500 Students Hear Priest Attack Princeton Trustees

PRINCETON, N.J., April 25--On the eve of Alger Hiss' controversial appearance here tomorrow night, about 500 students greeted a bitter attack on Princeton University trustees with jeers and laughter at a lecture presenting the record of the former State Department adviser.

Father Hugh Halton, frequent critic of the administration and chaplain to Roman Catholic students here, drew student jeers when he accused the trustees of "lack of courage and integrity in not forcing the cancellation of the Alger Hiss speech."

The Dominican priest's remark came in his introduction of Willard Edwards, Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, who spoke on "The Meaning of Alger Hiss." Edwards' talk, sponsored by the Aquinas Foundation was on the eve of the Hiss speech to the Whig-Cliosophic Society on "The Meaning of Geneva."

Halton further charged that Princeton is in its "darkest hour" and that the Hiss controversy is "only a dramatic expression of the University's spiritual crisis."

Representative T. James Tumulty (D-N.J.), an outspoken opponent of Hiss, was also the subject of undergraduate derision, when he put in a surprise appearance before the tense gathering in McCosh Hall. Though applauded at the conclusion of his speech, Tumulty was jeered when he asserted, "I don't want to see this great university used by someone like Hiss."

In contrast to the impassioned harangues of Halton and Tumulty, Edwards talk was a sober and reasonable review of the Hiss record. He warned undergraduates however, that Hiss would give "a dramatic and charming performance" at the Whig-Clio speech tomorrow night. Students gave the Tribune reporter a spontaneous standing ovation when he concluded.

Earlier today, President Harold W. Dodds appealed to students for responsible conduct while national attention is focused on Princeton. "Your capacity for responsibility has been questioned publicly," Dodds told undergraduates. "Your conduct on Wednesday and Thursday evenings will be the answer to the skeptics."

This evening, CBS television interviewed two undergraduates, Father Halton, and Jeremiah S. Finch, Dean of the College, on its nationally-broadcast Douglas news program. Dean Finch said that Princeton had seen speakers come and go, and that if students "cannot be safely permitted to hear speakers the University might as well go out of the business of education."