Velluci Castigates Cambridge Texts As Pro-Russian

The battle of the books raged anew in Cambridge yesterday as one member of the School Committee attacked a high school history text as "pro-Soviet," and demanded it be banned.

Alfred E. Velluci, who last year tried to pull obscene books and magazines off the newsstands, charged that statements in the textbook "The Story of Nations" tended to "praise, elevate, and distort the truth about the Communist form of government."

Objectionable Statements

According to Velluci, one of the objectionable statements was "The United States and Russia must find ways to work together for the maintenance of world peace." Velluci said this "creates confusion in the minds of students as to the possibility that Russia may be right."

Meanwhile, Carl Engleman, an M.I.T. graduate student, said he would hold a meeting Tuesday to protest the fact that public libraries in Cambridge and Boston have pulled "subversive" books and magazines off their open shelves.

Tom Paine Segregated

Engelman said he had received reports that the Cambridge Public Library had also removed books, including "Citizen Tom Paine," by Howard Fast, and put them in a locked glass case. Cambridge librarian Phillip H. Dolan '35 yesterday admitted Fast's book had been segregated, but said it had been done at least three years ago, before he became librarian. "It was probably locked up as a precaution against theft," Dolan said. "I have not taken any such books off the shelves."

Early this year, the trusteez of the Boston Public Library voted to mark "subversive" books, after the Boston Post had said their presence in the library "poisoned the minds of our youth."