HST Refuses Debate; Forum Seeks Speaker

Former President Harry S. Truman told the Associated Press in Independence, Mo. Saturday that he had not yet received the invitation sent by the Law School Forum to debate with Senator Joseph R. McCarthy on Communism. When he does, however, he will not accept it.

The coordinator of the proposed forum, Hershel Shanks 1L, said that since Sen. McCarthy had already accepted, the forum would not be cancelled. Rather, he said, he will try to get "as able and expert" a representative of one side as Sen. McCarthy is of the other.

In answer to the question of whether Sen. McCarthy will back out now that Truman has declined, Shanks said that if Sen. McCarthy agrees to the importance of the issue, he is sure that he will not hesitate to appear. He has not yet been reached for comment.