Lawyer Summons Student Opposition To House Committee

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union called last night for Cambridge students to support growing national opposition by college, labor, and religious groups to the controversial House Un-American Activities Committee.

"The Committee stands in direct violation of the First Amendment," Frank Wilkenson, field representative of the national committee to abolish the Un-American Activities group, told a group of Harvard, Radcliffe, and Brandeis students. He urged that the students demonstrate by petition their disfavor with the "witch hunting" and "unconstitutional tactics" of the House body.

In 90 days Representative James Roosevelt will make a plea on the House floor for the abolition of the Committee, Wilkenson declared. He expressed the hope that Roosevelt will get support such as that which came from San Francisco last May, when 5,000 students opposed the Committee's hearings into alleged communist infiltration of California faculties.

Wilkenson termed the May days the "high water mark" of student "resistance." He urged, however, that the group and its friends listen to both sides of the case and come to their own conclusions.

"I am sure," he added, "you will agree with the California students; the Committee must go."