Boston Educator Statement Slams Cong. Red Probes

After the first visit of Senator Jenner's Internal Security Subcommittee to Boston late in March, some 56 Massachusetts educators issued a statement claiming that congressional investigating committees "are contributing to a subtle breakdown in our democratic processes."

Perhaps the most pointed, and the most vitriolic statement issued by educators uninvolved in the hearings, the release suggested that the investigators "are, in effect, helping to destroy principles basic to American liberty."

First Principles

These principles were listed as : 1, "that guilt is personal and not 'by association'; 2, that guilt depends on acts and not on thoughts and words; and 3, that a man is innocent until proven guilty."

"Our primary concern is not with the technical or legal points involved in these investigations, which may or may not uncover the fact that certain individuals have belonged to odious but not illegal groups, or subscribed to a philosophy we find abhorrent."

"We consider far more important the fact that these committees are, in effect, helping to destroy (these principles)."

Issued through the office of Allan Knight Chambers, professor of Theology at the Boston University school of Theology, the statement was signed by faculty members at Harvard, Radcliffe, Northeastern, Springfield, American International, Andover-Newton Theologies school and other Massachusetts institutions.