the Soviet Union, 100 percent right."

Soviet Threat

Schlesinger said the rally was backed by many "left wingers like myself who cannot accept a pro-Soviet policy. Those who do not recognize the Soviet threat to intellectual freedom and who support the conference are false to human decency.

"I suspect the rally will have more effect than Mr. Shapley would like," he added.

Schlesinger's speech this afternoon, will emphasize the "dangers in the Shapley conference." But included in the address will be a criticism of the State Department for denying visas to English and French delegates to the conference.

Brinton Calls Conference 'Unwise'

Schlesinger's statement was echoed by Brinton yesterday. "Our aim is not to detract attention from the conference, but rather to dramatize the fact that on the whole we believe it to be an unwise thing and a Soviet inspired setup," he said.