Shapley, Mather Discredit Senate Subcommittee List

Two University professors yesterday denied that they have sponsored communist front organizations as charged by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

Both Harlow Shapley, Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy, and Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, emeritus, were listed as "typical sponsors" in a recent report published by the subcommittee.

Shapley believes that the report was just a way to get headlines. "Beyond the same tedious material that McCarthy floundered with, there in nothing new here," he said.

When asked about the validity of the charge against him, he answered, "It is untrue, of course." Mather stated that the group of men on the list are a "curious mixture of people. Some are out and out Communists and some are patriotic Americans. He classified himself in the latter category.

No RED Fronts

In reviewing the organizations which he has sponsored, Mather said that none could be considered red front organizations and none had engaged in anything more subversive than criticizing the McCarran Act.

The list will do a great deal of harm, he added, because it will discourage men from supporting worthwhile causes out of fear of being blacklisted themselves.

The subcommittee report listed seven international Communist front organizations as functioning at the present time. Shapley not only denied over having membership in any of them but claimed that he never had heard of most if them. "I don't even know what these organizations are," he claimed.

Similar Name

Shapley did say that he was invited to become an officer of the Association of Scientific Workers, a prewar British group that became international, but he declined. An organization with a similar name, World Federation of Scientific Workers, is on the subcommittee list.

Besides the two professors, five college alumni are on the list of typical sponsors. They are W.E.B. DuBois '90, Rockwell Kent '32, Corliss Lamont '24, Robert M. Lovett '92, and Vilhajalmur Stefansson '06.

When contacted DuBois said that he did not know about the report and could not comment. Shapley and Mather also had not heard about it until informed by the CRIMSON. The information was published in U.S. News and World Report.