Lerner Scores A.P. for Omitting His Views on Forum Cancellation

Max Lerner, professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University, yesterday charged the Associated Press with suppressing his defense in the Marshall College lecture controversy. He claimed he was the only one of the three speakers, whose appearances were cancelled, who did not get his statement published.

Last November 8, the West Virginia college canceled a forum series after an American Legion protest that the scheduled lecturers had been identified with alleged Communist front groups. Besides Lerner, the college cancelled the appearances of Paul Engle, professor of Creative Writing at the University of Iowa, and Margaret Bourke-White, photographer for Life Magazine.

Others Rescheduled

Ten days later the college reversed its stand and re-scheduled the Engine and Bourke-White talks, while withholding decision on whether to ask Lerner to appear. Lerner was to have talked the evening before the college rendered its verdict.

"It's all poppycock," Lerner said yesterday in denying the Legion's charges. "There is absolutely nothing in my record that I'm the least bit ashamed of."

Huntington Legion Post 16 objected to the speakers because they had been cited by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Lerner, editor of the "Nation" from 1936 to '38, said the Committee "objected to my supporting some letterheads (like the American Writers Congress) during the Spanish Civil War days." He noted these groups soon folded up and added, "I don't belong to any organizations at all at the present time."

College State-Supported

In announcing the original cancellation, President Stewart H. Smith said the college "has been placed in the center of a controversy which threatens to jeopardize its best interests." Marshall is a state institution, partly tax-supported.