Four Professors Protest Loyalty Check In National Science Foundation Measure

Four of the University's science professors yesterday attacked the National Science Foundation bill passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday for the strict loyalty checks it prescribes for all people associated with the Foundation.

Otto Oldenberg, professor of Physics, and chairman of the Department of Physics, said last night, "most members of the Physics Department regret strongly that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will have to clear so many researchers and students who are not concerned with secret work."

The National Science Foundation is proposed as a government - sponsored organization with the aim of fostering the development of new scientific techniques to meet problems of peace and, war. It would have no connection with the government's atomic energy program.

Loyalty Rider

An amendment to the bill, adopted by the House on Tuesday, provides that "no person shall be employed by the foundation and no scholarship shall be awarded to any person by the foundation unless and until the F.B.I. shall have investigated such person and reported to the foundation that such person is loyal to the United States, believes in our system of government, and is not and has not been at any time a member of any organization declared a subversive by the Attorney General or any organization that teaches or advocates the overthrow of the government by force and violence."

George B. Kistiakowsky, Lawrence Professor of Chemistry and chairman of the Department of Chemistry, asserted that, in his opinion, "the usefulness of this legislation for promotion of scientific research in the United States will be severely limited by riders containing loyalty checks."

Norman F. Ramsey, associate professor of Physics and former head of the physics department at the Brookhaven atomic energy project, questioned the wisdom of a tighter loyalty check for the Foundation's non-secret work than is used on applicants for Atomic Energy Commission followships.

"Very few students subjected to the check here would fail to pass," he said, "but the F.B.I. probe will discourage many people who might otherwise try for a fellowship. Besides, it will tend to make faculty members informers on student political activities, and create a generally bad atmosphere."

Value Lessened

Doubt that the bill was worthwhile at all, with the loyalty rider attached, was expressed by Edwin C. Kamble, professor of Physics. "It is unfortunate indeed to bring the F.B.I. into the University in this connection," he added.

The Senate passed a similar bill at its last session, without the stringent loyalty provisions present in the House version.